GurusCompanion
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 29, 2016
- Messages
- 9
Hey everyone,
I am a first time companion and best friend to an amazing Leopard tortoise. His name is Guru. I live in Boston for now, and fortunately due to my career and my youth I can relocate fairly easily and am saving to up and leave to the San Diego area within the coming year. But for the moment we have to deal with undesirable weather conditions and so I have created a living eco-system for little Guru.
The actual enclosure is 6ftx2ftx2ft. The bottom of the home is organic untreated unfertilized soil, planted with organic blue grass, some areas are sprouting mustard greens, kale, arugula, violas, and echinacea.
I have sort of created a two sided habitat:
On the left we have the basking side, more of a desert decorated area, with a hollowed log with sphagnum moss, a spider plant which he loves hiding and sleeping under, some taller jade succulent plants which he'll occasionally nibble on, a himalayan salt lamp to help purify the negative ions from the lamps and some wheat grass and a cluster of smaller jade plants and a larger succulent that sprouted a flower. This side has his basking light as well as the custom made "fogger" from a humidifier and vinyl piping. The day time temps range from 90-97 and humidity I try to keep 70-85%. His nighttime temps are around 75-80 and humidity around the same.
On the right we have a lush rainforest tropical oasis area, this includes a larger spider plant which he loves hiding under as well, sphagnum moss strewn throughout, a mound of wheatgrass, a log, a prayer plant, a terracotta dish refilled daily with pure filtered water, a slate rock which I feed (adding D3 and calcium), some fun rocks, a coconut, a non toxic money tree (even though confirmed non toxic it is completely out of his reach and just filters air and adds to scenery for him and filters shade) The Temps are slightly cooler by a 1 or 2 degrees over here but a tad bit more humid. This side features two spot lamps with plant lights which he loves and the plants love as well.
The enclosure has a 3 foot strip fluorescent bulb mounted to the ceiling more on the left side providing light and vitamin d3 but I still give him supplements as there is no way he is getting his required amounts from this light.
The front of the enclosure is two sliding plexiglass doors, there are 3 larger ventilation holes in the enclosure and I frequently open the doors to refresh the air.
I know that my climate is not the most ideal for this wonderful amazing creature, but I would love to hear any feedback. I have been reading all of these posts and read a few books!
I bathe him daily as well and try to give hime a varied diet.
Thank you all
-Jeffrey
I am a first time companion and best friend to an amazing Leopard tortoise. His name is Guru. I live in Boston for now, and fortunately due to my career and my youth I can relocate fairly easily and am saving to up and leave to the San Diego area within the coming year. But for the moment we have to deal with undesirable weather conditions and so I have created a living eco-system for little Guru.
The actual enclosure is 6ftx2ftx2ft. The bottom of the home is organic untreated unfertilized soil, planted with organic blue grass, some areas are sprouting mustard greens, kale, arugula, violas, and echinacea.
I have sort of created a two sided habitat:
On the left we have the basking side, more of a desert decorated area, with a hollowed log with sphagnum moss, a spider plant which he loves hiding and sleeping under, some taller jade succulent plants which he'll occasionally nibble on, a himalayan salt lamp to help purify the negative ions from the lamps and some wheat grass and a cluster of smaller jade plants and a larger succulent that sprouted a flower. This side has his basking light as well as the custom made "fogger" from a humidifier and vinyl piping. The day time temps range from 90-97 and humidity I try to keep 70-85%. His nighttime temps are around 75-80 and humidity around the same.
On the right we have a lush rainforest tropical oasis area, this includes a larger spider plant which he loves hiding under as well, sphagnum moss strewn throughout, a mound of wheatgrass, a log, a prayer plant, a terracotta dish refilled daily with pure filtered water, a slate rock which I feed (adding D3 and calcium), some fun rocks, a coconut, a non toxic money tree (even though confirmed non toxic it is completely out of his reach and just filters air and adds to scenery for him and filters shade) The Temps are slightly cooler by a 1 or 2 degrees over here but a tad bit more humid. This side features two spot lamps with plant lights which he loves and the plants love as well.
The enclosure has a 3 foot strip fluorescent bulb mounted to the ceiling more on the left side providing light and vitamin d3 but I still give him supplements as there is no way he is getting his required amounts from this light.
The front of the enclosure is two sliding plexiglass doors, there are 3 larger ventilation holes in the enclosure and I frequently open the doors to refresh the air.
I know that my climate is not the most ideal for this wonderful amazing creature, but I would love to hear any feedback. I have been reading all of these posts and read a few books!
I bathe him daily as well and try to give hime a varied diet.
Thank you all
-Jeffrey
