baby leopard in non-humid box all day, but humid box at night

[kristel]

Hi,

I'm new to this site as a member, but I've been perusing the site to get tips and info for taking care of my new leopard tortoise. We got him at a reptile expo in Toronto this past Sunday and he is about 7 months old according to the vendor. He's started to pyramid a bit, but hopefully with the enclosure we built it will stop the pyramiding and he will continue with a smooth shell. In the enclosure we built we are making sure the humidity is 50% or higher and his humid box is 80-90% with temps of around 80-85F. He has two hide spots in the enclosure, the humid box and another rock-like dome that has a humidity of about 50%. At night I make sure he sleeps in the humid box, I nudge him gently towards its direction and he will enter it willingly and sleep there for the entire night. However during the day, after he eats, he will proceed to the non-humid cover of about 50% humidity. I'm wondering if that's okay to let him stay in the not so humid box all day and then let him sleep in the humid box at night.

I also think he's still a little bit shy and hesitant with the new home since we just got him.

Also because I live in Canada, it's too cold right now to have him go outside during the day. Any info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome. I was just in Toronto las week! What a coincidence!

The whole enclosure should be 80% or so humidity all the time, especially since you are attempting to stop pyramiding in progress, vs. preventing it in the first place.

Most leopards are pretty shy, so that part is normal. Working with him and hand feeding will help bring him out more.

The water dish in your avatar, is dangerous for tortoises. Great for lizards and snakes, no good for torts. I see you've got food in there but it is still a flipping hazard. Terra cotta plant saucers sunk into the substrate work best.

Here are some threads to help you out:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/

This one emphasizes grass for sulcatas, but the list of other foods will all be good for a leopard:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

 

[kristel]

Thanks for the quick reply! I will make sure the enclosure is 80% at all times. I did get it to that at one point but wasn't sure if that was too humid for the entire box and only needed the super high humidity in his night box. I had to coax him into coming out today with a piece of dandelion so he would go to his food bowl. I didn't realize the water/food bowl was such an issue. I hastily bought one cuz I needed somewhere to put his food in. I'll make sure to change that ASAP and get a terra cotta saucer.

One more thing, the mercury bulb I have that is on during the day only reaches temps of about 90F at the hot spot. Should I be worried about that and perhaps keep my ceramic heat emitter on all day?

 

[Neal]

Your humidity levels sound good to me, though more certainly wouldn't hurt.

I'm curious about your temperatures though. Are you saying that the warmest area in your enclosure is 90 degrees? Although that's a good temperature, I would be concerned that the other areas in your enclosure are much cooler. When you're dealing with high amount of humidity, as a general rule of thumb, you don't want to let any area of the enclosure reach temperatures below 80 degrees. I would attempt to go warmer in your hot area as well, closer to 100 degrees.

What is your dietary plan like?

 

[kristel]

The temps never dip below 80F in all areas of the enclosure, but the hottest spot is only 90F. The covering I have on it allows the temps to be pretty stable above 80F. I think I will have to turn on the ceramic heat emitter during the day as well to keep things a lot hotter. I'm just too scared it'll overheat. Right now though the covering I'm using is just a clear plastic bag because we didn't expect to need a top cover for the enclosure (initially we wanted to buy Russians, but they are hard to come by here in Canada, and my bf fell in love with the leopards, so we had to pull an audible and makeshift our enclosure to accommodate the high humidity needed for leopards). I will be getting a plexiglass cover for it next weekend so it doesn't look like I'm covering up a crime scene.

Right now I'm feeding him dandelion and kale. I'm ordering Mazuri food soon, there is a vendor near Toronto that supplies them. We can't get fresh weeds this time of year, what with winter coming and all, so I have to resort to buying them from the grocery store. I would like to mix it up a bit and give him escarole and collard greens and spring mix minus the spinach. He doesn't eat a whole lot, maybe a dandelion leaf and a half. I'm not sure if that's a lot, I'm used to feeding mammals that munch down a whole lot of food. He has a cuttlebone in his enclosure that he can munch on, but he's ignored it for the most part. I sprinkled Ca supplements for today's food but not yesterday's.

 

[G-stars]

The temps never dip below 80F in all areas of the enclosure, but the hottest spot is only 90F. The covering I have on it allows the temps to be pretty stable above 80F. I think I will have to turn on the ceramic heat emitter during the day as well to keep things a lot hotter. I'm just too scared it'll overheat. Right now though the covering I'm using is just a clear plastic bag because we didn't expect to need a top cover for the enclosure (initially we wanted to buy Russians, but they are hard to come by here in Canada, and my bf fell in love with the leopards, so we had to pull an audible and makeshift our enclosure to accommodate the high humidity needed for leopards). I will be getting a plexiglass cover for it next weekend so it doesn't look like I'm covering up a crime scene.

Right now I'm feeding him dandelion and kale. I'm ordering Mazuri food soon, there is a vendor near Toronto that supplies them. We can't get fresh weeds this time of year, what with winter coming and all, so I have to resort to buying them from the grocery store. I would like to mix it up a bit and give him escarole and collard greens and spring mix minus the spinach. He doesn't eat a whole lot, maybe a dandelion leaf and a half. I'm not sure if that's a lot, I'm used to feeding mammals that munch down a whole lot of food. He has a cuttlebone in his enclosure that he can munch on, but he's ignored it for the most part. I sprinkled Ca supplements for today's food but not yesterday's.

I recommend a thermostat controller. It will only turn on your CHE when it's below the desired temp, and shut it off when it reaches it. Therefore lessoning the risk of overheating.



— Gus

 

[Neal]

I would recommend hooking up your CHE to a thermostat of some type so that it brings the temperature on the warm side up to anywhere between 95 and 100. There are a lot of good inexpensive options out there for thermostats. I use this: http://zoomed.com/db/products/EntryDetail.php?EntryID=260&DatabaseID=2&SearchID=5 It has a control for a humidifier and so is a little more pricey and might be too much for what you need, but nevertheless, it works well.

The dietary plan seems good to me, though I would not feed kale so much as a matter of personal preference. If you can throw some cactus in there regularly, that would be a very good thing.

 

[TKL]

Welcome to the forum! I'm from Toronto too. I Wanted to check out the expo but I had to work Anyways, you've come to the right place to get advice for taking care of your new tort. The forum and its members are a great resource. Would you share pictures of your little one? I'm sure we all would love to see them.

 

[kristel]

Thanks for all the input. I think that thermostat is a bit too much for what I need plus it's really pricey. There are some outlet thermostats that I've found online that I will probably get. But there aren't a lot of them, most are for home use, or even if it is an outlet one, the probe is built into the outlet as opposed to having a cable probe that can be put anywhere. Is there any particular name I should be looking for when searching for a thermostat I can plug the heater into?

How is raising a leopard tortoise like in Toronto TKL? Our short summers aren't exactly ideal, and this summer wasn't even summer at all!

This is our little guy. We are assuming he is a male for now, cuz my house of animals is full of females. His name is Leonidas. If it turns out to be a male, well we'll change her name then.

Don't mind the horrid enclosure of the first pic, it was our makeshift enclosure for when we brought him home, I have since changed it to be more closed off.

 

[TKL]

Yeah, the weather this summer was crap. I wasn't able to get Bacardi outside nearly as much as I would have liked. He's nearly the same age as your little one, he will be 9 months in 2 weeks. The thermostat that I use with my set up is the zoo med ReptiTemp500R. I'm pretty sure the probe is at the end of a 6ft cord so you can place it anywhere in the enclosure. It only monitors temperature and doesn't have a digital display, but I just place one of my thermometers right next to the probe so I can see at what temperature the heating elements turn off.

And Leonidas is a nice looking leopard. I'm sure bumping up the humidity will allow his new growth to be smooth

 

[kristel]

Thanks for the info, I will look into getting that thermostat. And thanks, he's quite the cutey. I'm hoping his pyramiding will stop now that he is in a nice hot and humid environment. I should have clued in that they weren't being housed in a particularly humid environment when they showed me an adult leopard tort that had pyramiding, but newbie mistake. All we can hope for is to keep him moist as possible to grow out smoother!

 

[kristel]

Another noob question, how often should my little tort be pooping? He pooped twice on our way home from the expo (I'm assuming from stress) but hasn't pooped since, even during his morning/evening soaks. He only eats about a dandelion leaf or half a kale leaf a day and I'm wondering if that's enough food for him. He never finishes his food and when I get home there's usually wilted food leftover.

 

[Tom]

You need more variety in the diet.

You need a thermostat on your CHE to control ambient temps.

You need to lower that MVB a little to get your basking temp up just a little bit.


I stayed in Le Germaine Hotel. There were fantastic tortoise food weeds everywhere near there. And all around the airport too. I was stepping on mallow while walking my dog because there was no grass in the city, so we used the weed patches for potty areas. I think you need to look around a little more. Plus there is a heck of a lot more available at the store. Neither kale nor dandelion should be fed every day, even though both are okay as small parts of a varied diet.

 

[kristel]

Thanks! Will get on getting some better grub tomorrow. I guess I'm just not used to thinking the weeds of Toronto can be used as tort food. I've already ordered the thermostat for the CHE and waiting for it to come tomorrow. I'll be lowering the MVB light to get it up to the 100F region. Thanks again for all the help!