Hello!

mrtoofay

New Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2017
Messages
6
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
Hi,

New to the site and fairly new to tortoise keeping. My experience with tortoises were tortoise sitting my brother-in-law's Russian when he went back to Taiwan for couple months. I am a fish person. Have been keeping tropical fish for over 25 years.

I got interested when I attended a pet show with my kids, it had a reptile section. Then our recent visit to reptile super show sealed the deal. Started doing my research on enclosure and diet requirements for different species, and finally decided on keeping stars. Was going to get sir-lankan stars, everything we going well and was about to purchase when my wife saw Burmese Stars, well, there's not turning back then.

So, just want to make sure that I am getting this right. I got two of them in an enclosure made from a 55 gallon tote, will make a second enclosure and separate them as soon as I fine tunes everything and get everything right with this first one.

Well, the substrate is plain coconut coir, it smelled a little.. earthy, so my wife put in some plants, I think they are rosemary, sage, and lavender. I guess she's hoping that those plants will mask the earthy smell. Are those plants ok to eat and is the smell ok?

I've cut out most of the lid and replaced it with two sheets of acrylic. One's got two holes cut out and I glued some L brackets to rest the lamps on, and to keep the acrylic from bending. I used two pcs of acrylic so I can slide them around to gain access to the enclosure easier. The lamps are CHE and MVB. Right now, the CHE is in the middle of the lid while MVB is on the right side, where the plants are. The CHE is temperature controlled at 83f with the probe placed at the left side of the enclosure, away from the lamps and about 2 inches above the substrate. The MVB comes on around 10am, and goes out at around 8pm. The temperature of the tile, which is directly under the MVB stays around 100f when the MVB is on, and the cool side is about 85. The water bowl is under the CHE. The humidity stays around 85%. Do I still need a humid hide?

So, what do you guys think about this setup? Are the placements of the lamps ok? Are the placements of the food tile, water bowl ok?

I understand the benefits of the closed chamber enclosure, but one thing really bothers me. Are the tortoises getting enough air/oxygen? It's gotta be awfully stuffy inside. My wife things the plants will help, but I told her that once the light goes off, they are actually competing with the tortoises for O2.

Well, there's my long-winded introduction and questions. Thanks to everyone in advance. Here are some pictures.

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Yvonne G

Old Timer
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Welcome to the Forum!

There's enough oxygen in that large tote to last those two little tortoises a month of Sundays. Plus, every time you open the doors you give it an air exchange. What you've done sounds good to me.

I like to keep more than one baby together because it seems to help when there's competition for the food. But keep an eye on them and if you notice one stays hidden a lot, it's time to separate them.
 

Tidgy's Dad

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Feb 11, 2015
Messages
48,236
Location (City and/or State)
Fes, Morocco
Hello, and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum. :)
The Tortoise Table is useful for seeing which plants are safe to eat, though i believe they are, quite rightly, overcautious.
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plants_19.asp?st=true&mode=main&catID=287
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plants_19.asp?st=true&mode=main&catID=388
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plants_19.asp?st=true&mode=main&catID=518
It seems they're all safe as enclosure plants.
I would place a hide or two in there, so they have somewhere they feel secure and is a bit darker.
 

Maro2Bear

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Glenn Dale, Maryland, USA
Looks nice, its hard to tell, but it appears as if the plant container is really cutting down on the available floor space for your torts to crawl around?

Nice use of the tubs, lights..etc. i agree as well, u need a humid hide or two in there. A nice dark place for torty to crawl in and feel safe.

Keep the updates and pix coming.
 

mrtoofay

New Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2017
Messages
6
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
Thank you all for warm welcome and the comments and links. I will definetly bookmark the turtle table site and reference that in the future.

We are currently working on some hiding areas for them, while I just want to use some plastic containers and cut a hole in them, my wife thinks that's too ugly. I guess we'll have to buy those zoo med half logs for make her happy. The container does cut down on the craw space, but my wife wanted to use something to raise the plants to give them a chance to grow before the lil guys start chopping/pulling them down. I'm looking for those smaller plastic pots with straight sides to move them to the corners to give them some more space.

So far, they both prefer to stay at the side with the MVB, the cool side remains around 85f or so, but they rarely go there. The lamp cover can be moved around, should I move them both more towards the middle of the enclosure?
 
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