My other pet pixs

[No name]

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[hermitman64]

Great looking tortoises! I have a leopard tortoise as well, but unfortunately it came to me with bad pyramiding of the shell. I'm trying to cure it, but nothings happening so far. Well, once again, nice tortoises in beautiful shape.

Gary

 

[No name]

Hi Hermit,

Leopard tortoise are great pet. However,to what I know, they are one of the most hard to tortoise around as they require dry enclosure(about 40%).
Recently, one of them was down with respiratory syndrom(runny nose) which is very common with htis species. And now, I am treating it with antibiotic.

 

[Philth]

Nice tortoises, WHat kind of greens do you feed them?

 

[No name]

I feed them with chinese lettuce. I haven't try with others although it's good to mix some greens. On top of that, with daily doses of vitamins and calcium powder mix with the greens.

 

[Critterfarm]

damn...always wanted an indian star tort, just never wanted to spend the cash. How are they doing on that substrate? I've been thinking of trying it with my spur thighs this winter.

 

[No name]

To be frank, these substrate is not really that wonderful as what some website claims. This is my first hand experience with these cat litters. Although they are dry and absorb the tort waste. They do pose some respiratory problem as they can be very dusty when they disintegrate. Thus, those dust particular can be nasty to the tort as they block their nares. Hence,respiratory problem kick in.

 

[Critterfarm]

Thanks for the input. I'm going to have to build a bigger winter pen this year, and was thinking of the litter pellets because they are lighter than peat/sand/gravel. I have my heart set on a "turtle table" type pen in the corner of my rec room and I figure that much dirt will weigh about 300 lbs

 

[No name]

Hi Brady,

Actually you don't need to fill the entire enclosure with sand/gravel/peat.
What I do is I underlay the enclosure with newspaper. And set aside a piece of ceramic tiles for feeding and the other corner a small heap of medium size gravel(about 1/2 cm in size) and about 2 inch in depth or so. On top of that, I have a hidout for them to dig in. That's about all. Good for these torts and easy for me to maintance. You always need abit of gravel for them to dig in as to workout there muscles on their legs.

 

[Critterfarm]

You think this would work for a 9" and an 11" sulcata? I'm worried they'd have the pile spread out and the newspaper torn in about 3 minutes The little male dug under the fencing last summer and it was buried 40" deep, so they are quite the destructive pair. If you think this would be suitable I'm all for trying it out.

 

[No name]

Because these land tortoise like to burrow. Especially after their meal where they go straight to "bed". I always find my pile of gravel spread all over and thinning out.(That's why I am using bigger gravel) where I can quickly organise them back again. And easier to wash too if there are turd on it. That's why, most of tortoise expert urge owners to keep them outdoors,partly because of it's mess, and the well being of the torts.I just try my best to provide the best husbandary indoor. To me, the biggers issue while keeping torts are the humidity, hygiene and nutrition. The rest of the outlook is not really that important.

Anyway,those outlook are for us human. Those tortoise don't really care. Like tarantulas owner growing artificial plant in there tank.It's mainly for their owner to see. Do you think the T's care?

So providing 25 times the area of your 9 inch torts shell would be more of my concern.That is a thumb of rule.

 

[Critterfarm]

Thanks for all the great discussion. I am going to try your method of a gravel pile in the pen. Unfortunatly it gets too cold to keep them outdoors over the winter here, even with boxes and heaters, so I have to move them in each winter. The table I'm planning on building will be 60" x 60" square, with 18" high sides. I'd like to build it 40" off the floor, to keep the dog out. Using your method will help me alot with keeping the weight down. Have you tried any of the UVA/UVB metal halide lamps for basking lights? 48" UVA/UVB flourescents are so expensive I'd like to try an alternative that doesn't need replacing every 6 months. Any more enclosure tips you have to share will be greatly appreciated!

 

[No name]

Thanks for all the great discussion. I am going to try your method of a gravel pile in the pen. Unfortunatly it gets too cold to keep them outdoors over the winter here, even with boxes and heaters, so I have to move them in each winter. The table I'm planning on building will be 60" x 60" square, with 18" high sides. I'd like to build it 40" off the floor, to keep the dog out. Using your method will help me alot with keeping the weight down. Have you tried any of the UVA/UVB metal halide lamps for basking lights? 48" UVA/UVB flourescents are so expensive I'd like to try an alternative that doesn't need replacing every 6 months. Any more enclosure tips you have to share will be greatly appreciated!

Hi Brady!
Yes,please go ahead and try out. It always take us to try different methods before able to find the most effective ways to keep these lovely herps.Yes,because of the winter weather 99.9 percent owners move them indoors during these time.About the UVA/UVB, for myself, I am using zoo-med Reptisun 5.0 and a zoo-med basking lamp 150W with timer. It gives me good result as my torts are eating like pigs and growling well.(except one is down with flu).I know these UVB/UVA are costly,especially are the UVB. I change them every 12 months. I have a humidity and a temp guage in the enclosure to monitor the both figures which are important to torts.

My enclosure is pretty much like a box with half of the top cover.The purpose is to regulate the humidity and the temp in there.So they are less affected by whats outside. Thats my trick of keeping them indoor.

As for money spend...what can I say,to me money is just a tool to make us happy. And enjoying looking at your torts growing well is not something $$ can buy or measure. Its priceless!!!

Hope this help.

 

[Malkavian]

NoName how fast do your torts grow? I'd really like to get a sulcata or maybe a leopard tortise but I don't have any room to keep them outside (living in an apartment)

However if they take years to get large I could keep them in a tank like you are for several years

 

[Critterfarm]

If you're getting good results with changing the Repti-sun 5 bulbs (that's also what I'm using now) every 12 months, thats even better. Then I could get a full winter season use from the bulbs. My new setup would have 6x48" bulbs, which I was worried I would have to change before the end of each winter.

I have more humidity problems in the summer than I do in the winter. My sulcata's of course prefer a low humidity, and in the winter our average RH is quite low here. In the summer, however, we have days where the RH approaches 95+% and it often rains turining the pen into a muddy mess. This year I've replaced the shade cloth over one end with an actual shingle roof, so hopefully they will have a dry area to retreat to in the worst of times. Now if I could only get my cactus to grow I'd be happy

 

[Critterfarm]

NoName how fast do your torts grow? I'd really like to get a sulcata or maybe a leopard tortise but I don't have any room to keep them outside (living in an apartment)

However if they take years to get large I could keep them in a tank like you are for several years

NoName seems to be quite the expert on tortoises, so I'm sure he will have some great answers for you. What I can suggest is Russian or Greek tortoises, which remain small even as adults (8") or if you have the funds Burmese mountain torts are beauties, and have incredible personalities and also stay fairly small.

 

[No name]

First I must say a "Thank you" for your compliment Brady.
I don't call myself an expert and I have tons to learn. ANd we are all learning everyday

With regards to the growth of torts. Not to worry, they do grow very slowly. It takes about 10 years to grow from a 7cm Indian star to a foot plus. So, you can rest assured that you can keep them indoors. Personally, I believed that although artificial lighting can never replace the real sunling. But, with proper judgement and usage. After market UVB flourecent can help them grow properly and provide as close to sunlight.

Back to brady, about the Burmese star. It's very very rare now. And its on the top endangered list on land tortoises. So its hard to come back these days for these fellas. If you are not familiar with varieties of stars. To a layman, they all look the same.

Hope this help.