Hi, just thought I'd introduce myself! I am new to the forums and new to being a tortoise keeper!
My name is Kyle Bowser, I live on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. I absolutely love animals of all kinds, and I love learning about them and how to give them the best care possible. If it were practical I would have a job involving animals. I wish. Instead I sell cell phones.
I am married to my best friend. We have quite an awesome family. We have a daughter going on 4. 2 rescue dogs, 4 cats, 16 chickens, 4 fancy goldfish, and our newest edition Koopa the Russian tortoise.
Koopa was owned by an acquaintance of mine for the last 4 years. She was purchased originally at petsmart, so I really have no idea how old she is. She was a little girls pet. I knew nothing about torts so before I agreed to take her in, I did a lot of research. When I picked her up I asked the owner if her bulb provided uvb. She had no clue. Yikes. She has also been fed mainly pellets. She seems healthy enough but has some pitting in her shell so I suspect mdb. The first thing I did was switch out her petsmart basking bulb for one that provides uvb as well as heat. I have been feeding her dandelion greens, spring mix salad, all organic, and I grew her a mix of grasses. I let her eat as much of the salad as she can in 20 mins. I planted the grass in her new pennplax tortoise Palace, she nibbles occasionally but doesn't seem to be overeating.
She has been living in a tiny box for 4 years, but is really enjoying her new Palace. Queen Koopa. Lol so I have a shallow dish of water for her, hills, rocks, hide outs, and a sandy basking area that's about 93 degrees. The rest of the substrate is a 50/50 sand coir mix. Deep enough for her to dig and burrow. I have also been soaking her for about 10 minutes twice a week.
I have been calling her a she, but I really don't know. They told me male, but the tail is pretty short and usually not tucked to the side. Under the tail it looks more like * than l. She is pretty small (still haven't measured) but maybe 5".
I plan on building her an outdoor enclosure for the summer.
If anyone has advice for me or if you think I am doing something wrong, or could be doing something better please let me know! Thanks for reading!
Kyle [/font]
My name is Kyle Bowser, I live on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. I absolutely love animals of all kinds, and I love learning about them and how to give them the best care possible. If it were practical I would have a job involving animals. I wish. Instead I sell cell phones.
I am married to my best friend. We have quite an awesome family. We have a daughter going on 4. 2 rescue dogs, 4 cats, 16 chickens, 4 fancy goldfish, and our newest edition Koopa the Russian tortoise.
Koopa was owned by an acquaintance of mine for the last 4 years. She was purchased originally at petsmart, so I really have no idea how old she is. She was a little girls pet. I knew nothing about torts so before I agreed to take her in, I did a lot of research. When I picked her up I asked the owner if her bulb provided uvb. She had no clue. Yikes. She has also been fed mainly pellets. She seems healthy enough but has some pitting in her shell so I suspect mdb. The first thing I did was switch out her petsmart basking bulb for one that provides uvb as well as heat. I have been feeding her dandelion greens, spring mix salad, all organic, and I grew her a mix of grasses. I let her eat as much of the salad as she can in 20 mins. I planted the grass in her new pennplax tortoise Palace, she nibbles occasionally but doesn't seem to be overeating.
She has been living in a tiny box for 4 years, but is really enjoying her new Palace. Queen Koopa. Lol so I have a shallow dish of water for her, hills, rocks, hide outs, and a sandy basking area that's about 93 degrees. The rest of the substrate is a 50/50 sand coir mix. Deep enough for her to dig and burrow. I have also been soaking her for about 10 minutes twice a week.
I have been calling her a she, but I really don't know. They told me male, but the tail is pretty short and usually not tucked to the side. Under the tail it looks more like * than l. She is pretty small (still haven't measured) but maybe 5".
I plan on building her an outdoor enclosure for the summer.
If anyone has advice for me or if you think I am doing something wrong, or could be doing something better please let me know! Thanks for reading!
Kyle [/font]
sounds like Koopa has found herself a great home. Glad you decided to join us. The only thing I want to make sure of is that the UVB bulb you got is not one of the coil kind. They have been known to cause eye problems. Other then that, sounds like a great home.
