New Western Hermann's hatchling

FLGirl41

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Many thanks to @HermanniChris for this beautiful Apulian female Thh. I currently have two redfoots and a loggerhead musk turtle; however, this is my first Mediterranean tort. Thh has long been my dream species to keep, so I am very happy right now.

She is 2" SCL and 25 grams. :) Because the Hermann's is quite different from anything I have ever kept, I have been researching care for the last few months and hope I have done everything correctly. Please feel free to offer any husbandry suggestions, as I want to make sure she does well.

She's in a Christmas tree bin on organic potting mix with cypress mulch and a bit of play sand mixed in. Ambient temps are 80-82F during the day with a CHE, and a basking temp of 94-97F using a 100w Powersun. Nighttime temps go down to about 70F. Room humidity is around 50-60% thanks to my 125g musk turtle tank, so I only mist her enclosure about once a day.

Diet consists of a mix of things: Mazuri and Zoo Med grassland tort pellets, dried herbs, and weeds from the yard. I just started growing the Testudo seed mix from TortoiseSupply in 10 seed trays and hope to start harvesting that soon. I hope my redfoots and bearded dragon will enjoy certain weeds as well.

Here are some pictures!

First soak upon arrival:
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She's a wee one!
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A first look at that adorable face:
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She's soaked, weighed, measured, and ready to see her habitat:
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Habitat:
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The left side: cork hide, tupperware moist hide with sphagnum moss (under fern), food/water dishes, a few fake plants for security
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The right side: basking area, mopani wood
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Now the hard part-- leaving this cutie alone so she can get settled in and de-stress:
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Yvonne G

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She's just beautiful! And dontcha' just love those Christmas tree bins? I really like how you have it set up.
 

Tom

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Congrats. Color me jealous! Extreme tortoise envy!!!

Chris is the man to take advice from here. I don't know that most of the rest of us have any Western Hermanni experience to speak of. I personally wouldn't use that substrate, but I'm aware that many people still use it and recommend it. Your enclosure looks great.
 

FLGirl41

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Thank you both. Yeah Tom, I've seen quite a variety of substrates recommended, but Chris noted the best success with this mixture so I would like to keep with his recommendation. I am very excited to watch this girl's progress and am excited to have a new lifelong family member.
 

FujiBaird

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Tiny tortoise, big bin! I'm not an expert, and I don't see anything wrong with your setup, but just based on my tortoise's behavior, I think your baby might appreciate someplace with a low plant or wood overhang closer to the basking spot so she can get warmth without feeling too exposed. (I can't tell if the wood you have near the basking lamp has an overhang or not.)

Congrats, I love the westerns and hope to have one of my own someday!
 

FLGirl41

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Tiny tortoise, big bin! I'm not an expert, and I don't see anything wrong with your setup, but just based on my tortoise's behavior, I think your baby might appreciate someplace with a low plant or wood overhang closer to the basking spot so she can get warmth without feeling too exposed. (I can't tell if the wood you have near the basking lamp has an overhang or not.)

Congrats, I love the westerns and hope to have one of my own someday!

Thanks so much, and I'll definitely try to provide more cover near the basking area. I am so paranoid about her flipping over under the heat lamp while I'm away at work or something, so I tried to avoid any place she could risk flipping. I'll try to find some structure to put in that area.
 

FujiBaird

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Thanks so much, and I'll definitely try to provide more cover near the basking area. I am so paranoid about her flipping over under the heat lamp while I'm away at work or something, so I tried to avoid any place she could risk flipping. I'll try to find some structure to put in that area.

Oh, I can completely relate to the flipping paranoia! Another plant like the fern you have in the back would be perfect, IMO, and present little hazard. But I think your setup looks great overall.
 

FLGirl41

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At Chris's suggestion, I replaced the PowerSun with a fluorescent tube UVB (Reptisun 10.0) and a halogen heat lamp today. She continues to do well and her favorite spots are the basking spot and the cork hide. The cork hide is so large and can be accessed from either side, so it kind of acts like two hides in one.
 

FLGirl41

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I've noticed that every morning, this little girl crawls on top of her food, and proceeds to eat her way down. It's the funniest thing to see her scale just a small pile of food which ends up looking enormous compared to her.

 

FLGirl41

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I don't have a ton to update on the little one. She's being a typical baby and hiding/sleeping a lot. Her lights go on at 8 AM but she doesn't poke her head out of her humid hide until I give the tank its morning misting. Then it takes her about 45 minutes to actually leave the hide. She loves this hide and it's where she usually chooses to hide. She also has a cork flat hide but she's not using that one at all.

Once she gets her daily courage to come out, she goes to the opposite end of the tub to bask and poop. I'm used to having two messy redfoots, but my Hermann's *always* poops in one corner of her viv! It's pretty funny to see it sitting there every day, like she intentionally didn't want to get the rest of her viv messy. But hey, I'm not complaining.

Then she eats her breakfast, and by 11 AM she has disappeared for the day. She gets soaked every other day for 20 minutes and always poops then too.





I'm kind of thankful to have such a no-nonsense, mellow, practical little hatchling. I was worried I'd have a climber who would be flipping over every day, but she hasn't tried once to climb/escape (except for climbing her food pile).
 

Kori5

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Where did you get those fake plants. I love howey make a shade but are not reachable.
 

Kori5

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Thank you so much. I will check them out. They look great. And your baby is beautiful :).
 

FLGirl41

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A few updated pictures. This girl is now 3" long and closing in on 100 grams. I was a bit alarmed by how fast she was growing, but her carapace growth is smooth and I'm feeding reasonably but not too much. She looks bigger in the pictures than she is, because I have small hands. She's been a fantastic pet and readily approaches me. Her absolute favorite thing is to run after water when I pour it into her enclosure.



 

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