I am a first time tortoise owner who lives in NC. I got my tortoise Franklin around the beginning of August and I already love him like I've had him for years!!! At this point in time you could say that I'm only kind of new to the forum because I made another post with a question I had before coming here, but I'm here now!
Franklin's is a 3 month old Golden Greek tortoise hatchling with a big personality. I remember around the time that I first got him, I was a little late with his feeding once and so when I got to his enclosure, he had left a little poop in there. I try and soak him everyday, the gap being no more than every other day. He poops and pees regularly and he is a hefty eater. I think the biggest thing with franklin (aside from his personality) is the fact that he still has his little "belly button," but I don't think that's a cause for concern. Franklin's favorite food is escarole, but he also really enjoys romaine lettuce, cilantro, carrots (sometimes), and radish greens. I also feed him zoomed grassland tortoise food occasionally and twice a week I sprinkle whatever he is eating with Reptivite to make sure he gets all his vitamins. Right now I cant really plant much and all my grass is dead, but once we get back into the warmer months, there will be more variety to his diet. For right now he lives in a large bin. His warm side stays around 85, his cool side stays around 77, his basking temp is 95, his night temp is 75, and the humidity stays between 50 and 61 during the day and raises to maybe 70 at night. I know the humidity has kind of a large gap between the percentages, but right now in NC, the morning and early afternoon is cool and then it gets warmer around the middle of the day so his substrate starts to dry out a bit; but the majority of the time, I would say that the average is 55. For now his substrate is organic soil, but within the next day or two I plan on getting some cypress mulch to use instead. I was originally using cypress mulch as his substrate, but I made the mistake of leaving it outside, so when it was time to change his substrate there were all kinds of bugs in it and I wasn't trying to deal with that. As far as lighting and heating goes, I use a Zilla T8 18in strip light for UVB and I use a ceramic heat emitter for heat. That's pretty much everything there is to know about Franklin and his enclosure. If you have any questions be sure to let me know!
Franklin's is a 3 month old Golden Greek tortoise hatchling with a big personality. I remember around the time that I first got him, I was a little late with his feeding once and so when I got to his enclosure, he had left a little poop in there. I try and soak him everyday, the gap being no more than every other day. He poops and pees regularly and he is a hefty eater. I think the biggest thing with franklin (aside from his personality) is the fact that he still has his little "belly button," but I don't think that's a cause for concern. Franklin's favorite food is escarole, but he also really enjoys romaine lettuce, cilantro, carrots (sometimes), and radish greens. I also feed him zoomed grassland tortoise food occasionally and twice a week I sprinkle whatever he is eating with Reptivite to make sure he gets all his vitamins. Right now I cant really plant much and all my grass is dead, but once we get back into the warmer months, there will be more variety to his diet. For right now he lives in a large bin. His warm side stays around 85, his cool side stays around 77, his basking temp is 95, his night temp is 75, and the humidity stays between 50 and 61 during the day and raises to maybe 70 at night. I know the humidity has kind of a large gap between the percentages, but right now in NC, the morning and early afternoon is cool and then it gets warmer around the middle of the day so his substrate starts to dry out a bit; but the majority of the time, I would say that the average is 55. For now his substrate is organic soil, but within the next day or two I plan on getting some cypress mulch to use instead. I was originally using cypress mulch as his substrate, but I made the mistake of leaving it outside, so when it was time to change his substrate there were all kinds of bugs in it and I wasn't trying to deal with that. As far as lighting and heating goes, I use a Zilla T8 18in strip light for UVB and I use a ceramic heat emitter for heat. That's pretty much everything there is to know about Franklin and his enclosure. If you have any questions be sure to let me know!
I also wonder about his "belly button"? At three months?
