Young Hermann Enclosure

[AvocadoTheHermann]

Hello everyone, I’m picking up my first tortoise tomorrow morning. It is a slightly older hatchling, and I’m curious if my enclosure looks alright. This is an enclosed, temperature and humidifier controlled room. The temp/humidity under the 75W basking bulb reads 92.5° and 51% (I’ll try to get the former up), while the cooler side under the ceramic heat bulb reads 78.3° and 69%. I have about 3in of EcoEarth coconut substrate dusted with a small amount of Reptibark. I wasn’t sure how much to put of the latter as advice seemed mixed on hatchlings. I do have 20lb bags of each if I need to add more of either. I have added a decent amount of water and have hand-packed the substrate for the last couple of days. Once I bring them home, I’ll give them a soak right away, and have organic dandelion greens, radicchio, green collards, and endives for the time being. Is this a decent start? Any glaring changes? Ty so much!

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hello!
Looks like a good start!
1. What UVB lamp do you use and how far is it from the substrate? Placing UVB tube closer to the basking lamp works better.
2. What kind of basking bulb you use?
3. I would swap the domes for basking lamp and ceramic heater. Usually basking lamps have directed beam (so wide reflector dome is less important) but for CHE you need to direct heat below and spread it over larger area.
4. For food and water shallow terracotta saucers are better (less slippery).
5. Ambient light (LED bar or bulbs) is highly desirable.
6. Humidity looks okay, but if you can achieve a gradient of 60-80% it would be better.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

It is a slightly older hatchling, and I’m curious if my enclosure looks alright.

If the tortoise is under a year old, you might find it hard maintaining a humidity gradient in an open top like that. If so, you might want to consider getting a greenhouse topper.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello and welcome to the forum! Nice enclosure you’ve built!

Minor things are what Alex has mentioned above, what bulbs are you using specifically for your basking and UV?
And yeah I’d change the water dish to a shallow terracotta, much safer especially for babies. Do you have digital monitoring?

My only other thing of note is the fact babies do need a higher humidity gradient, you want to be maintaining 80+ in part 24/7, this helps aid in smoother growth, a humidifier in the room is fine, but don’t ever have it blowing directly into the enclosure.

Personally I would recommend either fashioning your own topper or buying yourself a greenhouse topper to put over, it’s the only way you’ll maintain the humidity where needed.

Hopefully you’ll find this link useful, I go over everything from equipment(lighting, heat, uv), levels, appropriately maintaining the humidity, the need for a closed chamber, lots of visual examples for everything including examples of the closed chambers(topper ideas)and a really handy diet link!

Housing young Russian/Herman

Hello there! In this thread, I’m going to include some information on an effective way to tackle a starter set up/a way you can build a bigger size once your baby is an adult. I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to break down any information...

tortoiseforum.org

This one can also be good to go over, it can help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, and you can always double check purchases on here too!

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope they help! All in all you’ve done a good job! Just some minor adjustments to get it more suited to a growing baby

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Hello everyone, I’m picking up my first tortoise tomorrow morning. It is a slightly older hatchling, and I’m curious if my enclosure looks alright. This is an enclosed, temperature and humidifier controlled room. The temp/humidity under the 75W basking bulb reads 92.5° and 51% (I’ll try to get the former up), while the cooler side under the ceramic heat bulb reads 78.3° and 69%. I have about 3in of EcoEarth coconut substrate dusted with a small amount of Reptibark. I wasn’t sure how much to put of the latter as advice seemed mixed on hatchlings. I do have 20lb bags of each if I need to add more of either. I have added a decent amount of water and have hand-packed the substrate for the last couple of days. Once I bring them home, I’ll give them a soak right away, and have organic dandelion greens, radicchio, green collards, and endives for the time being. Is this a decent start? Any glaring changes? Ty so much!View attachment 380597

Oh yeah, what is the other dome for? Is it a CHE?

 

[AvocadoTheHermann]

Thank you so much everyone! I will start making these changes! The UVB lamp is Zoo Med ReptiSun T5 HO Terrarium Hood, 24" L with a Zoo Med ReptiSun 10.0 HO T5 UVB Lamp, 22" L, 24 Watts bulb. I will fashion some wood to get it higher above the substrate and move it closer to the basking bulb, which is Fluker’s 75W Incandescent Basking Bulb. The other dome is, yes, a CHE; I will see about replacing it with an overhead one that spreads out over the area better, and I’ll pick up some terracotta saucers! ◡̈ I had the humidity up to 90% at one point, but then I read 50-70% somewhere and I’m guessing that wasn’t for hatchlings or misinformation, so I’ll get that back up! I’ll start looking at a greenhouse cover too. I truly appreciate all of the wonderful advice!!

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Fluker’s 75W Incandescent Basking Bulb

Just making sure, it is a flood bulb right?

The other dome is, yes, a CHE; I will see about replacing it with an overhead one that spreads out over the area better

You are going to want to place the CHE in the middle of the enclosure and put it on a on/off thermostat.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Thank you so much everyone! I will start making these changes! The UVB lamp is Zoo Med ReptiSun T5 HO Terrarium Hood, 24" L with a Zoo Med ReptiSun 10.0 HO T5 UVB Lamp, 22" L, 24 Watts bulb. I will fashion some wood to get it higher above the substrate and move it closer to the basking bulb, which is Fluker’s 75W Incandescent Basking Bulb. The other dome is, yes, a CHE; I will see about replacing it with an overhead one that spreads out over the area better, and I’ll pick up some terracotta saucers! ◡̈ I had the humidity up to 90% at one point, but then I read 50-70% somewhere and I’m guessing that wasn’t for hatchlings or misinformation, so I’ll get that back up! I’ll start looking at a greenhouse cover too. I truly appreciate all of the wonderful advice!!

Yes, this lamp should be around 18 inches above substrate. Basking bulb is probably fine (if the glass is frosted). If your CHE dome is fixed using a clamp now - add some reinforcement to the clamp as they tend to fall down.

A humidity gradient 60-80% would be optimal. But only when cool side temperature is above 70F at all times (between 75-80F is better).