New to Tortoise Life :)

[Little Dude]

Hello! Our family recently added a Forest Hinge-back Tortoise - Kinixys erosa to our house and I am doing my best to give it the best care, any advise would be helpful.

- his housing is currently a 20G - long tank, I keep the temp at around 75-80 and humidity around 65% - is this too small? I don't know his exact age (got him at a pet expo), he seems to weigh about 2-3 lbs (best guess) and is approx 6" long (shell length)
- he has a little flower pot to hide in (which he does almost all the time)
- I can't not get him to really eat any greens (tried alfalfa hay, kale, cabbage), hates meal worms (they are turning into beetles that I have to catch and kill) so I give him a small amount of raw turkey once a week. Have not been able to determine the best time of day to feed him either.
- I put him in the water bowl once a day and let him soak until he gets out on his own. (he wont seem to do it on his own)
- I change his water dish once a day or twice if its dirty
- Very shy, have had him since end of January

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

I don't keep hingeback tortoises, and know next to nothing about them, so I'll defer to others.

@Jacqui @tortadise @Anyfoot (I can't remember if anyfoot keeps them or not)

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Hello, and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum.
If this is your first tortoise http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
is very useful.
@juli11 knows a lot about hingebacks.

 

[Anyfoot]

Hello! Our family recently added a Forest Hinge-back Tortoise - Kinixys erosa to our house and I am doing my best to give it the best care, any advise would be helpful.

- his housing is currently a 20G - long tank, I keep the temp at around 75-80 and humidity around 65% - is this too small? I don't know his exact age (got him at a pet expo), he seems to weigh about 2-3 lbs (best guess) and is approx 6" long (shell length)
- he has a little flower pot to hide in (which he does almost all the time)
- I can't not get him to really eat any greens (tried alfalfa hay, kale, cabbage), hates meal worms (they are turning into beetles that I have to catch and kill) so I give him a small amount of raw turkey once a week. Have not been able to determine the best time of day to feed him either.
- I put him in the water bowl once a day and let him soak until he gets out on his own. (he wont seem to do it on his own)
- I change his water dish once a day or twice if its dirty
- Very shy, have had him since end of January

I have homeana which I believe are kept the same as Erosa.
I keep my homeana at around 80f with humidity at 90℅+. Quite often humidity is off the scale,. They like a good spraying every day, rain seems to bring life to them.
As they are rain forest tortoises you don't want any bright lights or super hot basking spots, a simple CHE on a thermostat for heat and a small 5.0 UVB tube set to one end of the enclosure. Substrate is a 5" layer of coir and soil, then orchid bark, Cyprus mulch and leaves on top. Try to create a forest floor of debris so pillbugs and slugs can live in there too.
I feed slugs,earthworms or snails every other day, and fruit on the alternate days. A few mushrooms go in every day and some greens but I've found they eat greens very rarely, they seem to like to eat dried leaves and 3 day old greens, never fresh.
Hope that helps.

 

[Little Dude]

I have homeana which I believe are kept the same as Erosa.
I keep my homeana at around 80f with humidity at 90℅+. Quite often humidity is off the scale,. They like a good spraying every day, rain seems to bring life to them.
As they are rain forest tortoises you don't want any bright lights or super hot basking spots, a simple CHE on a thermostat for heat and a small 5.0 UVB tube set to one end of the enclosure. Substrate is a 5" layer of coir and soil, then orchid bark, Cyprus mulch and leaves on top. Try to create a forest floor of debris so pillbugs and slugs can live in there too.
I feed slugs,earthworms or snails every other day, and fruit on the alternate days. A few mushrooms go in every day and some greens but I've found they eat greens very rarely, they seem to like to eat dried leaves and 3 day old greens, never fresh.
Hope that helps.

Thank you! I am finding out that the more humidity the better. We do spray the tank 2-3 times a day to keep it up, I am using cyprus mulch and a more moist soil mixture, I will get some things to make it more "homey" for him I just don't know if I have enough room to put a bunch of stuff in there, as for the lighting, currently I have a duel set up, zoomed "blue light" for day, 100w and red light for night, 100w. I will remember to keep the dried greens in there, we do give port. mushrooms every other day, as well as a mix of fruit and other veggies.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hi

 

[Stuart S.]

Hello and welcome!!

 

[Anyfoot]

Hello! Our family recently added a Forest Hinge-back Tortoise - Kinixys erosa to our house and I am doing my best to give it the best care, any advise would be helpful.

- his housing is currently a 20G - long tank, I keep the temp at around 75-80 and humidity around 65% - is this too small? I don't know his exact age (got him at a pet expo), he seems to weigh about 2-3 lbs (best guess) and is approx 6" long (shell length)
- he has a little flower pot to hide in (which he does almost all the time)
- I can't not get him to really eat any greens (tried alfalfa hay, kale, cabbage), hates meal worms (they are turning into beetles that I have to catch and kill) so I give him a small amount of raw turkey once a week. Have not been able to determine the best time of day to feed him either.
- I put him in the water bowl once a day and let him soak until he gets out on his own. (he wont seem to do it on his own)
- I change his water dish once a day or twice if its dirty
- Very shy, have had him since end of January

This size enclosure is too small. You could do with working on plans for a new bigger enclosure. Really you want an indoor enclosure somewhere around 3x6ft, and an outdoor enclosure too. Be aware these are the Masters of climbing, enclosures need to be super secure. If you start a thread under enclosures there will be plenty of ideas come your way.

 

[tortadise]

Welcome!
I'd for sure go with a larger enclosure. These guys like to feel secure and that will require a larger enclosure. Erosa and homeana should have a diet of 80% herbage and 20% protein. It's difficult typically getting these guys to eat the greens. But they will. Ours seem to favor dandelions mostly. Mushrooms are usually a favorite. I'd be very careful having sweet fruits being offered. They can become very addicted to them and only them. Maybe use a cheese grater and shred some fruit like pears, guava, papaya, soursope(guanábana) paw paw, can add a few mulberry fruits and also mulberry leaves too. Shredded carrots, squash, pumpkin, and follow it up with boiled shredded chicken or turkey. They do like it rather filtered light. So lots of plants for shelter and filtering of light. Warm and humid.

 

[Anyfoot]

Welcome!
I'd for sure go with a larger enclosure. These guys like to feel secure and that will require a larger enclosure. Erosa and homeana should have a diet of 80% herbage and 20% protein. It's difficult typically getting these guys to eat the greens. But they will. Ours seem to favor dandelions mostly. Mushrooms are usually a favorite. I'd be very careful having sweet fruits being offered. They can become very addicted to them and only them. Maybe use a cheese grater and shred some fruit like pears, guava, papaya, soursope(guanábana) paw paw, can add a few mulberry fruits and also mulberry leaves too. Shredded carrots, squash, pumpkin, and follow it up with boiled shredded chicken or turkey. They do like it rather filtered light. So lots of plants for shelter and filtering of light. Warm and humid.

@tortadise I thought their protein intake was much higher than 20℅.

 

[tortadise]

@tortadise I thought their protein intake was much higher than 20℅.

Nah. That's a balanced diet consistent though. That's pretty high when you think about for a tortoises. Some days in the wild they may only find carrion and some days only find greens. Tomas in Senegal gave me those percentages. I feel compelled to agree with them. Once they aren't allowed sweet non native fruits and bad stuff they will eat readily greens and ruffage with added protein. Also take into consideration this is animal protein and not plant proteins. So if you calculate both proteins in the diet it's quite high indeed.

 

[RosemaryDW]

<snip>as for the lighting, currently I have a duel set up, zoomed "blue light" for day, 100w and red light for night, 100w.

Welcome!

I don't keep anything close to your type of tortoise but thought red lights at night were not good for any tortoise? Can someone educate me here?