- Joined
- May 12, 2010
- Messages
- 82
Hi everyone,
I thought I would start a star journal. One to share these lovely creatures with everyone, and two, it would help me keep track of their development and growth. Right now, I have just one entry, but hopefully over time, this would grow.
A little background info:
Tortoises: 2 Sri Lankan star tortoise (at least that was what the seller advertised them as)
Age: unknown
Sex: unknown
Diet (from most frequent to least): spring mix, dandelion, opuntia, clovers, hibiscus leaves, hibiscus flowers, mulberry leaves, mazuri tortoise diet, strawberries.
Enclosure: 2" by 4" indoor enclosure. base substrate of coco coir, top soil and organic potting soil (no fertilizer or perlites). Warm end: orchid bark on top of base substrate, some stone pebbles, moist sphagnum moss, one warm hide with moist sphagnum moss and top soil, water dish measuring 6" by 8" with stone pebbles as support (the dish is deep). Dry side: some slate and more peddles on top of base substrate, cool hide with top soil (kept dry), some old dry tree bark as decor. The warm side measures around 110F right under the basking light, cool side at about 75-77F. There are some hibiscus plants in the enclosure, as are boston ferns and other weedy plants (all safe according thetortoisetable). The enclosure is placed in a relatively high trafficked area of my condo, to get them more comfortable with people.
Lighting: PowerGlo 125W bulb over warm area (right over the water bath), on for ~12hours a day, depending on season, the lighting duration will change. Over the summer, the tortoises will be let our to my balcony for 1-2 hours couple of times a week for natural sun light (I ensure that its at least 80F before doing this, or have a basking light lit in one area so that its warm). Possibly changing the indoor lighting to PowerSun 5.0 T5 strip light so there is light for the entire enclosure, and have a basking light for the warm end.
Daily routine: light on in the morning, warm end gets sprayed with some water from the water bath, the water is topped up. Both tortoises gets a 20min bath in tupperware container with lukewarm water (they usually do their thing in there). After bath, they are placed back in their enclosure in the water bath with food placed in the middle of the enclosure (at this point this would walk over to the food and eat). Right now I still consider them as young/hatching so they are fed 6 days a week. At night the lights are turned off, the enclosure stays at a temp of 77-80F.
Anywho, end of boring stuff (again, sorry to make you read an essay, but I just want to be detailed, so this is my own record as much as sharing with the community, I figure I would remember to do this more if its on a site like this than a random word document in my comp).
Size/Weight:
Date: May 1st, 2013
1) Van Gogh:
Size: 2.5" x 2"
Weight: 64.2g
2) Theodorus (Theo):
Size: 2" x 1.75"
Weight: 32.2g
Thanks for reading
I thought I would start a star journal. One to share these lovely creatures with everyone, and two, it would help me keep track of their development and growth. Right now, I have just one entry, but hopefully over time, this would grow.
A little background info:
Tortoises: 2 Sri Lankan star tortoise (at least that was what the seller advertised them as)
Age: unknown
Sex: unknown
Diet (from most frequent to least): spring mix, dandelion, opuntia, clovers, hibiscus leaves, hibiscus flowers, mulberry leaves, mazuri tortoise diet, strawberries.
Enclosure: 2" by 4" indoor enclosure. base substrate of coco coir, top soil and organic potting soil (no fertilizer or perlites). Warm end: orchid bark on top of base substrate, some stone pebbles, moist sphagnum moss, one warm hide with moist sphagnum moss and top soil, water dish measuring 6" by 8" with stone pebbles as support (the dish is deep). Dry side: some slate and more peddles on top of base substrate, cool hide with top soil (kept dry), some old dry tree bark as decor. The warm side measures around 110F right under the basking light, cool side at about 75-77F. There are some hibiscus plants in the enclosure, as are boston ferns and other weedy plants (all safe according thetortoisetable). The enclosure is placed in a relatively high trafficked area of my condo, to get them more comfortable with people.
Lighting: PowerGlo 125W bulb over warm area (right over the water bath), on for ~12hours a day, depending on season, the lighting duration will change. Over the summer, the tortoises will be let our to my balcony for 1-2 hours couple of times a week for natural sun light (I ensure that its at least 80F before doing this, or have a basking light lit in one area so that its warm). Possibly changing the indoor lighting to PowerSun 5.0 T5 strip light so there is light for the entire enclosure, and have a basking light for the warm end.
Daily routine: light on in the morning, warm end gets sprayed with some water from the water bath, the water is topped up. Both tortoises gets a 20min bath in tupperware container with lukewarm water (they usually do their thing in there). After bath, they are placed back in their enclosure in the water bath with food placed in the middle of the enclosure (at this point this would walk over to the food and eat). Right now I still consider them as young/hatching so they are fed 6 days a week. At night the lights are turned off, the enclosure stays at a temp of 77-80F.
Anywho, end of boring stuff (again, sorry to make you read an essay, but I just want to be detailed, so this is my own record as much as sharing with the community, I figure I would remember to do this more if its on a site like this than a random word document in my comp).
Size/Weight:
Date: May 1st, 2013
1) Van Gogh:
Size: 2.5" x 2"
Weight: 64.2g
2) Theodorus (Theo):
Size: 2" x 1.75"
Weight: 32.2g
Thanks for reading
