Recent content by AmandaTX

Your other option is to report this as a federal violation of the ESA to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Harming an endangered or threatened species is a direct violation of both state and federal law. It appears that this injury could be caused by a person as several folks have suggested...

Depending on where you live, prickly pear pads may be sold at your local grocery- normally with the spines removed. It's darn easy to get in south Texas, but then, lots of folks here use it in recipes. Sometimes our HEB has nopales pre-sliced and in a bag, but they go bad quickly. My red-footed...

I second Tom's outdoor storage method. Prickly pear cactus are native to our area (Texas coast) and during storms, pads may break off and float to other islands. The pad forms a kind of "scab" on the cut side as it dries, and eventually roots start to emerge so the pad can replant itself. These...

I haven't heard much on bioactive tortoise enclosures. However, here in Houston (and online) We have the Bio Dude, a herp retail store that specializes in all things bioactive. With their guidance, I've set up crested gecko and bird poop frog systems that are totally self sustaining at this...

He's in Houston, awesome! When our little redfoot outgrows it's current outdoor space this looks like a nice upgrade. You might have your friend reach out to the BioDude over in Webster. They have a really nice herp shop and don't currently carry anything like this for outdoor tortoises...

Thanks so much for sharing! I hadn't thought of using those hairpin legs on a tortoise tank- they really look great! Looks like I have another "project" to plan now...

As an additional source to CITES, you could try a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to USDA or USFWS. I'm not sure how far back the electronic records go, or which agency would be most likely to house what you were looking for. Several years ago I used FOIA with USDA to get records on...

After flipping through my big turtle ID book, the species in most of Florida should be the striped mud or the Florida mud turtle. Judging from the coloration, I'd agree with previous posters that said striped. Sorry- I'm more familiar with Texas species!

You have a mud turtle, although we'd need more location details to tell specific species. Mud and musk turtles are easily confused. Mud turtle species have a distinctive triangular shaped pectoral scute on their plastron. Musk turtles have a squarish pectoral scute. Musk often have grayish skin...

A great resource for identifying and learning new plants is iNaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org/ You download the app, take a photo and enter location data, then citizen scientists will help with ID. Photos/ observations considered "research grade" are available for researchers to download...

It is a clamp lamp, but the clamp part is not in use, it's wired to a cross beam at the fitting. I didn't trust the clamp!

I'll check my local stores for the orchid bark, might be a cheaper alternative to the pet store package cypress I've been buying. And that tube of foot cream is already standing by. I've read enough of your posts Zeropilot to see the need!

Good to know this happens to others! I will swap out his lower layer this weekend, make it deeper, and see how things go.

Here are some pics of our setup. When I weed the flowerbeds I bring in some edible decor for him, switched out weekly or whenever he munches one down too much. I'm sticking to the few weeds I can identify safely! See the one pic of my hand in the substrate- the water is up to my first knuckle...

That's just it, we're NOT adding water aside from his dish that is changed daily. We haven't added any in since mid January. He's soaked daily in a small bucket and that water is not poured into the tank. His "drinking water" dish is not poured or tipped over into the substrate either.