New member with two Russian tortoises and a few other reptiles

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datsunissan28

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Ohio
Hi,
My name is Dustin. I'm from central Ohio and have had reptiles for about 15 years or so now. I originally only had lizards, but have expanded to Chelonians more recently,

Currently I have:
1 male bearded dragon (pogona vitticeps)
1 male saharan uromastyx (uromastyx geyri)
1 juvenile female Morrocan uromastyx (uromastyx acanthinurus)
1 juvenile southern painted turtle (chrysemys picta dorsalis)
1 juvenile peninsula cooter (Pseudemys peninsularis)
2 Russina tortoises male and female

All the lizards have been given to me by owners who have moved and can no longer keep them.

Here is the enclosure I built for them. The inside has a footprint of 2'x4'.
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Black beard the bearded dragon is on the bottom
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Miguel the Saharan Uro is in the middle
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Citrus the Morrocan Uro is at the top. I've only had her for about six weeks now. I don't have any pictures uploaded, but she is extremely shy and didn't enjoy the eight hour drive from Philadelphia where I picked her up. She has an even bigger, nicer enclosure that I am waiting till she grows/we move to a house. She's only four to five inches right now.
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Pele the peninsula cooter and Pancho the painted turtle live in a 55 gallon aquarium. Their next on a bigger home after the Russians.
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The two Russian tortoises are Chuey and Marina. They've been in a 55 gallon temporarily for too long, but I have started on their new home that is 2.5 times bigger and should be finished before Christmas.

I haven't uploaded any photos to my photobucket account in over a year. I'll have to do that later this weekend so you can actually see my tortoises :p

A little about myself. I'm 25, I graduated from OSU with a construction management major, and work for Nationwide Insurance's corporate office here in Columbus. My girlfriend and I have two dogs as well. My girlfriend now loves the tortoises and turtles as much as I do.

One of my favorite parts of owning reptiles is designing and building their enclosures.
 

egyptiandan

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Welcome to the forum Dustin :)

Very nice enclosures :D

Danny
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Dustin:

Welcome to the forum!!

Your enclosure is beautiful.
 

datsunissan28

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Thanks Egyptiandan and emysemys

Wow great enclosures! Welcome to the forum. Im planning on getting a cb nigerian uro soon. Any tips

Marty333, I recomend checking out urowiki.filecore.net
It is the most updated care reference for them.

My Nigerian/Saharan/Geyri (all the same) was most likely wc. He was given to me five years ago when I went to pick up the bearded dragon from when one of my father's coworkers who was moving. I had neve heard of Uros before walking in that day.

My Morrocan is CBB (Doug Dix bred her), I don't think there have been any imports of this species since the mid-nineties.

Any questions in paticular just PM me.
 

Isa

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Welcome to the forum :)
Very nice enclosures and I love the hides and what can I say about your bautiful reptiles :)
 

Tom

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Hello and welcome. Great enclosures. Love the convicts too.
 

TKCARDANDCOIN

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Welcome!Great enclosures!I am from northern Ohio and you are more than welcome to come up here and build me some enclosures!!!!I love the uros.
 

ChiKat

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Wow their enclosures are incredible!! Very nice.
I love that picture of Miguel.
I would love to see pictures of your Russians!
 

dmmj

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Those enclosures look great, ca I ask why you chose tile as the flooring?
 

datsunissan28

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Thanks again for all compliments. Here are some pictures that are on the my computer right now. I'll get some more and some build shots of the new enclosure. These are from the first few weeks I had them.

Here's Chuey the male
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Marina on the right and Chuey on the left
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From above
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Chuey clmbing
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Here's a recent pic of Pele basking
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Tom said:
Hello and welcome. Great enclosures. Love the convicts too.

They were sold as Honduran Convicts, I don't really know fish all that well, but they are iridescent blue with black stripes. The larger of the two literally pushes the turtles that are way bigger around.

TKCARDANDCOIN said:
Welcome!Great enclosures!I am from northern Ohio and you are more than welcome to come up here and build me some enclosures!!!!I love the uros.

If you're really interested in a having a cage built, I could probably help you out. I need to finish up my Russians' new place first and this cold is not helping out :p

dmmj said:
Those enclosures look great, ca I ask why you chose tile as the flooring?

I went with tile for multiple reasons. It serves as durable, moisture resistant base. It's relatively easy to keep clean/sanitize. Also it keeps the nails worn down and I don't have to worry about impaction.

I've had sand before and was not a huge fan of the dust and it getting everywhere.

A sandy soil like I have for the tortoises has too high of humidity for the Uros.

I've been happy with the tile so far, the only thing I might change is going to all natural slate.
 

abra

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very cuuuute :) i love russians faces, theyre so adorable! a million time jealous of the enclosures i wish my dad was talented At enclosures :p
 
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