Ummm... Help?

[Redfoot Mama]

Hi, my name is Diana, and I'm in NW Arkansas, and we just acquired a little redfoot tortoise my daughter named Morla, after the giant tortoise in the Neverending story. Based on her flat shell and her tail, we are pretty sure she is female. She is about 4-5" across the bottom. We have her in a 40 gallon glass enclosure, which I now realize is not ideal, but it is what we have for now. We will eventually build her a table when she outgrows the terrarium, but this is how we got her. We bought her from a pet store, so I have no idea how old she is. The guy guessed and said 18 months-2 years old. She is completely adorable and I am totally in love with her, but clueless. I have a million questions, if anyone can give me a hand.

The enclosure has a screen top and we have a daylight spectrum bulb, a basking bulb, and a UVA/B light on her. For substrate we have a mix of pine bark and sphagnum moss. It is pretty soft, and we have been keeping it pretty moist to try and elevate humidity levels. The temps are around 70-75 on the cool side, 80-85 on the warm side, and about 90 in the hottest part. But we are still having a tough time with humidity, it is around 60% even with keeping the moss wet.

She has some pyramiding on her shell, and I'm not sure how to resolve that or how long it will take. What I've read says vitamin D3 supplements, exercise, and varied diet, and we have been rubbing this shell lotion on her. I don't think it is severe, but I'm not sure. It is definitely obvious. In terms of exercise, is it ok to just take her out and let her run around on a blanket for a while, or will she get too cold? If she does get cool for a bit, what happens- will she get sick? I feel like she needs to have more exercise for being in such a small space.

The immediate problem we have had is that she keeps bumping her nose against the glass, trying to get out. We have taped paper all along the bottom on the tank, which has helped, but she still heads straight into the corners and burrows into them. I have had to block off the corners also, so she doesn't bruise her nose up.

Another thing is that she hides in her hidey hole all the time, no matter how warm the tank is. I pull her out in the morning to feed her and soak her in a warm bath and she is happy and active and she eats a lot. But then after an hour or so she just turns around and goes back into her spot. She has only been here for 5 days, is she still just settling in, or are we doing something wrong?

I think that is all for now that I can think of. She is really cute, and my daughter loves her to death, but I have never kept a reptile or anything more complicated than a dog, so I am feeling really intimidated and scared that she will get sick or something and I won't know.

 

[Tony the tank]

I have a few adult sulcatas..and they try to burrow into a corner anytime they want to snooze...(except for tony who prefers to sleep in the middle of his enclosure everything hanging out all over the place) The other two .burrow into a corner in there hide.... As for the glass ..rule of thumb is if they can see through it...they will try to get through it... You should block the bottom 6" of the tank with a dark cloth or cardboard...

 

[ascott]

Hi...welcome to the forum...and may I say that you have a beautiful little tortoise there

The pyramiding is at a place that it can be stopped and as new growth occurs you can achieve a much smoother dome.... Humidity is a tricky thing to achieve---but continue to try. May I share my thoughts a little based on what you have described?

Screen top--while awesome for keeping some curious animals away from the tortoise inside---it also blocks alot of the UV rays you are working on exposing the tortoise to....also a screened top allows your humidity to escape at a rather rapid rate (especially if you are now using your forced heat in the house during cooler season)...I would say that if you need to continue to use the screen to protect your tortoise from cats or dogs---maybe cover most of the screen with aluminum foil to help contain your humidity--or rig up some other type of solid type lid --but you will need to customize this based on your enclosure shape and where your lights are at so as not to block their usefulness.

Also, you may try some substrate like coco coir mixed in with your current substrate---this material does well on aiding in retaining humidity.

Corners are a popular location for what seems to be a secure napping spot....the two RFs here love the corners....also I have some artificial plants mounted inside each of the enclosures to serve as a place to hide (I do this instead of traditional walk in hides)...some folks here use a humid hide to allow a place for the tortoise to go into..I would suggest though that if you offer a humid moist hide you place it where it remains a WARM humid moist hide and not place it in the cold side...IMHO that is.

Wait around a bit---there are loads of folks that host this species of tortoise and they will offer you up wonderful, helpful and useful opinions and suggestions. ....

 

[bobbymoore]

First pic is awesome nice tort!

 

[Redfoot Mama]

Hi...welcome to the forum...and may I say that you have a beautiful little tortoise there

The pyramiding is at a place that it can be stopped and as new growth occurs you can achieve a much smoother dome.... Humidity is a tricky thing to achieve---but continue to try. May I share my thoughts a little based on what you have described?

Screen top--while awesome for keeping some curious animals away from the tortoise inside---it also blocks alot of the UV rays you are working on exposing the tortoise to....also a screened top allows your humidity to escape at a rather rapid rate (especially if you are now using your forced heat in the house during cooler season)...I would say that if you need to continue to use the screen to protect your tortoise from cats or dogs---maybe cover most of the screen with aluminum foil to help contain your humidity--or rig up some other type of solid type lid --but you will need to customize this based on your enclosure shape and where your lights are at so as not to block their usefulness.

Also, you may try some substrate like coco coir mixed in with your current substrate---this material does well on aiding in retaining humidity.

Corners are a popular location for what seems to be a secure napping spot....the two RFs here love the corners....also I have some artificial plants mounted inside each of the enclosures to serve as a place to hide (I do this instead of traditional walk in hides)...some folks here use a humid hide to allow a place for the tortoise to go into..I would suggest though that if you offer a humid moist hide you place it where it remains a WARM humid moist hide and not place it in the cold side...IMHO that is.

Wait around a bit---there are loads of folks that host this species of tortoise and they will offer you up wonderful, helpful and useful opinions and suggestions. ....

Thank you so much for your response. I have been trying to figure out a way to close in the screen but I never thought about foil! I will try that tonight. I'd thought about artificial plants in the corners, but wasn't sure if she would try to eat them. I'll look into that too. We do have a cat, but so far he is terrified of her, so I only put the screen on at night.

The humidity issue has been a challenge because the weather is cooler and we have gas heat which seems to suck the moisture right out of the air. In the summer it gets VERY humid here, so I plan on letting her out to wander a bit at that time.

Her shell actually looks a lot better just since she got here. That picture was taken the first day she arrived and I think she was dehydrated. I've been trying to get her to drink a few times a day and her skin and shell look much more vibrant.

First pic is awesome nice tort!

Thank you, I think she is beautiful!

 

[ascott]

The foil trick is a specialty of another member on the forum (Yvonne )...the good thing about this is that you can also put the foil up and around the light fixtures to seal off opening just about entirely---however, if you do the total seal (lets say perhaps in the evening) please keep eye on the temps to make sure all remains good, you know?

The artificial plants that I use are the silk plants...I did go over them with an eagle eye to make sure no little pieces that can come off in the event of a tug or two from a curious tortoise...and no problems have arisen...and if you warm mist your enclosure/tortoise the silk plants can hold some moisture as well as offer dripping water (my Goliath loves to come running out when he feels the warm water misting---he has now developed climbing up the side of his enclosure and stand on his back legs and lean his body against the wall and stretch out and let the warm water and mist swarm around him).

Yes, the two RFs here do go out if the weather is good...they have been enjoying the last week or so...and when the spring comes round they will be out all day and back in for the evening (until they get a bit larger that is)....

 

[Madkins007]

Hi and welcome!

I see you also have sliders- the heat and humidity from their heated water should help make whatever room they are in nicer for the tortoises as well, but covering the habitat REALLY helps a lot.

That is kind of a lot of light. Young tortoises are not big fans of light, so you may want to rethink things. For example, one useful set-up uses a fluorescent UVB bulb (low UV output) over most of the habitat, and ceramic heat emitters (also called CHEs a lot here) for heat in the targeted area. Even with just the one light bulb you would still want to make sure there is a lot of shade and hides.

Don't worry about the lotion. It won't hurt anything but there is not a lot of evidence it helps either.

Exercising outside of the habitat is a bit of a controversy. Ideally the habitat should be big enough that this is not needed, but as long as you can keep things warm, clean, etc. for it AND make sure it has somewhere it can hide and feel safe, it is not a big deal.

Bumping on the glass. Some do, some don't. I personally think this is a sign that the habitat is too small and/or the tortoise does not really feel there is a good safe hiding place there.

Hiding all the time. Some is the new place- nervous and shy. However- that is also pretty much what they do. Wake up, poke around a bit, eat, maybe stretch in the sun a bit, sleep. Maybe repeat in the afternoon. Holding back some of the food till later helps, as does having a big habitat, and, to be rather mean about it- leaving it alone helps it get accustomed to the habitat faster and helps it feel safer in the hides. (After all, how secure would you feel if the roof of your bedroom got peeled back every so often by a giant?)

You are off to a great start. Feel free to ask anything you want here. You can also try the Library in my link for lots of articles, links, etc. about Red-footed torts.

 

[lisalove]

to be rather mean about it- leaving it alone helps it get accustomed to the habitat faster and helps it feel safer in the hides. (After all, how secure would you feel if the roof of your bedroom got peeled back every so often by a giant?)


Thanks Mark! Woke husband up laughing out loud at your comment.
Struck me so funny--thanks for the great laugh!