Adequate living space?

[Jturner]

Hey there all,

I’m the proud new parent of an Eastern Hermmans Tortoise. I just hope I have provided him with an exceptional living space and honestly looking for approval or any recommendations. He does try to climb out on occasion( I believe he just has restless legs). Other than that he seems to be a happy tort! All criticism welcome here! Just want a healthy tort!

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Hey there all,

I’m the proud new parent of an Eastern Hermmans Tortoise. I just hope I have provided him with an exceptional living space and honestly looking for approval or any recommendations. He does try to climb out on occasion( I believe he just has restless legs). Other than that he seems to be a happy tort! All criticism welcome here! Just want a healthy tort!

How big and old is your tortoise? A space of 4 feet by 8 feet is recommended for adult Hermanns.

Keep an eye on the plastic plants and take them away if he wants to eat them.

 

[COmtnLady]

You did good with finding an actual use for those "commercial" tortoise tables! You got your size needed and it looks good, lots of easy accessibility to all areas. Cool!

The only problematic thing that I notice is the sharp-edged rocks sitting in the visual interest barrier. In all probability your tort won't try to climb it, but it could, and the sharp edges could ding the plastron. Its a minor concern. I put something similar down flat, thinking it would help "file" nails, but the sharp edge made some dings until I sunk it down slightly-below-even with the surface top.

That is a nice set-up you have created..

 

[Tom]

Hey there all,

I’m the proud new parent of an Eastern Hermmans Tortoise. I just hope I have provided him with an exceptional living space and honestly looking for approval or any recommendations. He does try to climb out on occasion( I believe he just has restless legs). Other than that he seems to be a happy tort! All criticism welcome here! Just want a healthy tort!

Hello and welcome. Here are my comments and tips:
1. It's a nice looking enclosure and you've covered most of the basics well. You've got the right food and water bowls, good substrate, a hide...
2. It's great that you doubled it, but it's still too small. Your enclosure is about 6x2 feet, right? That is about 12 square feet. You want something at least 32 square feet, 4x8, or larger. Your current enclosure can work if you also have a large outdoor enclosure for warmer weather, and if you brumate your tortoise over winter. If he's going to be mostly in this enclosure, and if he's going to be in it over winter, you'll need to go bigger.
3. I see hay in the food bowl. This is not a grass eating species, and certainly not dried out grasses. If you want to use grasses to add fiber to grocery store greens, which is great, use soaked horse hay pellets. If you want to use hay, use orchard grass hay, chop it up super fine with scissors, and soak it in warm water to re-hydrate it.
4. I would remove the plastic plants before he eats them.
5. I only see two lighting hoods. This means you've got the wrong bulbs and that something is missing. Here is a breakdown of the four heating and lighting essentials:

1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours 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. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
2. 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. In most cases you'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night. Some people in colder climates or with larger enclosures will need multiple CHEs or RHPs to spread out enough heat.
3. Ambient 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. Strip or screw-in LED bulb types are both fine.
4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. In colder climates, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. I like the 12% HO bulbs from Arcadia. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html A good UV bulb only needs to run for 2-3 hours mid day. You need the basking bulb and the ambient lighting to be on at least 12 hours a day.

Much more info here, and questions are welcome:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

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[Jturner]

How big and old is your tortoise? A space of 4 feet by 8 feet is recommended for adult Hermanns.

Keep an eye on the plastic plants and take them away if he wants to eat them.

The enclosure is 8x4 and as far as how old….we’re not really sure. He’s 16oz and from front to back he’s 8”. He’s not tried the plastic plants he more or less just runs over them.

 

[Jturner]

Hello and welcome. Here are my comments and tips:
1. It's a nice looking enclosure and you've covered most of the basics well. You've got the right food and water bowls, good substrate, a hide...
2. It's great that you doubled it, but it's still too small. Your enclosure is about 6x2 feet, right? That is about 12 square feet. You want something at least 32 square feet, 4x8, or larger. Your current enclosure can work if you also have a large outdoor enclosure for warmer weather, and if you brumate your tortoise over winter. If he's going to be mostly in this enclosure, and if he's going to be in it over winter, you'll need to go bigger.
3. I see hay in the food bowl. This is not a grass eating species, and certainly not dried out grasses. If you want to use grasses to add fiber to grocery store greens, which is great, use soaked horse hay pellets. If you want to use hay, use orchard grass hay, chop it up super fine with scissors, and soak it in warm water to re-hydrate it.
4. I would remove the plastic plants before he eats them.
5. I only see two lighting hoods. This means you've got the wrong bulbs and that something is missing. Here is a breakdown of the four heating and lighting essentials:

1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours 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. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
2. 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. In most cases you'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night. Some people in colder climates or with larger enclosures will need multiple CHEs or RHPs to spread out enough heat.
3. Ambient 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. Strip or screw-in LED bulb types are both fine.
4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. In colder climates, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. I like the 12% HO bulbs from Arcadia. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html A good UV bulb only needs to run for 2-3 hours mid day. You need the basking bulb and the ambient lighting to be on at least 12 hours a day.

Much more info here, and questions are welcome:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

As for lighting, I have two bulbs and they are both UV-A and UV-B. This is bad?

 

[Tom]

As for lighting, I have two bulbs and they are both UV-A and UV-B. This is bad?

Yes. Any type of UV bulb that would fit in those fixtures is the wrong one to be using. It's all explained in my previous post and the thread I linked for you.

More here:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello! Looks nice! As Tom mentions lighting could do with amending, I’m adding this link so you can scroll for some ideas on how to mount the correct uvb bulb(good quality t5) over your enclosureit covers correct equipment(uvb, heating bulbs, lighting etc, stores often sell the wrong stuff, so its an easy mistake to make), correct levels, sizing, appropriately maintaining the humidity, safe substrates, there’s lots of visual examples for everything, a diet list and a really handy diet link to check out!

Housing adult Russian and Hermans indoors

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information an example of an appropriate indoor set up for an older Herman/russian. As much as it’s encouraged to have tortoises in a safe outdoor enclosure, I understand being from the uk myself, that some climates make it difficult to...

tortoiseforum.org

This one here is really good to go over and keep on hand, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs(expands more on why the compacts are no good), substrates, housing etc, I always encourage double checking purchases on the forum too before buying

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope they help! Welcome to the forum