My redfoot family

Anyfoot

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To be honest, I wish I could have been even more detailed. The only things I wrote down daily were the temp/humidity readings (and it wasn't even taken consistently), monthly stats, the foods fed, soaks and whether they pooped during, emergencies or things out of the ordinary, outdoor times, random comments or changes to the enclosure.

I figured that I had no idea what I was doing, that I would at least write down general information until I *did* kinda know what I was doing lol.. And if things went downhill, I could show the journal to the vet or to people on here to see what I could change.
I was going to ask if they pooped most times during soaks. Especially when doing consecutive days of soaking.
 

pfara

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I was going to ask if they pooped most times during soaks. Especially when doing consecutive days of soaking.

Checking over the notes, it seemed random. Sometimes they pooped, sometimes they didn't. I never really soaked them at a set time, so I'm figuring that plays a big part in the randomness.
 

Yvonne G

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I keep records on the tortoises, but I can't imagine keeping such a detailed record of soaking. I'm wondering what purpose this serves.
 

pfara

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I keep records on the tortoises, but I can't imagine keeping such a detailed record of soaking. I'm wondering what purpose this serves.

I knew nothing about tortoise keeping. I kept whatever records I felt might be useful in the beginning. One of the things members used to mention on here was soaking for x amount of time so I just soaked and wrote it down.
 

Anyfoot

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I kept a journal for the first 4 months that I had them (their first 6 months of life). Here's the summary for Loki's soaks:

Received Loki on 4/2/13
Soak 4/5/13 - 4:25-4:41pm
Soak 4/8/13 - 3:30-3:52pm
Soak 4/12/13
Soak 4/14/13 - 2:56-3:16pm
Soak 4/15/13 - 1:06-1:30pm
Soak 4/18/13 - 4:06-4:27pm
Soak 4/19/13 - 11:24-11:46am
Soak 4/21/13 - 5:02-5:30pm
Soak 4/24/13 - 10:40-11:04am
Soak 4/25/13 - approximately 15-20 minutes
Soak 4/26/13 - 12:43-1:06pm
Soak 4/27/13 - 3:15-3:40pm
Soak 4/29/13 - 5:03-5:24pm
Soak 4/30/13 - 3:12-3:30pm
Soak 5/1/13 - 3:10-3:28pm
Soak 5/2/13 - 4:15-4:37pm
Soak 5/4/13 - 3:15-3:32pm (outside)
Soak 5/8/13 - 10:05-10:21am
Soak 5/12/13 - 9:09-9:19am
Soak 5/13/13 - 4:16-4:34pm
Soak 5/14/13 - 3:29-3:50pm
Soak 5/17/13 - 8:40-8:53am
Soak 5/19/13 - 9:45-10:05am
Soak 5/20/13 - 11:02-11:17am
Soak 5/22/13 - 8:25-8:38am
Soak 5/24/13 - 3:00-3:13pm
Soak 5/29/13 - 10:18-10:27am (outside)
Soak 6/3/13 - 10:00-10:12am
Soak 6/8/13 - 9:55-10:00am
Soak 6/10/13 - 9:40-9:55am
Soak 6/13/13 - 8:36-8:51am
Soak 6/19/13 - 8:05-8:22am
Soak 6/21/13 - 8:03-8:17am
Soak 6/23/13 - 7:55-8:05am
Soak 6/25/13 - 10:15-11:22am (outside)
Soak 6/28/13 - 9:13-9:26am
Soak 7/2/13 - 9:02-9:09am
Soak 7/7/13 - 9:02-9:12am
Soak 7/10/13 - 9:18-9:29am
Soak 7/12/13 - 9:08-9:19am
Soak 7/18/13 - 8:35-8:47am
Soak 7/21/13 - 9:20-9:30am
Soak 7/25/13 - 8:40-8:50am
Soak 7/28/13 - 8:30-8:43am
Soak 8/2/13 - 8:32-8:42am
Soak 8/5/13 - 9:06-9:17am
Soak 8/9/13 - 8:32-8:45am
Soak 8/12/13 - 9:14-9:23am
Soak 8/16/13 - 8:38-8:54am

For the next 6-12 months, I probably soaked them twice a week and on measurement days. I only spot soak them every so often now just to look them over, shine their shells, give them personal massages :D

Water temperatures are always measured by an infrared temp gun at around 95F.
Me again. :D. How much does Loki weigh? Thanks.
 

pfara

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Me again. :D. How much does Loki weigh? Thanks.

I just did the monthly on all of them today. I've been sick and forgot to do it yesterday. All my growth checks are are usually on the second of each month.

Sunset: 61.35 oz, 8-1/8"
Loki: 71.00 oz, 9-1/4"
Jingle: 35.55 oz, 7-1/8"
Punch: 62.70 oz, 8-5/16"

Length measurements taken with calipers.
 

GRohr

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Do your torts like tomatoes? I thought about giving them some every now and again as we grow some inside during the winter.
 

pfara

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Do your torts like tomatoes? I thought about giving them some every now and again as we grow some inside during the winter.

Sunset is my tomato eater. The others don't mind it, but it's a favorite for Sunny.
 

Pearly

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I absolutely LOVE your torts! Your enclosure is a DREAM! Love your plants! Too bad we don't live closer to each other, I'm a gardener too, we could be exchanging cuttings and stuff....
 

pfara

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Sunset turned 3 today! Stats: 71.90 oz., 8-9/16", 1.01 ratio. Sorry for the blurry pics:

Before, after and in-between:







Birthday bath:




Shell and plastron shots:





So, I started this thread when they were around a year old. Now they're all hitting three. Definitely huge changes occurred since then!

1. They grew a lot bigger than I had anticipated. They almost can't turn around in the sink, they run over everything whether they mean to or not, and I can't pick them up with just one hand anymore (although, I would never suggest anyone to handle your tortoises in an unsafe manner ;)).
2. They eat.. A LOT. I almost can't keep up with their appetites anymore. I broke down and bought the 25 lb. bag of Mazuri this time around. Trips to the farm store are becoming more frequent.
3. They are WAY more energetic. This puppy dog-like behavior that I kept hearing about is apparently true. They climb up everything, hunt me down and harass me for food every morning and really. really don't mind head and neck rubs anymore.
4. Water dishes get seriously gross now. I was one of the lucky few that never had poop or dirt dragged into the water dishes. Now I can't go half a day without the water dish being mucky, dark.
5. Growing plants are mostly for my enjoyment instead of for them. What takes me 3 months to grow takes them 3 minutes to demolish, consume, or both.

On a side note, my bioactive substrate is on overdrive. I decided to shine a light in the enclosure at 11:00pm to check on a noise and instead of seeing a tortoise, I see hundreds of pill bugs. It was actually pretty amazing to witness. So either way, my tortoises or the isopods, millipedes and springtails clean the enclosure of left over food. Unfortunately with my hundreds and thousands of pillbugs, I've been finding at least one or two out of the enclosure for the past 3 days. I wonder if these pillbugs might eventually pose a problem in the near future.
 

Pearly

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I gotta run now but will save the read and careful analysis of your pics and stats for tonight and I'll address them then. Just wanted to let you know how much I love your posts and your pictures.
 

jockma

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Adorable!!! I love their shell and plastron colorations. And I love Loki's tiny little feet, so cute! I'd love to make one of those cakes for mine's rescue anniversary in November, what a sweet idea.
 

pfara

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Jingle turned 3 today! Stats: 43.90 oz, 7-5/8".

The carrot cake wasn't a big success. The shredded carrots masked the scent of the Mazuri underneath so I had to scrape some off.





Head, body, and plastron shots:






Jingle is the smallest of the bunch. She's the second to show up for food and the first one to leave. She's dug herself a nice little hole in the middle of the enclosure that she loves to sleep in. The pictures don't show all the yellow that Jingle has on her head really well but the yellow looks pretty nice. If I had to break my personality up into pieces, each tortoise would be one. Jingle is my inner calm, Loki is my inner hermit, Sunny is my inner cranky pants, and Punch is my inner crazy. They're all so very different but luckily they've all gotten along pretty well. They're also all looking very much female at this point.
 
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