- Joined
- Jan 31, 2012
- Messages
- 21
Hello all, I've been using this forum for tips for the past couple of months and just decided to join in. I have a 20ish year old bells hingeback that my sister gave me on Christmas of last year. He's been in our family for the past 15 or so years. My dad got him for her for a school science project, thinking it would be easy to take care of him afterwards. I love my sister but she had no interest in a commitment to this animal, and so he's spent the past 15 years either in a 10 gallon aquarium on a hot rock (which burned his carapace so badly on the bottom that in 2001 I took him to an exotic vet to keep his insides from coming out). He healed from that, but then she left him to roam the house with no UVB ever, no humidity ever, no protein or calcium, etc etc. I have even come over during the winter to find him outside on the back porch in 40 degree weather.
How he has survived all this is beyond me, but I recently took him back to the vet for a full workup, and besides a badly needed beak trim and some off blood test results that I'm following up with in 4 weeks, he's ok. Now that I have him in my care, I am determined to get him in the perfect set up. My problems now are based on the fact that he ate only tomatoes for a long time, he's very picky now, and he's used to having a whole house in which to roam. I got him in two zoo med tort houses (I know they're expensive but I can't build anything in my apt), a 160 watt UVB lamp and an infrared at night, a temp and humidity gauge, a mister to keep it humid, and coconut/play sand mix for substrate (I need to get some sphagnum moss or something to keep it humid...right now the ground is very damp but the air is still only at 30% humidity). I'd like to get some good leaf litter for him but I can't really find any, and there's something about paying for leaves that I can't stomach haha! But I don't have any good trees around and they're probably sprayed.
All this is to say that I've been searching for really good advice for substrate and setup, but the Internet is so full of conflicting advice, and I'm so worried about screwing him up even more and wondering if all of these habitat and dietary changes are going to freak him out.
So, if anybody has some good bells advice, what works for you and what doesn't, I would really appreciate it! I'm planning to move to a house this summer and will set up something outside, but for now, he can only be indoors. Thanks guys!
How he has survived all this is beyond me, but I recently took him back to the vet for a full workup, and besides a badly needed beak trim and some off blood test results that I'm following up with in 4 weeks, he's ok. Now that I have him in my care, I am determined to get him in the perfect set up. My problems now are based on the fact that he ate only tomatoes for a long time, he's very picky now, and he's used to having a whole house in which to roam. I got him in two zoo med tort houses (I know they're expensive but I can't build anything in my apt), a 160 watt UVB lamp and an infrared at night, a temp and humidity gauge, a mister to keep it humid, and coconut/play sand mix for substrate (I need to get some sphagnum moss or something to keep it humid...right now the ground is very damp but the air is still only at 30% humidity). I'd like to get some good leaf litter for him but I can't really find any, and there's something about paying for leaves that I can't stomach haha! But I don't have any good trees around and they're probably sprayed.
All this is to say that I've been searching for really good advice for substrate and setup, but the Internet is so full of conflicting advice, and I'm so worried about screwing him up even more and wondering if all of these habitat and dietary changes are going to freak him out.
So, if anybody has some good bells advice, what works for you and what doesn't, I would really appreciate it! I'm planning to move to a house this summer and will set up something outside, but for now, he can only be indoors. Thanks guys!