sarah w.
Member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2016
- Messages
- 45
what do you suggest for decor in a red foot enclosure? Caves, bowls, plants, etc.
Best decor for a red foot
- Thread starter sarah w.
- Start date
Decor you say, check this decor out.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/pearlys-40-gal-tank-covered-top.139373/
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2014
- Messages
- 29,166
- Location (City and/or State)
- South Eastern Florida (U.S.A.)/Rock Hill S.C.
Sideways laying flowerpot partially burried are handy and bushy plants with shade.
Also some form of water pool for self soaking.
Also some form of water pool for self soaking.
Wow! @ Anyfoot, Craig, you just made me blush! But thank you for this compliment
NDevon
Active Member
I was just about to link to @Pearly and her threads! You won't go wrong copying what Pearly does, and she's spent time getting it wrong and making improvements until it works better each time.
How big is your enclosure Sarah? You need to have at least a couple of places to hide in different temperature areas, I put lots of moss in the hides so they can bury themselves. I also have piles of moss in various spots so they can bury themselves. Ok, that's not strictly true, I just filled the enclosure with moss so they could hide wherever they fancied, that wasn't he plan but that's how it ended up, I'm not as good at landscaping as Pearly!!
You need a food plate, many of use pieces of slate, mine are free as they fall off the barn roofs on the farm whenever it's windy but they are not hard to get, they wil be too big so just gently tap them with a hammer to shape them. Easy to clean, if it's big then the food goes in the middle and the tort can walk on the slate to eat, it helps to prevent food from being dragged through substrate and getting messy and making the enclosure messy. I say helps, it won't stop it, they do what they can to mess the place up!
A shallow water bowl is essential, they will sit in it and drink, needs to be easy to get in and out of and no high sides so they can't possibly topple in and drown - it happens sadly. I try to put moss round the edge of the water bowl so as they walk in to the water they don't drag soil and substrate in with them. It helps, it's not perfect though.
Plants are a challenge but great to have, some people plant into the substrate, some keep in pots, some plant in trays then swap them out every week to keep them fresh. They love to hide in plants and nibble at them so ensure they are safe to eat, the tortoisetable website is the best place for checking if a plant is safe to eat. Keep in mind many of the hits they say 'no' for are for tortoises who can't eat fruit, so it's a bit different for Redfoots, but hey explain what's safe, dangerous, or just not healthy so you will work it out.
Plant pots on their side half buried are a great cheap hide, some people break them in half but you don't need to if you bury half of it.
Visual barriers make things more interesting and stimulating for tortoises, if they can sit in one spot and see the entire enclosure it's considered not as healthy for them, it's better if they can explore and find their way around. Have a look at the different enclosures people have created, some seriously clever and talented people on here
@NDevon, it's really great to meet like-minded people oceans away, thank you for your comments, and I couldn't have said that better myself. I love plants, have been growing things in my Texas garden for 20 years. No plan, no theme, no color scheme, no structure at all! The motto is "I like it- I plant it"! And it all grows! And blooms beautifully! My garden keeps me saneI was just about to link to @Pearly and her threads! You won't go wrong copying what Pearly does, and she's spent time getting it wrong and making improvements until it works better each time.
How big is your enclosure Sarah? You need to have at least a couple of places to hide in different temperature areas, I put lots of moss in the hides so they can bury themselves. I also have piles of moss in various spots so they can bury themselves. Ok, that's not strictly true, I just filled the enclosure with moss so they could hide wherever they fancied, that wasn't he plan but that's how it ended up, I'm not as good at landscaping as Pearly!!
You need a food plate, many of use pieces of slate, mine are free as they fall off the barn roofs on the farm whenever it's windy but they are not hard to get, they wil be too big so just gently tap them with a hammer to shape them. Easy to clean, if it's big then the food goes in the middle and the tort can walk on the slate to eat, it helps to prevent food from being dragged through substrate and getting messy and making the enclosure messy. I say helps, it won't stop it, they do what they can to mess the place up!
A shallow water bowl is essential, they will sit in it and drink, needs to be easy to get in and out of and no high sides so they can't possibly topple in and drown - it happens sadly. I try to put moss round the edge of the water bowl so as they walk in to the water they don't drag soil and substrate in with them. It helps, it's not perfect though.
Plants are a challenge but great to have, some people plant into the substrate, some keep in pots, some plant in trays then swap them out every week to keep them fresh. They love to hide in plants and nibble at them so ensure they are safe to eat, the tortoisetable website is the best place for checking if a plant is safe to eat. Keep in mind many of the hits they say 'no' for are for tortoises who can't eat fruit, so it's a bit different for Redfoots, but hey explain what's safe, dangerous, or just not healthy so you will work it out.
Plant pots on their side half buried are a great cheap hide, some people break them in half but you don't need to if you bury half of it.
Visual barriers make things more interesting and stimulating for tortoises, if they can sit in one spot and see the entire enclosure it's considered not as healthy for them, it's better if they can explore and find their way around. Have a look at the different enclosures people have created, some seriously clever and talented people on here
the tortoise terrarium has to have green and differen textures/shapes for the reason described above by @NDevon but also trying to mimic the natural environment of the tort species. Ours are forest type, when they were little I had some taller plants in there. Now the taller/bigger plants get bulldozed and even if I could/wanted to rotate them every couple days, they's just take up too much "real estate" in there. The babies spend more and more time outside now but their enclosure is not ready for them to stay there unsupervised yet. My most recent attempt to plant their terrarium was really out of desperation. I had no more plants that were recovered enough to rotate. And our loan is full of weeds every spring, has not been treated yet, hence the idea to try using those.
