A few pictures of my egyptian tortoises

scottb2

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Jul 24, 2020
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New York
I have a small colony of egyptians. Just wanted to share a few pictures of two 2020 babies that are growing nicely. Both about 50 grams right now. Feeding well on a large variety of things (grape leaves, mulberry leaves, weeds and grass, escarole, arugula, etc). They also really like the Zoomed grassland food (feed that 1x a week) but won't eat mazuri (no idea why). Cute little things. DB283E11-819B-4990-BABC-5C82832263CF.jpeg8B3F54E6-BB63-416A-B065-B5A5F5C28668.jpeg2817D987-6589-4D2E-9D58-CEF3333B3F59.jpeg
 

TeamZissou

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Albuquerque, NM
Excellent, these are some of the smoothest I've seen. Do you mind sharing your setup details including substrate, humidity etc, as well as lighting with total UVB time?
 

Jan A

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Boulder, CO
I have a small colony of egyptians. Just wanted to share a few pictures of two 2020 babies that are growing nicely. Both about 50 grams right now. Feeding well on a large variety of things (grape leaves, mulberry leaves, weeds and grass, escarole, arugula, etc). They also really like the Zoomed grassland food (feed that 1x a week) but won't eat mazuri (no idea why). Cute little things. View attachment 318289View attachment 318290View attachment 318291
Welcome to the forum... Beautiful torts!!
 

scottb2

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New York
Thank you all. To answer a couple questions:
(1) They are spring of 2020 babies but I don't have the exact dates. I got them from Randy at Tortstork - he was very helpful and sent me some great babies. And he gave me very good husbandry advise.
(2) They were in the mid to upper teens grams when I got them in late summer 2020 - very smooth growth to that point (Randy started them right) and I have been able to keep them growing well since. Now in the 51-53 ish gram range
(3) They are in a 4x2 foot enclosure from Showcase Cages (I found a nice used one that wasn't terribly expensive). Normal mix of CHE and heat lamps for warmth. Arcadia UVB tube on a few hours a day but nothing crazy.
(4) The enclosure does a decent job of maintaining humidity. I add a cup or two of water every morning to the calcium carb. substrate (the normal stuff people use of Egyptians). Nice thing about the calcium carb is it does not get moldy in the higher humidity environment and can be washed and reused. My humidity levels tend to range from 60% to 80% depending - I don't try to get to 90+% and they seem happy.
(5) They have humid hides - basically, hide boxes with always damp (often replaced) sphagnum moss. They like to spend the nights in those.
(6) I usually have a plant or two growing in the enclosure to add a bit to the humidity also
(7) They get soaked almost everyday - I forget some days but at least 5x a week
(8) There is a cuttlebone in the enclosure - not sure if they really ever nibble on it but it is there
 

scottb2

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New York
Oh, and the warm areas under the heating lamps tend to be 95-98 degrees ish (not 115 or something really hot) during the day. The whole enclosure cools back down to the low 70s at night.
 

PA2019

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Mar 19, 2017
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412
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Tucson, AZ
Thank you all. To answer a couple questions:
(1) They are spring of 2020 babies but I don't have the exact dates. I got them from Randy at Tortstork - he was very helpful and sent me some great babies. And he gave me very good husbandry advise.
(2) They were in the mid to upper teens grams when I got them in late summer 2020 - very smooth growth to that point (Randy started them right) and I have been able to keep them growing well since. Now in the 51-53 ish gram range
(3) They are in a 4x2 foot enclosure from Showcase Cages (I found a nice used one that wasn't terribly expensive). Normal mix of CHE and heat lamps for warmth. Arcadia UVB tube on a few hours a day but nothing crazy.
(4) The enclosure does a decent job of maintaining humidity. I add a cup or two of water every morning to the calcium carb. substrate (the normal stuff people use of Egyptians). Nice thing about the calcium carb is it does not get moldy in the higher humidity environment and can be washed and reused. My humidity levels tend to range from 60% to 80% depending - I don't try to get to 90+% and they seem happy.
(5) They have humid hides - basically, hide boxes with always damp (often replaced) sphagnum moss. They like to spend the nights in those.
(6) I usually have a plant or two growing in the enclosure to add a bit to the humidity also
(7) They get soaked almost everyday - I forget some days but at least 5x a week
(8) There is a cuttlebone in the enclosure - not sure if they really ever nibble on it but it is there

Thank you very much for taking the time to explain your husbandry. The more we all share how we are raising this species the better! Keep the updates coming, would love to see how they turn out.
 

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