Why did Dale do this?

[tortoisenerd]

I read an article not too long ago about hatchlings who were observed sitting in their water dish all night long. The behavior was related to dehydration. I'll forward you the article as soon as I find it. I can't remember the specifics. It might not apply to Dale since he's not a hatchling.

Hatchling Failure to Thrive Syndrome, a form of Metabolic Bone Disease and also linked to dehydration and renal failure can be characterized by a hatchling sitting in a water dish for hours/days at a time at the end of their life. I do not think this is the problem at all due to age as you said. The shell would be turning soft and he would be very inactive for this to be the case. See http://www.sulcata-station.org/pdf/hatchfail.pdf

Thank you Stephanie. Where did you buy it?

I got my PE1 for $25 on Ebay. Stephanie said she got hers from tempgun.com

I agree the enclosure should be well off the floor. I have mine at table height. Also makes it easier to take care of the tortoise and enclosure. The floor has drafts and you will have a much easier time heating it up off the floor. The soil depth will not make a difference unless it was many feet high.

 

[Candy]

Thanks Kate. I did look up the temp. gun actually I looked up both of them. The one that Robyn told me about and the one that Stephanie told me about. We usually lift Dale's enclosure off of the floor because I don't take any chances with the Labrador and if he's up she can't get to him. He does seem normal and his shell is nice and hard. He gives me kisses when I pick him up and yesterday was so funny when I went in to check on him he was on top of his rock just sitting there. He's never done that before either. I took some pictures of him and I will post them soon. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Redfoot NERD]

Come on, Terry- I'm cheap and lazy. No way would I put an expensive, finicky system in place. We are not all lucky enough to live in a relatively mild place like you do!

Come on Mark.. we're not talking about you and what you believe is a 'practical'(?) indoor enclosure! IF we were talking about enclosures in this thread your input 'might' be valid. A tortoise table is a table off the floor that does not require running electrical anything underneath it.. that not everyone is able/willing to do. And you could heat that entire "smaller" room with a 'cube' ceramic heater for a buck a day.. and it has a thermo that works real well.

Relatively mild he says - 12/05/09 9a CST -

Candy if I posted every time my redfoots did/do something "different".. everyone would get tired of hearing it! Dale looks good.. I agree he's old enough for absolutely no concerns EVER.. keep doing what you're doing and keep taking pics of him as he grows and does those "WEIRD" things that redfoot tortoises do!

[ not to 'piggy-back' your post ] He was determined to get that first bloom of the season!

NERD

 

[Candy]

Terry, where are your Redfoots when it snows like that. Do you bring them it the house? It's beautiful.

 

[Redfoot NERD]

Terry, where are your Redfoots when it snows like that. Do you bring them it the house? It's beautiful.

I'll start a new thread for indoor enclosures Candy.. if you like...

BTW.. he got it.. a foot off the ground -

 

[Candy]

Yes I would like that. Dale's new enclosure will come in the house tomorrow(I finished painting it yesterday) to get it set up for him to use. I would love to see some of yours if you could post some and then maybe everyone else would post some of theirs. I love the picture of that Redfoots and there was no doubt that he would get that.

 

[Madkins007]

Come on, Terry- I'm cheap and lazy. No way would I put an expensive, finicky system in place. We are not all lucky enough to live in a relatively mild place like you do!

Come on Mark.. we're not talking about you and what you believe is a 'practical'(?) indoor enclosure! IF we were talking about enclosures in this thread your input 'might' be valid. A tortoise table is a table off the floor that does not require running electrical anything underneath it.. that not everyone is able/willing to do. And you could heat that entire "smaller" room with a 'cube' ceramic heater for a buck a day.. and it has a thermo that works real well.

Relatively mild he says - 12/05/09 9a CST -
NERD

Aren't you in Kentucky? City-data.com says "Kentucky has a moderate, relatively humid climate, with abundant rainfall." Sounds like nice Red-foot territory.

About Nebraska, it says: "Nebraska has a continental climate, with highly variable temperatures from season to season and year to year." It goes on about our generally horrible weather extremes, etc.

I'll swap ya any day you want!

The other thing about Nebraska is that here, when I use a space heater, it heats the ceiling area, and only then heats lower areas. By the time the tortoise area is warm, I've pumped a lot of heat into the upper part of the room. At least with my soil heaters, the heat is right where I want it.

I'm sorry the idea of my soil strips bothers you so much, but it works for me far better than my ceramic emitter, the space heaters, and anything else I've tried.

 

[Redfoot NERD]

Come on, Terry- I'm cheap and lazy. No way would I put an expensive, finicky system in place. We are not all lucky enough to live in a relatively mild place like you do!

Come on Mark.. we're not talking about you and what you believe is a 'practical'(?) indoor enclosure! IF we were talking about enclosures in this thread your input 'might' be valid. A tortoise table is a table off the floor that does not require running electrical anything underneath it.. that not everyone is able/willing to do. And you could heat that entire "smaller" room with a 'cube' ceramic heater for a buck a day.. and it has a thermo that works real well.

Relatively mild he says - 12/05/09 9a CST -
NERD

Aren't you in Kentucky? City-data.com says "Kentucky has a moderate, relatively humid climate, with abundant rainfall." Sounds like nice Red-foot territory.

About Nebraska, it says: "Nebraska has a continental climate, with highly variable temperatures from season to season and year to year." It goes on about our generally horrible weather extremes, etc.

I'll swap ya any day you want!

The other thing about Nebraska is that here, when I use a space heater, it heats the ceiling area, and only then heats lower areas. By the time the tortoise area is warm, I've pumped a lot of heat into the upper part of the room. At least with my soil heaters, the heat is right where I want it.

I'm sorry the idea of my soil strips bothers you so much, but it works for me far better than my ceramic emitter, the space heaters, and anything else I've tried.

Nope.. Tennesse and since '07 we've had almost record LOW humidity and temps. Drought conditions in '07 actually.. and cool and wet this year resulting in LOW breeding activity SINCE '07!

Get the table off the floor!?!?

Terry K

 

[Madkins007]

LOL! Kentucky at its worse sounds nicer than Nebraska's average. I'll still swap. Especially today- its cold and snowing and the last report I saw (a couple days ago) said it may hit 6". And I bet our friends further north would probably swap with either of us!

My tort habitat is well-insulated off the ground, but even if I raised it to chest height I still have to heat the top of the room first to get good temps at the tortoise level. This has so far been cheaper and easier.

I did my homework before I bought the strips. The 1500 watt space heater I was using ran pretty much all of the time to keep the tortoise area at 75-80F. My 11" wide heat strips are 20 watts per foot and I have 16' worth- 320 watts of heat focused right where I want. The heat strips will only use 20-25% of the power that the space heater used. If my space heater did it for a buck a day (to borrow your estimate), the strips are doing it for about 23 cents a day. Over three months, that means $90 vs. $20.70, so the strips are pretty much paid for in one season of savings- completely apart from their role in humidity control, etc.

 

[Candy]

I did check out the tape strips that Madkins bought and they looked very good to me. I decided not to use them because I was all ready to switch Dale's enclosure today and didn't want to wait any longer then what I have already waited. I have a heater that will help Dale's room stay warm, but if I would have known about the tape a couple of weeks ago I definitely would have ordered and used it. Maybe next year.