I got my 2-month-old Hermann's tortoise literally yesterday. I Named him Hulu (after the streaming service).
I woke up at 8:am and gave him a 15-20 minute bath, changed his water dish, and then gave him food for the day. Then after he ate, I misted him and the substrate with water from my spray bottle. I especially spayed the substrate underneath the log hide because I wanted to create a moist hide, but he hasn’t really gone in there yet.
He ate for a long time, but then Hulu went to a specific corner near the entrance of the log and went to sleep. I'm concerned that he’s sleeping there because he finds the other area too cold, but at the same time I also understand that he’s a baby, and baby tortoises sleep a lot. As mentioned earlier, this is the first time I’ve ever had a reptile for a pet, so I just want to know that I’m doing everything correctly and that Hulu is acting the way he should be. When I pick him up to check on him, he seems normal. After putting him in his water dish, he’ll just go straight to his food, and then back to the basking area. He literally buried himself in the substrate on the cool side last night and slept there all night, so I’m also wondering if he finds it too cool or moist to sleep there now, or maybe he’s just sleeping in the basking area in order to absorb his UVB and uva, and I’m just overreacting because I’m a brand new tortoise owner. Also, I would like to know what temps should I turn on the ceramic heater emitter. Another question I had was should I keep his food out underneath the Mercury vapor bulb all day, it dries out fast, but he seems to still enjoy it regardless.
• His enclosure is a zoomed tortoise house
• The substrate I use for my enclosure is cypress mulch and jungle mix (fir and sphagnum moss blended together)
• Cool side: 77 degrees with humidity in the ’80s
• Basking area: 89-90 degrees (and still rising) with humidity in the ’50s (currently 54%)
• I use a zoo-med combo dual deep dome for my bulbs
• On one socket I use an 80-watt mercury vapor bulb for basking and heat.
• On the other socket I use a ceramic heat emitter (it’s not plugged in yet, but I have it in the lamp just in case the temperature in my room get too cool)
• The lamp is 11 and half-12 inches away from him as the height range for the bulb as instructed in the manual was 6-16 inches for tortoises.
I woke up at 8:am and gave him a 15-20 minute bath, changed his water dish, and then gave him food for the day. Then after he ate, I misted him and the substrate with water from my spray bottle. I especially spayed the substrate underneath the log hide because I wanted to create a moist hide, but he hasn’t really gone in there yet.
He ate for a long time, but then Hulu went to a specific corner near the entrance of the log and went to sleep. I'm concerned that he’s sleeping there because he finds the other area too cold, but at the same time I also understand that he’s a baby, and baby tortoises sleep a lot. As mentioned earlier, this is the first time I’ve ever had a reptile for a pet, so I just want to know that I’m doing everything correctly and that Hulu is acting the way he should be. When I pick him up to check on him, he seems normal. After putting him in his water dish, he’ll just go straight to his food, and then back to the basking area. He literally buried himself in the substrate on the cool side last night and slept there all night, so I’m also wondering if he finds it too cool or moist to sleep there now, or maybe he’s just sleeping in the basking area in order to absorb his UVB and uva, and I’m just overreacting because I’m a brand new tortoise owner. Also, I would like to know what temps should I turn on the ceramic heater emitter. Another question I had was should I keep his food out underneath the Mercury vapor bulb all day, it dries out fast, but he seems to still enjoy it regardless.
• His enclosure is a zoomed tortoise house
• The substrate I use for my enclosure is cypress mulch and jungle mix (fir and sphagnum moss blended together)
• Cool side: 77 degrees with humidity in the ’80s
• Basking area: 89-90 degrees (and still rising) with humidity in the ’50s (currently 54%)
• I use a zoo-med combo dual deep dome for my bulbs
• On one socket I use an 80-watt mercury vapor bulb for basking and heat.
• On the other socket I use a ceramic heat emitter (it’s not plugged in yet, but I have it in the lamp just in case the temperature in my room get too cool)
• The lamp is 11 and half-12 inches away from him as the height range for the bulb as instructed in the manual was 6-16 inches for tortoises.