Capri's New Home!

[Capri]

Capri finally moved into her new enclosure this morning! We made a "shell" of sorts to fit around a Rubbermaid container and put a piece of Plexiglas in front of it so she can't escape over the top when she gets bigger. She has cypress mulch and topsoil with sphagnum moss

She almost immediately started to devour her new plant

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Andrea:

That looks pretty nice. What kind of heat/lights do you have planned?

 

[Capri]

Theres a uva and uvb light both in there. I live in NH so its pretty cold so I was wondering if I need a heat source for at night? My house gets to 68 degrees at night so I wasn't sure if I need to put a heat source on the other size of her home where the heat light doesn't reach. We are also have some reflective tape on the bottom to help keep the heat in

 

[Yvonne G]

You want the temp to stay right around 80F degrees. RF tortoises don't need a gradient, hot to cool, and they really don't need a drop at night time either. They can tolerate 65-70F lows for a short term, and they don't do well over about 90F. They prefer low light, so it is helpful to have many plantings to diffuse the lighting.

There is some pretty good information on RF tortoises at the Tortoise Library

 

[Capri]

In the book on red foots that I bought it said to have there be a slight gradient so they can regulate their temps by moving around the enclosure. It also said out one side slightly above their preferred temp and the other slightly bellow. In her old home she moved around to the cooler side when the other got too hot for her. Which is why wee made her a bigger home so she could move around more and everything. She has an area that is high 80s or low 90s and the other side is upper 70s

 

[Jacqui]

I love her eating her new plant! I myself like the natural heat gradients. Nice to let the tortoise decide as many things as possible in it's life. Also nice just incase a thermometer goes funky or for some reason things get a little hotter then you think... sorta an extra security measure I think.