Chronicles of Kronos

CandyApple

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Jun 15, 2019
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Well I thought I'd start a journal to track my little guys (or girls) progress.

We bought him some frozen mango (which he LOVES) and yesterday we fed him an earthworm. He truly is nature's garbage disposal. I swear he will eat anything. He's been eating a mix of dandelion, plantain, and clover from the yard as well as a variety of grocery store greens (kale, mustard, turnip and collard greens, red, green and romaine lettuces) and we have arugula and escarole growing in the garden right now. He likes blueberries and wax worms as well. I have mazuri tortoise diet, more for a back up plan during the winter, and a broadleaf seed mix coming in the mail on Monday.

Today we got his new reptisun bulb in the mail from chewy and stupid me broke it when it slid out of the box while I was trying to open it. They packaged it REALLY well in tape and bubble wrap. So we will have to wait at least 4 more days for a new replacement. I also got cuttlebone and eco earth today. We're planning on cleaning up our 75 gallon tank and starting a planted grow out enclosure for him.

He's currently in a 40 gallon with a CHE and an old 18inch UVB bulb that needs replacing. I covered the lid with foil tape but it still isn't holding humidity as well as it needs to so it needs more tweaking. The temperature is steady between 80-90 degrees ambient. I'd really like to replace the CHE with a RHP eventually as I'm sure that would help my humidity issue.

He tipped the scales a few days ago at a whopping 43 grams. [emoji7]20190616_172917.jpeg20190616_202459.jpeg20190616_172709.jpeg20190609_135330.jpeg
 

Toddrickfl1

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Great pic!
 

CandyApple

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Alright so I haven't posted here in awhile but I weighed Kronos again yesterday and he is now 104 grams, up from the 43 grams he was when I posted on June 22nd. Hopefully that's a good growth rate!

He's got his 75 gallon enclosure now that holds humidity a LOT better than his first one. I just covered the mesh lid that I had on it with a plastic drop cloth but I ended up having to tape the entire top because my cats kept chewing up the plastic lol. He is eating and pooping like clockwork but he seems to have slowed down a bit. I'm thinking because it's winter now and it's colder in the house and therefore also cooler in his enclosure, especially the corners where he prefers to hang out. Tomorrow I'm planning on getting a few supplies so I can figure out how to mount a second CHE heat lamp so I can more evenly distribute the heat in his enclosure and today I added some black paper to the back. I don't know if that will help the heat but we will find out I suppose.

I'm planning on posting some pictures tomorrow after I finish getting the second CHE in.
 

ZEROPILOT

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Two things to watch out for:
1) overheating. Redfoot need warmth and can't handle hot.
2) too much light. Redfoot are shade loving for the most part.
I'm not sure which REPTISUN you are talking about. But if it's a MVB type. It will likely be both too hot and too bright.
A Mercury Vapor light will also "cook" away your humidity.
For a RF, it's hard to beat a strip 5.0 florescent and a good old CHE.
 
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CandyApple

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Nebraska
Two things to watch out for:
1) overheating. Redfoot need warmth and can't handle hot.
2) too much light. Redfoot are shade loving for the most part.
I'm not sure which REPTISUN you are talking about. But if it's a MVB type. It will likely be both too hot and too bright.
A Mercury Vapor light will also "cook" away your humidity.
For a RF, it's hard to beat a strip 5.0 florescent and a good old CHE.
It's an 18 inch UVB bulb. In the 75 gallon it's not very close to him but I'm attempting to grow plants so I don't want something too small. I added fake plants for shade from the light for now. I'm using a CHE but I'm adding a second CHE to spread the heat out because the single one gets really hot right underneath it in order to get the corners of the tank warmer than low 70s and I'm tilting them so they won't point directly at the places where he likes to hang out (mainly the corners he loves to burrow and hide). I just added a PVC elbow joint because he was outgrowing his smaller terracotta pot and I can't find any in store this time of year! I also had a piece of kiln dried pine I had specially cut to mount the light and CHEs. I avoided treated wood and I'm hoping the pine will be okay because it's kiln dried? It will never directly touch him or the substrate but it's closed chamber.

My humidity is staying at a consistant 90-99% now. Under my CHE my surface (substrate) temps were 88-90 degrees but only about 70-72 in the corners so I'm hoping the second CHE will get it perfect. My ambient temps are right at about 80, maybe more like 77 in the corners and 83 in the middle. BOTH CHEs have their own thermostat! Planning to set one a little warmer than the other for a bit of a gradient.

I will post pics soon. I just have to go to the store and grab some larger zip ties. I'd like to know your opinion on it once I get those pictures posted.

Thanks!
 

CandyApple

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tank2.jpg tank1.jpg turthide.jpg turtcute.jpg turt1.jpg

Here are some pictures of the new enclosure and current pictures from today... Not sure about this eco earth substrate. You can see it's all over his face and he drags it into his water. He seems to like the PVC hide I got for him! Fake plants but I have them up high because he tries to nibble on them.
 

CandyApple

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Hello everyone! It's been almost 10 months since my first post here. Kronos has gone from 43 grams to 152 and he's about a year old now. For a while it felt like he didn't seem to be growing at all and now all of the sudden I can really tell how much bigger he's actually gotten. It seems so slow to me, which I know is probably a good thing, but people always say how they get big so fast!

He's still in his indoor enclosure. Today we went outside in the yard for awhile because the high is 67 but it's supposed to snow tomorrow so it will be a while I think before it's warm enough for him to be out more. I'd really like to work on a small outdoor pen for him for this summer and think about doing a larger fancier one next year.

20200404_174513.jpg20200403_135118.jpg
 

Srmcclure

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Hello everyone! It's been almost 10 months since my first post here. Kronos has gone from 43 grams to 152 and he's about a year old now. For a while it felt like he didn't seem to be growing at all and now all of the sudden I can really tell how much bigger he's actually gotten. It seems so slow to me, which I know is probably a good thing, but people always say how they get big so fast!

He's still in his indoor enclosure. Today we went outside in the yard for awhile because the high is 67 but it's supposed to snow tomorrow so it will be a while I think before it's warm enough for him to be out more. I'd really like to work on a small outdoor pen for him for this summer and think about doing a larger fancier one next year.

View attachment 290526View attachment 290527
Omg hes so stinking cute!! I love how he's peeking at you ?
 

CandyApple

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He's not quite a year and a half yet but today he weighed in at 211 grams. I'm trying to keep this thread updated occasionally so it's easy for me to go back and see his growth.20200912_112654.jpg20200912_112651.jpg
 

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