Hi from the Ozarks

[ispringle]

Afternoon. We live in the Mark Twain National Forest, on a dairy farm. In addition to breeding and milking Jerseys we also own horses, hogs, chickens, rabbits, turtles, lizards, snakes, and I know I am missing something or another; it's a regular redneck menagerie here.

Owning a dairy means I have lots of milk, manure, and high quality grass/hay. I am mostly interested in finding a grass eating species (that is not a sulcata) "for" my son (it'll live in our school room with most of the other reptiles). I took care of a red foot for my sister for a number of years and while we enjoy him, I did not enjoy the environmental requirements that came with him. We heat with wood, so during the winter humidity is hard to come by. I manage to keep the snakes happy by providing shed/swamp boxes they can go in, but that isn't really as viable for turtles. Any ideas on good species that aren't going to rearrange my furniture, eat grass, and don't have high humidity requirements?

 

[Yvonne G]

Russian

 

[wellington]

Most if not all need high humidity as a hatchling upto about 2 or 3 years.
An adult Russian as Yvonne mentioned is probably your best bet. Adult humidity needed is 30 to 50%. But there isn't any that needs zero humidity. Also the Russian being small still needs a minimum of a 4x8 foot enclosure as an adult and should be housed outside during the warm months as any tortoise should be.
It can be brumated if you want during the winter months.

 

[ispringle]

Thanks y'all, 30-50% is doable! And my standard herp enclosure is approximately 4x8, so that shouldn't be a problem. I find it is easiest to just slap some sheets of plywood together, use a veneered piece for the outward facing piece with a nice stain to please the Mrs, and hit the inside with a few coats of cement sealer to give the wood some protection from water.

With a humidifier I can usually get it to keep a humidity of about 15-20% over the room's humidity, which isn't lower than about 15% (the room with our herps is the room with the wood stove).

 

[Lyn W]

There are lots of great caresheets in the species section, I would advise reading through those to see which best suits your circumstances.
Once you've found one they'll also help you set up everything it will need correctly which will save you wasting a lot of money on unsuitable and unsafe equipment that pet stores usually recommend.

 

[Tom]

Afternoon. We live in the Mark Twain National Forest, on a dairy farm. In addition to breeding and milking Jerseys we also own horses, hogs, chickens, rabbits, turtles, lizards, snakes, and I know I am missing something or another; it's a regular redneck menagerie here.

Owning a dairy means I have lots of milk, manure, and high quality grass/hay. I am mostly interested in finding a grass eating species (that is not a sulcata) "for" my son (it'll live in our school room with most of the other reptiles). I took care of a red foot for my sister for a number of years and while we enjoy him, I did not enjoy the environmental requirements that came with him. We heat with wood, so during the winter humidity is hard to come by. I manage to keep the snakes happy by providing shed/swamp boxes they can go in, but that isn't really as viable for turtles. Any ideas on good species that aren't going to rearrange my furniture, eat grass, and don't have high humidity requirements?

There is no tortoise species that meets these specs. Russians are not grass eaters. All the grass eaters are big. All babies of all species require high heat and high humidity.