Hi Everyone! New to forum, know nothing about tortoises...trying to help my daughter care for hers!

Hey everybody! My daughter got an elongated tortoise recently, from southeast asia she tells me...she's put quite a bit of work into trying to learn as much as possible and take care of him, she loves the little guy! I was curious...I know she's read that they sleep a lot when young, but it seems like he doesn't move around much. Is there anything we can do to make sure he's healthy and getting what he needs? She has a variety of fruits and veggies she gives him, some mealworms, has a heating UV lamp on one side and a cooler side on the other, she leaves it on for the majority of the day. She has had him since September and it seems he used to move around more, bury himself, etc...I didn't now if because we're in a cooler time of year here in Mid Missouri if he's just kind of hibernating or what? If he is, that's cool, just didn't want to ignore an issue if there was something wrong with him, looking for some expert advice. Thanks in advance!

Hello and welcome.

This is a great species. Congrats! Care for these is similar to a redfoot. They need warm temps and high humidity year round. This is very difficult to accomplish unless they are in a closed chamber. Does your enclosure have an open top?

What are your four temps? Basking area, warm side, cool side and overnight low? What equipment are you using to maintain these temps?

I don't keep either of these two species, redfoots, or elongata, so hopefully someone who does will come along and offer some first hand specific advice. They are not a common species, so you might want to look in the section of the forum for this species and message some of the regular posters there who have them. Might get a faster response and better info that way. Click here: https://tortoiseforum.org/forums/elongated-and-forstens-tortoises.93/

Hi

@Will might be able to help

Welcome to TFO!

Jamie

Welcome to the forum! Don't feel bad...we all started out knowing nothing! You'll learn a lot here.
How old is your daughter?

Welcome! @KarenSoCal is correct....most of us started out with little to no knowledge or torts. In my case, the more I learn, the more questions I have. Lol. But that's the fun of it!

An image of the set-up would communicate a great deal. Temp and humidity have already been mentioned, but no numbers. What is the actual temps and humidity?

They are okay to cool some at night, most of their native range cools to mid 60's to mid 70's throughout the year. But nearly everyday gets into the high 80's to low 90's with 'crushing' humidity, i.e. 85 to 95 %. They are not a basking species for the most part, but will seek out direct sun to warm sometimes. Basking devices for artificial habitats tend to dry things out.

You can use seedling heat mats, and radiant heat panels, both always on a thermostat to make it warmer in the enclosure. Deep substrate (2 to 4 inches) with standing water below the surface of the substrate at about 1/2 inch really helps keep the humidity up.

As someone suggested, they are similar to red foot tortoises for enclosure parameters. There is much more information regarding 'setting up' redfoots than Elongated tortoises. Diet is somewhat similar too.

Always glad to hear someone else finding joy with an Indotestudo species. I have a different species from this genus.

Welcome!