Indoor Redfoot Housing Sizes

TheColossus

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Hello everyone!
I hope this is in the right section! :D

I have a trio of 8 month old Redfoot Tortoises whom I'm in the middle of building a 6' by 2' closed chamber habitat for (by modifying a couple of Zoo Med Tortoise Houses).

What I'm wondering is, until what approximate size will this area (12 sqft of floor space) be comfortable and spacious for them? 5"? 6"? Larger? They're all still small, I can easily hold two of them in the palm of one hand, and they have a shell length of maybe 2-3".

I'm not interested in minimum recommended sizes or anything like that, I think that's a terrible mentality. Heck, my hamster's cage has 12 sqft of floorspace (and he's about 2 1/2 now, but is extremely active, and is healthier than most young hamsters and could easily hit 4 at this rate), so I consider that proof right there that a large habitat is extremely beneficial.

If they continue to grow at normal rates, at what age do you think they should be upgraded again? I'd like for this habitat to hopefully last a while :3
 

marine778

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I'm not an expert on redfoots, but I do own one and 12 feet of floor space seems perfectly fine for a few juveniles. I'll let some of the RF experts confirm this though.
 

TheColossus

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marine778 said:
I'm not an expert on redfoots, but I do own one and 12 feet of floor space seems perfectly fine for a few juveniles. I'll let some of the RF experts confirm this though.

Thanks for telling me! :)
 

pfara

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I believe in Mike Pingleton's "The Redfoot Manual", he says a starter cement mixing tub (most likely 4'x2') can house a pair of reds for a few years. So, I think it's safe to say that 6'x2' will be fine for a little while.
 

DobbyRed

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Hi Im Andy from Puerto Rico and I have a 5" Redfoot and I build a 2'x5' wood habitat for dobby.
ImageUploadedByTortForum1392613475.473404.jpg
And as you can see from the photo she have plenty of space.
 
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TheColossus

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pfara said:
I believe in Mike Pingleton's "The Redfoot Manual", he says a starter cement mixing tub (most likely 4'x2') can house a pair of reds for a few years. So, I think it's safe to say that 6'x2' will be fine for a little while.

Thanks for the advice! 6' x 2' for three tortoises is the same size-per-tortoise ratio as 4' x 2' for two, so I think I (hopefully) they'll be comfortable in here for a few years! :D


DobbyRed said:
Hi Im Andy from Puerto Rico and I have a 5" Redfoot and I build a 2'x5' wood habitat for dobby.

And as you can see from the photo she have plenty of space.

Andy, your habitat looks very nice! It should keep your tortoise happy for a very long time :)

Your tortoise has a wonderfully smooth shell, too, no pyramiding at all.
 

DobbyRed

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Thanks! We took very good care of her!!
ImageUploadedByTortForum1392741440.970196.jpg
 
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TheColossus

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DobbyRed said:
Thanks! We took very good care of her!!

I hope my tortoises look like that when they get bigger! Well, I've already had to nickname one of my guys "lumpy" because his shell is pretty angular, but he was like that when I got him. hopefully his shell will smooth out when he's bigger.

May I ask how you keep the humidity up? I'd never be able to do that where I live, I can barely keep the humidity high with a top on the enclosure!
 

DobbyRed

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Thanks! With care and love for the little tort you will see how great they will look!

Well I live in Puerto Rico and is always humid here. I have cypress mulch as a substrate and wood bark at the end where she sleeps. I just spray some warm water into the substrate and the humidity goes over 90% in an instant. I spray it in the morning and in the evening. And the temp here without a lamp is always over 83-86F during the day and 72-75F during the night, so it helps a lot in her care.
 

TheColossus

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DobbyRed said:
Thanks! With care and love for the little tort you will see how great they will look!

Well I live in Puerto Rico and is always humid here. I have cypress mulch as a substrate and wood bark at the end where she sleeps. I just spray some warm water into the substrate and the humidity goes over 90% in an instant. I spray it in the morning and in the evening. And the temp here without a lamp is always over 83-86F during the day and 72-75F during the night, so it helps a lot in her care.

Wow, I wish it were that easy for me! I'm in Ohio and we had about -40 C weather (around the same temperature in F) with the wind chill some nights this winter, at times I had to run 3 heat lamps to keep the temperature up! I bet that Puerto Rican climate makes tortoise care a breeze.
 

DobbyRed

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My cousin lives in Ohio and he show me some pics of the snow storm and is pretty bad. Over here the temp is great for the care of RF. i hope you can find a way to reach the great temp and humidity for your torts. I cant give some of that help cause here doesnt snow.
 

TheColossus

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DobbyRed said:
My cousin lives in Ohio and he show me some pics of the snow storm and is pretty bad. Over here the temp is great for the care of RF. i hope you can find a way to reach the great temp and humidity for your torts. I cant give some of that help cause here doesnt snow.

The snowstorm here is very bad at the moment, it's funny because alongside parking lots the mounds of snow are a good 3 meters high where they've piled it all. It's terrible to try to get around in. I sure wish we could get some nicer weather over here!
 

TheColossus

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DobbyRed said:
My cousin lives in Ohio and he show me some pics of the snow storm and is pretty bad. Over here the temp is great for the care of RF. i hope you can find a way to reach the great temp and humidity for your torts. I cant give some of that help cause here doesnt snow.

The snowstorm here is very bad at the moment, it's funny because alongside parking lots the mounds of snow are a good 3 meters high where they've piled it all. It's terrible to try to get around in. I sure wish we could get some nicer weather over here!
 
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