- Joined
- Dec 1, 2013
- Messages
- 307
Got to three days a week, and up the quantity a little bit.
Thanks. He's been pretty much living the life for the past 1.5 years with nothing changed. He's gaining. Just wanted a confirmation from Tom the expert.
Got to three days a week, and up the quantity a little bit.
Oh my gosh, what a cutie!! Inquisitive with beautiful eyes!3. Enjoy these new pictures.
Thoughts?
It took me a minute of looking them over, but I see the difference.
You made your lid quite a bit differently than mine. My lids sit like a cap with a rim that sticks over the top of the box. The roof of my lid rests on the weather stripping that rests on the top rim of the box.
With the position of your hinges and the way your lid sits, you are losing more heat and humidity out the top than I am. That coupled with the big heater in a relatively small box. I run that size heater in a 4x8 box. If we had one of those FLIR scopes that sees heat, I bet this would be obvious.
There is nothing wrong with your box or lid articulation. It is just different than mine, and that would likely account for the differences in humidity retention we are seeing.
Hey Tom, I figured I should tag you since you've always been helpful with my rare updates. Well...here's another one! I'll post weight and pictures information later.
Few observations:
1) I recently bought cuttlebone and he seems to love it, and devour it. How much is too much? Should I just him eat the whole thing in one sitting?
2) My tort doesn't burrow whatsoever. Maybe it's our ideal California weather or the ideal paradise I've created inside his night box, but I've never seen burrowing behavior
3) At what point should I just completely remove the humidifier, and other gadgets (except the heater) from his night box and go basic since he's almost 3 years old? Just to make room, you know?
4) To piggy back on that last question, the size of the nightbox is perfect, however, I feel like the entrance might be a little tight perhaps a year from now. Any thoughts?
What size is he now?
1. I'd let him eat as much cuttle bone as he wants. They have growth spurts and the cutttle bone will insure that he has enough calcium to sustain healthy growth. I buy cuttle bone in 5 pound bulk bags.
2. Thats pretty normal. A lot of them don't dig. …until the day they do.
3. This depends on a lot of factors. Remove whatever gadgets you don't need to maintain the correct conditions inside the box. Mine only have a heater and some sort of bucket or water vessel for humidity one they are about 10".
4. I build my entrance doors big enough to fit an adult. I don't want to build it twice. Sounds like you will have to build it at least twice.
1. Just checked his weight. He weighs 16.6lbs. Turns 3 years old in late August.
2. Phew.
3. Correction conditions...as in...heat and humidity or just heat? What about the box with all the electrical equipment...I can move that outside or get rid of everything altogether....minus the heater. Is that good?
4. I measured how more room he has to fit. It's about 6-7 inches in width. Perhaps another 1-2 years?
I make my doors 16" all and 26" wide for a sulcata. Only an exceptionally large male will not fit through that.
But apart from that, what do you think about removing the humidifier?
If you are able to maintain the desired humidity without t, then I think you are fine. Check humidity levels for a few days with the humidifier off and see what you get. If its too low, keep the unit in there and running as you have been. If humidity in your night box stays high enough with more passive methods, like water tubs on shelves for example, then you won't need to run it.
I like 60-80%. If what you are doing is working well, why are you changing things?
To be honest, it's just to make room and remove things I don't need. Just expecting him to get bigger in the next year or so. I've been doing it well for nearly 3 years so I'm pretty happy.
I used to think that once they reached a certain size that pyramiding was not a concern. I was wrong. If what you are doing is working, I would not want to change it much. Conditions are so dry here, and SoCal grown tortoises can be recognized by their growth patterns. If you want to remove the humidifier, I would check your humidity levels with what you are doing now, and then find a different way to keep it close to that.
Hmm and what if I told you that what I was doing now was to not care so much about humidity? Like 10-30% level....but I'll try my best to keep that sucker up. At night for sure. I'll have another major update in 3-4 months.
I think he looks fine: nothing to worry about.
Any thoughts on his weight and progression?