Enclosure advice for a newbie tortoise minder!

[Galvin]

Hi Everyone

My son and I are newbie tortoise minders, with no previous experience, but really enjoying looking after our hermann......

I would be really grateful for any advice, or changes to make to his enclosure based on the vast experience of the people on this forum.

Attached are some pictures of the table that we have.
We have a flood basking lamp at one end that provides 95-97 degrees and just installed T5 12%uv tube that covers the full table.
The substrate is sterilized soil, but am open to advice on the best substrate to use....

Any other comments on his enclosure, or what to feed him, would be brilliant to receive....thanks everyone!!!

Thanks so much guys!!

 

[Cherryshell]

Welcome to the forums and congrats on your newest addition! Give this caresheet a read and don't be afraid to ask any follow up questions:

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...

www.tortoiseforum.org

 

[KarenSoCal]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

There are a few things that I see that need attention.

That thermometer that you are using is notoriously inaccurate. Far better is a digital thermometer/hygrometer combo with a probe, and records max high temp and min low temp. Then you can place the probe wherever you want to measure. In addition, a temp gun is extremely useful for checking temps at lots of places in the enclosure. You just point it at anything and it instantly shows the temp where the red dot is. (I just looked at the pics again and saw probes...are they thermometers or thermometer/hygrometer combos?)

Your tortoise would definitely enjoy a plant or 2 in there, but they do have to be safe for torts to nibble (or entirely gulp down! ) Pothos, spider plants, Boston ferns all do fairly well. You do need to find plants that have not been loaded with weed killers and bug killers, as all commercially sold plants are. Ask friends and relatives if they have plants without chemicals and take some cuttings. African violets are also tort safe.

We don't recommend soil as a substrate. If it was bought-in-a-bag soil, it may be sterile, but there is no way of knowing what the company used to make it. They could have ground up toxic plants. The manufacturer makes the soil for plants to be planted, not for an animal to live on.

Cypress mulch, coco coir, or fine grade orchid bark (fir bark) are all excellent substrates. For a baby, many keepers use coco coir tightly tamped down with your hands, with a layer of orchid bark on top. Any substrate you use needs to be well dampened with water...

Which brings us to the most major item...humidity. Your tort needs humidity to prevent pyramiding of his shell, and to help with keeping him well hydrated. The humidity in his enclosure needs to be 80% or above all the time. Along with the humidity, the lowest temp anywhere in the enclosure at any time should never drop below 80°F. It is impossible to achieve and maintain those levels with an open topped enclosure. You need to put a top on the enclosure, and the lights need to be inside the top. We have a couple different ways to help you do that, and can show you if you want. Or you may have your own ideas.

The only other item for now is that I don't see any night heat available. To keep it above 80° at night, you would use a ceramic heat emitter (CHE) on a thermostat. During the day the basking bulb might keep 80° throughout, but after the basking bulb goes off, the thermostat will turn on the CHE and maintain 80°.

The care sheet goes into more detail on this, so after you've read that and this post, come and ask questions. We can help you with links to proper equipment so you don't buy unneeded things.

Oh, there are a couple Ashbournes...are you in UK?

 

[Lyn W]

Hi and welcome,
In addition to Karen's recommendations I think your water dish is rather small, but difficult to tell without seeing it in relation to the size of your tort.
Most of use terracotta plant saucers sunk level with the substrate that the tort can access and exit easily to self soak if he wants.
The substrate looks sandy which isn't recommended as it is too dry and can irritate tort eyes, skin and nose and if eaten on food it can cause the gut to become impacted which is very painful and dangerous for torts.
The caresheet above will give you safer and more suitable options.
There's a lot of old an unsafe still advice being given on the internet and by pet stores whose priority is profit but you'll get lots of great up to date advice on this forum, so ask as many questions as you like.

 

[Galvin]

Welcome to the forums and congrats on your newest addition! Give this caresheet a read and don't be afraid to ask any follow up questions:

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...

www.tortoiseforum.org

Brilliant information Cherryshell - thank you for sending this on!

 

[Galvin]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

There are a few things that I see that need attention.

That thermometer that you are using is notoriously inaccurate. Far better is a digital thermometer/hygrometer combo with a probe, and records max high temp and min low temp. Then you can place the probe wherever you want to measure. In addition, a temp gun is extremely useful for checking temps at lots of places in the enclosure. You just point it at anything and it instantly shows the temp where the red dot is. (I just looked at the pics again and saw probes...are they thermometers or thermometer/hygrometer combos?)

Your tortoise would definitely enjoy a plant or 2 in there, but they do have to be safe for torts to nibble (or entirely gulp down! ) Pothos, spider plants, Boston ferns all do fairly well. You do need to find plants that have not been loaded with weed killers and bug killers, as all commercially sold plants are. Ask friends and relatives if they have plants without chemicals and take some cuttings. African violets are also tort safe.

We don't recommend soil as a substrate. If it was bought-in-a-bag soil, it may be sterile, but there is no way of knowing what the company used to make it. They could have ground up toxic plants. The manufacturer makes the soil for plants to be planted, not for an animal to live on.

Cypress mulch, coco coir, or fine grade orchid bark (fir bark) are all excellent substrates. For a baby, many keepers use coco coir tightly tamped down with your hands, with a layer of orchid bark on top. Any substrate you use needs to be well dampened with water...

Which brings us to the most major item...humidity. Your tort needs humidity to prevent pyramiding of his shell, and to help with keeping him well hydrated. The humidity in his enclosure needs to be 80% or above all the time. Along with the humidity, the lowest temp anywhere in the enclosure at any time should never drop below 80°F. It is impossible to achieve and maintain those levels with an open topped enclosure. You need to put a top on the enclosure, and the lights need to be inside the top. We have a couple different ways to help you do that, and can show you if you want. Or you may have your own ideas.

The only other item for now is that I don't see any night heat available. To keep it above 80° at night, you would use a ceramic heat emitter (CHE) on a thermostat. During the day the basking bulb might keep 80° throughout, but after the basking bulb goes off, the thermostat will turn on the CHE and maintain 80°.

The care sheet goes into more detail on this, so after you've read that and this post, come and ask questions. We can help you with links to proper equipment so you don't buy unneeded things.

Oh, there are a couple Ashbournes...are you in UK?

Hi KarenSoCal

Thank you so much for taking the time to send on so much useful information - really appreciate that!

I'll certainly look to change the substrate to one of those you suggest, as I had some concerns, after I looked through a number of other posts on the forum about using sand or soil.

I do have a digital thermometer as well, to check the temperatures in different areas of the table. But I dont have a hygrometer which i'll look into getting.

If you have any ideas on how to cover this type of tortoise table, I would be really interested in hearing those....I'm open to all ways of controlling humidity...
For night heat, I do have a heat mat installed behind glass panel in the covered part of the table.

I actually live in Ireland, in a town just north of Dublin called Ashbourne...so unfortunately we don't get much outdoor sunlight and temperatures suitable for our baby tort....but I am looking forward to bringing him outdoors during some of the summer days that get warm enough!!

Again, thank you so much for the information you sent on - it's really great to have such fantastic advice......

 

[Galvin]

Hi and welcome,
In addition to Karen's recommendations I think your water dish is rather small, but difficult to tell without seeing it in relation to the size of your tort.
Most of use terracotta plant saucers sunk level with the substrate that the tort can access and exit easily to self soak if he wants.
The substrate looks sandy which isn't recommended as it is too dry and can irritate tort eyes, skin and nose and if eaten on food it can cause the gut to become impacted which is very painful and dangerous for torts.
The caresheet above will give you safer and more suitable options.
There's a lot of old an unsafe still advice being given on the internet and by pet stores whose priority is profit but you'll get lots of great up to date advice on this forum, so ask as many questions as you like.

Hi Lyn W
You're absolutely right - the water dish I have is not big enough for our little buddie to have a self soak...
I do give him a soak each day, but I can definitely put a larger water bowl in there.....

Thanks so much for the reply - really appreciate it....

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Everyone

My son and I are newbie tortoise minders, with no previous experience, but really enjoying looking after our hermann......

I would be really grateful for any advice, or changes to make to his enclosure based on the vast experience of the people on this forum.

Attached are some pictures of the table that we have.
We have a flood basking lamp at one end that provides 95-97 degrees and just installed T5 12%uv tube that covers the full table.
The substrate is sterilized soil, but am open to advice on the best substrate to use....

Any other comments on his enclosure, or what to feed him, would be brilliant to receive....thanks everyone!!!

Thanks so much guys!!

View attachment 320040View attachment 320041View attachment 320042

Young tortoises very seldom go out into the wide open spaces. . . it's dangerous for them, as they are prey. Your tortoise would feel much more comfortable with a bunch of sight barriers well placed around inside his enclosure. . . plants in pots, a large rock or two, a ceramic figurine, etc.

 

[KarenSoCal]

After looking again, I see your heat mat. Is it on a thermostat so it doesn't run all night long?

Scenario: You have new substrate and have dampened it down to raise the humidity >80%. The heat mat is on... t'stat or not, and it gets pretty hot in the hide. So Shelly decides to move away from it, and goes around the corner out of the hide. There is no heat in the enclosure and the temp is cold. But he settles down and sleeps.

This is a perfect situation for Shelly to get sick. He is on damp substrate and too cold.
Damp + warm = happy tort
Damp + cold = respiratory
infection (RI)


You need a heat source at night so that even in the coldest part of the enclosure the temp is always >80°F. A CHE on a thermostat fits the bill.

For a cover, I think you have 2 choices.
1) I can't really tell how high the sides are above the substrate. If they are at least 20in, great. If they are shorter than 20in, you could add another few inches of height to them. You would not need to touch the hide area. Then you would cut a lid from either wood or plexiglas and mount lights etc under it.

2) You buy a portable greenhouse from Amazon. You need to search for 1 the proper size, but here's one on Amazon UK, and another in use. The greenhouse has a bar across the top that you hang your lights and CHE from.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B076HJH7ZB/?tag=