The Mr T Experience

[Pearly]

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Oh, what beautiful little guy! or girl

 

[Pearly]

View attachment 185393 I know not everyone feels a fogger is needed, but almost every time mine kicks on Mr T runs to stand underneath or near it and will stay there till it kicks off most of the time.

This is like perfectly perfect picture!!!

 

[Pearly]

I have had my tortoise for two and half months now and somehow this little hockey puck has become my biggest past time. So maybe I'm overdue for a progress thread and place to share some of my pictures of Mr T and his extended animal family.

First thing first, I acknowledge I have zero way of knowing if Mr T (my tortoise) is a he or a she. If it turns out to be female the name Mr T will become a conversation piece. In the mean time I will simply refer to him as a he.

For those who don't know me yet or remember my introduction thread a couple of months ago my name is Brandon. My sulcata is four months old and even though my family agreed on the name Mr T, I named him Torty McTortface just because my nine year old daughter groans with disgust every time I call him that.

Like I said we have had him about two and half months now and in that time he has already gained about 85 grams up to his current weight at 125g. He eats a daily mix of store bought greens including collard, turnip, dandelion, mustard, and kale. I mix that about 50/50 with stuff from the yard including grass, fresh dandelion, dead nettles, violets, plantain, and rose leafs. I would love to identify more from my yard, but for now this is the stuff that I feel confident about. I also give him some cactus pad near daily, and he always has access to a cuttlebone. I top all of this off with a little bit of moistened mazuri and tortoise hay from Tortoise Supply.

Lately, weather permitting, my girlfriend has been putting him in his outside enclosure at lunch time and I have been bringing him back inside for a soak and dinner when I come home about 4.

He seems healthy, alert, and active. I have the lovely members of the Tortoise Forum to thank specifically for that. With out you guys I don't know that he would be doing as good as I hope he is.

Anyways my last thread was about a month ago asking about enclosure advice. I spent more time and money than I originally planned, and at one point I am pretty sure Stephanie (my girlfriend of six years) was convinced that I love the tortoise more than her, but after three weeks of degassing the spar urethane coating Mr T is finally out of his tiny cupboard under the stairs known as his original enclosure and is in his new interior home. It is a 6'x3' oak enclosure with sliding acrylic doors and and coroplast liner. He only has about two inches of coco coir in the bottom right now, but I'll pick some more up soon and fill that enclosure in a little more. 18 square feet of floor space ate up six bricks faster than I realized.

I have five ceramic light bases spread across the top of the enclosure. Each one is set to be controlled either by a timer or a thermostat. Two of my lights are currently housing che's and are being controlled by a thermostat. My general temp probe sits in the middle of the enclosure and kicks on the ceramic bulbs anytime I dip below 85f. This seems to be keeping my night time temp solidly within a degree or two of this, and during the day it is giving me a gradient drop of about 12 degrees across the enclosure. I don't know if I am content with this yet, but I am still in the fine tuning stage of the enclosure. His hide seems to sit solidly around 83 degrees through day and night. My basking temp isn't high enough yet, but I am playing with the right height for the basking light and will get it just right over the next couple of days. I dropped the light two inches today and knocked up it three degrees to 94f. I will keep dropping it a few more till I get to 100f. I believe when I reach this I will also get a better gradient across the length of the space. I am also considering dropping the two LED lights I put in there for supplemental light. I'm afraid he isn't properly utilizing his basking spot because I don't have enough of a gradient over the entire enclosure and the extra lights kick out more light than I intended making the whole space light up.

I also have a humidistat that controls a fogger keeping my humidity at 80%. The fogger is also connected to a relay so it will only run during daytime hours. I also set all of this on a five minute delay so opening of the doors doesn't automatically set off the fogger. The enclosure seems to hold humidity surprisingly well and over about a ten hour stretch of the doors not being open the fogger only uses maybe 4 to 6 ounces of water. Open the door though and you can watch the humidity drop 40% in thirty seconds. In the mornings after not running the fogger all night the humidistat reads roughly 70%. I've noticed that when the fogger kicks on Mr T makes a straight line and seems to love sitting right under it or at least right off to the side.

Anyways now that I have wrote the first chapter of a novel I will share a few pictures and call it a night.

Once again thank you all again for your help. Tom, your threads were especially helpful, thank you for taking the time to share them with us.

I know I have some things I want to adjust yet. I welcome all advice.

Hi Brandon and Mr T. I don't know if I've ever properly welcomed you to the forum whenever you did your intro, as I usually check in for new threads late at night when I'm exhausted and only partially awake but wanted to say a proper HI from Austin, TX. I loved how you addressed all the details in your thread and your pictures are awesome. Very happy to have you here. I know a thing or two about the 9yr olds, have twin boys who just turned 9 and a beautiful 11.5 yr old daughter. They are still cute at this age, but we must prepare for their teen years....

I'm glad to have found a "fogger ally" here. I see you like yours as much as I do mine. Though if I had at least one "handy" bone in my body and could figure out how to connect the hose to the room humidifiers, I'd be using those, but unfortunately for me I must either buy or pay someone to custom make things. I really amazed myself with how I was able to figure out the covering of the top of my tank to keep warm humid air from mixing in with room air... All on my own! Anyway! I envy all your little gadgets and switches, and digital displays... Guy at Home Depot brought me one of those when I was looking for thermostat... I looked at all the wires and stormed out of there mad as wet hornet, frustrated and feeling inadequate. The store guy was trying to tell me how easy this was gonna be to hook up... But I have no patience for this stepbystep stuff! And all that technical lingo.... I hate reading instruction books too! They are overwhelming to me. I start losing it after just few paragraphs.

Hmm... Now thinking about it, this maybe where one of my twins gets the ADHD from....
Your family is very lucky to have you have such great skills which for sure make everyday life so much easier.
Mr T is gorgeous! I don't blame you for getting him, I'd fall in love with him and wouldn't have been able to resist either.
There are many people in your climate zone who make things work with keeping sulcata a and RF's. With your skills you'll have no issues doing it, I'm sure of that. Enjoy your hobby and stick around here. I think we all can learn from each other to benefit our pets and it's fun to make new friends.

 

[saginawhxc]

I haven't been too active around here the last few days and just saw this post. Thank you for your kind words. I am a union electrician that actually specializes in HVAC controls so this kind of stuff comes easy to me.

I am extremely ADHD so that is something I struggle horribly with. In a strange sort of way that is one of the things I like about keeping animals. It forces structure and routine into my life.

 

[saginawhxc]

That last paragraph comes across as slightly confusing. I meant to say I struggle with ADHD, not that I struggle with electrical because of ADHD. I would edit, but for some reason I don't see how to do that from my phone.

 

[saginawhxc]

Mr T is up to 290g. Maybe he will hit 300 by next week. It seems like just a few weeks ago I was saying the same thing about hitting the 200 mark.

 

[Pearly]

That last paragraph comes across as slightly confusing. I meant to say I struggle with ADHD,
not that I struggle with electrical because of ADHD. I would edit, but for some reason I don't see how to do that from my phone.

I knew what you meant.
This is like one adhd talking to another we understand each other very well hahaha

 

[saginawhxc]

On the subject of gadgets for the enclosure, I played around with plans of basically creating an entire miniature air handler for the enclosure. It would have provided heat if needed, humidity if needed, and fresh air exchange if co2 levels warranted it. Considering he was only going to use the enclosure for a year or so I settled on a little simpler.

 

[Pearly]

On the subject of gadgets for the enclosure, I played around with plans of basically creating an entire miniature air handler for the enclosure. It would have provided heat if needed, humidity if needed, and fresh air exchange if co2 levels warranted it. Considering he was only going to use the enclosure for a year or so I settled on a little simpler.

That sounds awesome! Yeah I wouldn't invest too much into temporary set up unless you'll house another pet in it later(wink)

 

[Nibs]

Forgot to measure him over the weekend so no progress update, but we are on vacation and I'm constantly convinced my pet sitter is going to kill my tortoise while I'm away. Anyone else find vacations stressful for this reason?

Yep - freak out moment for me was when my uncle who was kindly tort-sitting said over the phone 'no, I didn't have any of the heat lamps on today as after all it is a lovely day so they will be warm enough (it was 15 degrees in England). But should I be concerned that they haven't moved?'.......... Despite having run him through their care instructions, and written them out. They were completely fine, but I share your pain!

 

[saginawhxc]

That sounds awesome! Yeah I wouldn't invest too much into temporary set up unless you'll house another pet in it later(wink)

I'm sure there are more animals in the future, but for now hotel Brandon is all booked. We have now taken in three tortoises in the last two weeks from people that couldn't keep then anymore for one reason or another. We are now officially out of space.

I'm sure when the time comes though that enclosure will be reused for something. Maybe I'll get my baby Redfoot I always wanted. A Redfoot is all I've ever wanted when it came to tortoises. Now I have three sulcata and one Russian.

 

[saginawhxc]

Yep - freak out moment for me was when my uncle who was kindly tort-sitting said over the phone 'no, I didn't have any of the heat lamps on today as after all it is a lovely day so they will be warm enough (it was 15 degrees in England). But should I be concerned that they haven't moved?'.......... Despite having run him through their care instructions, and written them out. They were completely fine, but I share your pain!

Yeah I simplified all my instructions as much as I could. Okay... the tort will survive a week without a soak... don't want him to drown it... the dragon can survive a week without crickets...

I used to practically live on the road. Now I have to get a full time caretaker to leave for more than one day.

 

[saginawhxc]

New Tortoise number one. We are kind of just calling him grumpy right now as he hisses and withdraws whenever we come close. He was not amused at being lifted up so we could take intrusive photos of his bottom.

 

[saginawhxc]

New Tortoise number two. Temporarily nicknamed speedy as this little guy is quite active. Now I have some work to do prepping their outdoor pens and preparing their rooms for the winter.

 

[saginawhxc]

I set Mr T's window boxes on the ground and new tortoise number two took no time at all to check them out. I think he ate more off of these plants in the last five minutes than Mr T did in the last month.

 

[Pearly]

New Tortoise number two. Temporarily nicknamed speedy as this little guy is quite active. Now I have some work to do prepping their outdoor pens and preparing their rooms for the winter.
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They are both beautiful! Congratulations. The second one looks like a girl. First one... Not that good about sulcata gender. What are they supposed to be? And how old are they?

 

[saginawhxc]

They were fairly sure one of them was male. I spent the morning reading stuff on the Internet trying to see if I can figure it out. Decided I would just leave it to the experts.

It probably doesn't really matter as they will mainly be kept apart.

I have less than zero desire to ever breed sulcata. I don't think the frozen waste lands of Michigan need more sulcata.

 

[saginawhxc]

Going to town on the window boxes.

 

[saginawhxc]

"Penelope, where is the tortoise?"

 

[Pearly]

I set Mr T's window boxes on the ground and new tortoise number two took no time at all to check them out. I think he ate more off of these plants in the last five minutes than Mr T did in the last month.

That's what the sulcata do! They mow everything down! Unlike mine two! That i have to bring and put in front of their food several times a day and watch them eat to make sure they do! Darn it!!!