1 year old yellowfoot no growth?

[Scott52019]

I have had my yellowfoot for almost a year now. I feed him 5-6 days a week, every time something different. I have had trouble keeping humidity up even though I mist 2x a day. What can I do better?

 

[Tony the Tort42]

To start, feed him every day. What is his humidity, and can you show us an image of him? Also, what are his temps, does he have a lot of room to grow, and how much do you feed him? Any supplements? uvb?

 

[Tony the Tort42]

Oh just saw the image. He doesnt have enough space it seems. He needs to roam. Torts dont have grocery stores they can drive to, they need to find food.

 

[Toddrickfl1]

He should be growing some after a year. What is the enclosure temperature? The easiest way to hold humidity would be to cover your enclosure.

 

[Yvonne G]

It would have been nice to have seen the tortoise in the enclosure.

I have raised a few YF tortoises and the ones I've kept have also been slow growers. For one thing, your screen top is filtering out the beneficial UVB rays. The light shouldn't have any screen between it and the tortoise. For another, the substrate needs to be moist and the tank covered to keep the warm moist air inside. Spraying doesn't do it. You need to pour a whole pitcherful of water in there and mix it up with your hand to make sure all the pebbles get wet and absorb the water. ONce you've covered the tank it will be much easier to keep up the humidity.

Feed him daily as much or more than he'll eat, and give him a bit of animal protein a couple times a week.

 

[willee638]

He's very well camouflaged just kidding, I don't have a good eye. The glass aquarium enclosure is very nice for a baby yellow foot though, the plants are a nice touch & I keep my red foot in a wooden enclosure probably not much larger than yours. Torts needs much more space to roam so I build my own wooden enclosure & before space gets too small I'll need to disassemble it to resize it with more wood, that's the advantages of wood over glass enclosures is it can keep expanding as they get bigger. I had to install another light for heat & try not to use too much of UVA+UVB bulbs instead with separate lights of one UVB & an ordinary incandescent bulb to neutralize the harsh lights.

 

[Scott52019]

To start, feed him every day. What is his humidity, and can you show us an image of him? Also, what are his temps, does he have a lot of room to grow, and how much do you feed him? Any supplements? uvb?

 

[Scott52019]

He should be growing some after a year. What is the enclosure temperature? The easiest way to hold humidity would be to cover your enclosure.

How can I cover the top?

To start, feed him every day. What is his humidity, and can you show us an image of him? Also, what are his temps, does he have a lot of room to grow, and how much do you feed him? Any supplements? uvb?

he has a 100 watt powersun, I feed him the size of his shell (strawberry, cactus, squash, sweet potato, riddichio, carrots, mazuri), the humidity is below 70% and I supplement his food (except mazuri) with repcal calcium d3 and multivitamin

 

[Scott52019]

What if i got a glass top, put 5.0 uvb on top and used undertank heater?

 

[TammyJ]

What if i got a glass top, put 5.0 uvb on top and used undertank heater?

The uv light won't go through glass.

We need to see your tortoise,

 

[willee638]

View attachment 287216

I often see very beautiful well made glass & wooden enclosures posted by various members & I'm a little too embarrassed to show my pics, I made my wooden enclosure not with aesthetics in mind by recycling an old seldom used table furniture. Can be taken apart for future expansions, I don't have a cover over it as I prefer fresh air to enter & wish I had thought of drilling holes in the sides for air movements. This means moistures evaporates faster & to keep it humid I spray the substrates, stones & plants with water several times daily & no molds ever grew in it, I didn't want the enclosure to feel stuffy for my tort. The bottom is covered with a plastic sheet to retain some moistures from escaping & my temperatures are probably at 28 degrees Celsius with one 80 watts UVA+UVB mercury vapor bulb & one 40 watts incandescent bulb for additional heat. I didn't want to use very high wattages to avoid strong & harsh bright lights...

 

[Scott52019]

The uv light won't go through glass.

We need to see your tortoise,

Took off the top.

 

[Toddrickfl1]

How can I cover the top?

he has a 100 watt powersun, I feed him the size of his shell (strawberry, cactus, squash, sweet potato, riddichio, carrots, mazuri), the humidity is below 70% and I supplement his food (except mazuri) with repcal calcium d3 and multivitamin

The easiest way for me was getting wood cut to fit, then I liquid nailed foam board to the bottom to protect the wood from moisture. I also switched from a CHE to a Radiant heat panel. Makes it easier because you don't have to cut the wood to fit the CHE. You just screw the panel into the wood.

 

[Relic]

I use a large Christmas tree box I got at Walmart for my yellowfoot who was 4 1/2 inches when I got him/her. He's spent the last two winters in it but will have to have something bigger next year. He has grown fast, from 317 grams to 1,367 grams in a year and a half. The Christmas tree box is not particularly good for viewing, sides stay wet with condensation lots of the time, the top is solid red...but...it was so easy to customize, cutting holes in the plastic lid for a heater element and a fluorescent light fixture. It has a hinged lid at one end to easily get inside to feed, clean, etc. It easily stays in the low 80s for both temp & humidity. I think yours might not be eating sufficiently to grow faster. Don't focus quite as much on offering a wide variety, as much as finding out what foods he likes and focus more on those. If you are offering 12-15 different foods, but he is only eating 5-7 of them, you are wasting money and slowing him down. I use Mazuri a couple of times per week to make sure the tort is getting the nutrients he might be missing in his regular veggie/fruit mix. And I do offer fresh food daily - which he/she occasionally refuses.

On the other hand, there are no trophies given for fast growth and it just hastens the day you have to create a larger winter quarters.

 

[willee638]

I use a large Christmas tree box I got at Walmart for my yellowfoot who was 4 1/2 inches when I got him/her. He's spent the last two winters in it but will have to have something bigger next year. He has grown fast, from 317 grams to 1,367 grams in a year and a half. The Christmas tree box is not particularly good for viewing, sides stay wet with condensation lots of the time, the top is solid red...but...it was so easy to customize, cutting holes in the plastic lid for a heater element and a fluorescent light fixture. It has a hinged lid at one end to easily get inside to feed, clean, etc. It easily stays in the low 80s for both temp & humidity. I think yours might not be eating sufficiently to grow faster. Don't focus quite as much on offering a wide variety, as much as finding out what foods he likes and focus more on those. If you are offering 12-15 different foods, but he is only eating 5-7 of them, you are wasting money and slowing him down. I use Mazuri a couple of times per week to make sure the tort is getting the nutrients he might be missing in his regular veggie/fruit mix. And I do offer fresh food daily - which he/she occasionally refuses.

On the other hand, there are no trophies given for fast growth and it just hastens the day you have to create a larger winter quarters.

My red foot is biting on stones, woods & now on a piece of cuttlefish bone, my guess is she's trying to wear down her beak or trying to consume some minerals from these very hard objects. I don't think tortoises are colour blinded so they knows it isn't food & doing it on purpose, I think you're right on not offering too many variety of foods to your torts. Mine seems to try eating everything at least once or just taste it & decides she doesn't like it, red foots are probably one of very few that would eat indiscriminately. How often does tortoises poop is once every 3-4 days regular?