New babies (questions and ID??)

[TLL]

[size=medium]
Hey guys i'm a new tortoise mom (?) and my name is Lynn. i reside in CA and yeahh..
hahha i'm almost 16 and my babies are growing fast.
i'm really glad i have two lifelong friends with me
their diet right now consists of spring mix (w/o spinach) and romaine lettuce.. i've tried small pieces of tomatos because i heard they hydrate well and small pieces of carrot as well as pumpkin puree.. they didn't eat any of it thoughh.. they've also had dandelion too, they seemsed to try it, and then.. no luck.. i always keep a water bowl too, but they don't seem to pay any attention to it. the substrate is cypress(2/3), and eco carpet(1/3). i also sprinkle calcium with d3 every day and feed them once in the morning and give them a small snack around.. 4 ish.
i have them in a plastic bin with with a log hide.. and i will separate them soon.. just as soon as i can find another big bin. temp on the cool side is about 75 degrees and the hot side is around 90 and gets hotter sometimes.. i use a MVB for both UVA/UVB as well as heat i think the humidity is around 30.. i heard they like it dry but i soak them every other day for good shell growth. (is this right?)
they love climbing, so i put a tree branch and made it possible for them to get ontop of their log hides.. but they don't come down the same way and it seems as though they are like rolling down the sides of the log hide
their names are JemJem and Joel and i don't know the subspecies soo.. yeahh.. and i don't think its possible to sex them yet because they were born august 12th, 2010.
here come the questions..
along with the veggies i give them is pellet food a good idea sometimes?
is cypress okay for them for now, i'm going to change it to aspen and coconut coir?? what size is best for one tort? is it possible that i keep housing them together? when can you tell them sex of each tort? is my enclosure okay??

PICS
Joel -- http://i51.tinypic.com/34i1rnt.jpg
--http://fr.tinypic.com/r/34i1rnt/7

JemJem(the one on log)-- http://i55.tinypic.com/n56bko.jpg
--http://fr.tinypic.com/r/n56bko/7

 

[Laura]

welcome,, but I don t have your type torts so cant answer..

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Lynn:

Welcome to the forum!!

I don't keep Greek tortoises, so I really can't give you informed answers, but I was wondering why you were going to separate the two? In my opinion, they can stay together until you see some bullying going on (and that may never happen).

 

[egyptiandan]

They are both Testudo graeca ibera

Danny

 

[Snapper]

Your torts are beautiful. When I joined this forum, I also had my humidity around 30%, but it needs to be higher for babies for smooth shell growth. I'm sure you'll read a lot about that here

 

[CGKeith]

Keep the cypress. Make sure it is deep enough for them to completely bury themselves under, and keep it damp. Just mix it up by hand every other day or so and add water to it when it needs it.

I keep my new babies in a very similar set up and they all seem to bury themselves under the hot spot each evening. Of course that is the spot which dries out the quickest also, so just keep it damp.

You can take out the stones and they will still climb on top of the log.

Just make sure to check them often so they are not upside down under the heat lamp.

 

[coreyc]

I would leave the stones its helping them climb up an down my leo try it with out anything to help him and like CGKeith said he flipped good thing I was there to help him over it looks like they still small the rocks dont look bad its your call

 

[TLL]

Keep the cypress. Make sure it is deep enough for them to completely bury themselves under, and keep it damp. Just mix it up by hand every other day or so and add water to it when it needs it.

I keep my new babies in a very similar set up and they all seem to bury themselves under the hot spot each evening. Of course that is the spot which dries out the quickest also, so just keep it damp.

You can take out the stones and they will still climb on top of the log.

Just make sure to check them often so they are not upside down under the heat lamp.

they're a little bit bigger, so they don't roll, they slide off the log hahaha so cute and okay i'll keep the cypress and get rid of the tiles as soon as they get bigger thank you

---

Keep the cypress. Make sure it is deep enough for them to completely bury themselves under, and keep it damp. Just mix it up by hand every other day or so and add water to it when it needs it.

I keep my new babies in a very similar set up and they all seem to bury themselves under the hot spot each evening. Of course that is the spot which dries out the quickest also, so just keep it damp.

You can take out the stones and they will still climb on top of the log.

Just make sure to check them often so they are not upside down under the heat lamp.

they're a little bit bigger, so they don't roll, they slide off the log hahaha so cute and okay i'll keep the cypress and get rid of the tiles as soon as they get bigger thank you

Thanks everyone !
my babies are growing beautifully and and i'll keep the cypress too
and i don't see any bullying going on, so i'll keep em together

 

[greeks]

Hi! Glad to read that you are excited about your new babies! I love Greek tortoises! I find that they develop great personalities and are quite affectionate as they get to know that you are their caretaker.

As to your questions, I personally use an aspen/coir combo. There are a few reasons I go this route - definitely opposite to what some other tortoise keepers do. One is that I have pretty severe allergies and these substrates irritate me far less than many others. I also find it very easy to manage humidity levels which took me a really long time to figure out. 70% humidity is forever a challenge but I keep live plants in my enclosure, have hides retrofitted with sponges and sphagnum and keep the coir damp at all times. You definitely want to shoot for at least 50% in most places in the enclosure when they're young. Inevitably the basking spot will never make! And finally, I find the cleaning and change out of the aspen/coir easier. These are all personal preferences and certainly if you like the cypress and your babies like the cypress stick with it! I have a 3-quart mister that I use to spray down the plastic walls of my enclosures twice a day. I actually also mist the tortoises directly when I first dig them out in the morning to put the under their basking lights.

I would also recommend losing the D3 calcium and just use calcium. Because you are using a UVB (and hopefully taking them out in the sunshine once and a while?) the tortoises will produce their own D3. If you are also supplementing, you run the risk of overdosing.

Most folks who use pellets use Mazuri for Greeks. It's pretty cheap online and a simple search will give you lots of options. For babies, you'll probably want to soak the pellets until they are mushy before you give them to your babies. If they are not eating much of what you give them, try other things. Variety is key to healthy torts and there are VERY extensive lists of things you could feed them on TFO. Try greens like plantain, clover, radish, escarole, carrot, endive (including chicory), turnip. Just the greens, not the veggies per say. Most Greeks won't munch on grasses unless they're desperate. When my older torts were really young they LOVED flowers - especially violets, violas and pansies.

It's important to keep the water available even if they're not using it. Soak the babies every other day or so still since dehydration (and hence hatchling failure) can set in rapidly. I have almost never actually witnessed my tortoises drink water, but once and a while I catch them. Not sure why they're modest, but it seems they are!

If you're not good at sexing tortoises you probably won't be able to tell if they're he's or she's until a couple years! Danny only needs a few months until he can tell!