Meet our newest family member, Tickle?

TessaTk

New Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2020
Messages
6
Location (City and/or State)
San Antonio
Meet Tickle? A friend gifted him to me not knowing what kind he was and since I found out I’ve gone down the tortoise hole and researched a crazy ton the last 2 weeks. This forum has helped me out so much, I thank you all! We are currently in an apartment but will be moving into a house with atleast a couple acres in a year or so and I have so many plans for little tickle. I was so stressed out after finding out what kind of tortoise he was and the best way to take care Of it being so young but this forum Helped calm my nerves and build my confidence in caring for him. I’m happy to be a new tortoise mom and I will update and have many questions. Right now I have him on a spring mix and cactus diet seeing that’s the only thing his breeder fed his new hatchlings. I just started mixing zoo-med natural grassland tortoise food in with it to kind of taper him off just cactus and spring mix and he eats like a champ. Eating good, going potty normally. He’s soaked twice a day and I take him outside for an hour or two daily. Inside he has a comfy enclosure. I’ve ordered a hydrometer and thermometer for inside but for the most part I feel like he’s happy and I’m doing well. Pictures included. I would appreciate any and all criticism, advice and tips! Thanks fam ????
 

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KarenSoCal

Well-Known Member
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
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Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
5,749
Location (City and/or State)
Low desert 50 mi SE of Palm Springs CA
Hello, Tessa!

Your indoor enclosure is indeed "comfy", but unfortunately, it is not a good enclosure for Tickle.

In your research on the forum, did you come across the info on closed chambers? You need to be able to control and maintain proper temps and humidity, and that is impossible to do in an open topped enclosure like yours.

I'm very glad to see that you have a fluorescent tube type UVB, but you lose about 50% of it because it's going through that screen...another advantage of closed chambers--the lights and heating are inside the enclosure.

Something you need to do immediately!! Find a way to add support to your clamp light, so if the clamp fails, it will not fall into the enclosure! It happens frequently, and often starts a fire. We've seen cases of a whole house burning to the ground because of this. And just this week we've had a member lose her baby tort because the light landed on top of her. Please! Do this immediately!

I'm linking our care sheet for you to read, along with some other helpful links. Please read them, then come back with questions and concerns. We'll help you all along the way.





4 elements of heating: By Tom
There are four elements to heating and lighting:

Basking bulb. I use 65 watt floods from the hardware store. I run them on a timer and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb.

Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT.

Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish.

UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html
 
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