brought home an RT today!!!

[e79]

No pictures yet as I'm trying to leave him alone and he's currently sleeping and half hiding anyway.

My son is going to FLIP OUT when he gets home from school today - he has no idea <3

Everything looks good so far - vet check scheduled for Wednesday...fingers crossed that he's healthy and we can keep him :xfinger:

I just have a quick question about the terracotta pot I put in the warm end as a hide...I think I underestimated the sizes (bought the pot before picking him up). He can't quite turn around in it - that means he needs something bigger? Can he scoot backwards? I have no idea, lol.

If he does need something bigger is there something I might have around the house that I could use until I can either order something tonight (1-2 day shipping) or get to an actual store on Saturday?

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Just checked on him again and found him at the opposite end so he must have had enough room, lol.

 

[stinax182]

hey there! your son is definitely going to be surprised

i once wondered this myself, if they could walk backwards, so i did an experiment, ha. yes, they can! tortoises usually like pretty snug hides. if he uses it, I'd leave it. another cheap hide would be a plastic dish washing tub (i buy them from the dollar store) flip it upside down and cut a hole into it.

do you care to explain how you are housing and caring for your tort? just to make sure you've got everything correct? forgive me if you are an experienced tort owner, i thought i knew what i was doing before discovering this site, haha.

 

[e79]

No experience, completely new! Which is why this is an anxious time for me, lol.

I went the rubbermaid route (bought a new one this morning vs the one I thought I was going to use) at least for now as we all go through the learning curve and figure out what we all like/don't like. He's 4" and the enclosure is roughly 48" x 36" x 13.5".

There's straight up coconut coir on a little more than half of it (what he's been on exclusively since March) because I couldn't find a bag of the recommended top soil in a bag smaller than 50lbs to mix in with it and reptibark on the other side (which he seems to LOVE).

I put one of those big half log things on the cooler end and used stacking stones on the side should he be so inclined to wanna climb up on top.

I have a slate tile under the light (but still room to bask off of it if he wants to) but I'm pretty sure I need to adjust that tomorrow so that he has a space to climb up on to vs. just staying level with the substrate??

In the corner of the warm end is the terracotta pot that I mentioned which seems to be his favorite place to be right now though he did just venture out and dig a hole next to it which he is currently sleeping in <3

I put a small chunk (roughly 2" x 3") of reptile-friendly cuttlebone in there as well but all he's done today is climb over it and kick it out of his way, lol.

I went with the powersun hanging from the L-shaped stand by zoo med (I like that the base plate goes under the enclosure a.k.a. no one is going to knock it over).

I'm opting not to leave food or water in the enclosure in favor of feeding time and soaking time.

I haven't put in the two thermometers yet (UPS finally dropped them off this evening) but I do have a heat gun so I've been zapping various areas to check. I was surprised it didn't feel hot under the light but I've never had one before so I didn't know what it would feel like, lol. It's just over 13" from the top of his shell. When I zapped the slate it was 93.3 which falls in that 90-95* range and 73* in the cool end. With the light on a stand I feel comfortable that it's not too close to any of the plastic (which I keep touching to check on it ).

Any idea what the temperature of his shell might be like?

p.s. where should I put the thermometers? Close to the substrate at his level? Will he mess with them? Or do I put them up higher?