Just brought my new guy home yesterday.

[sarah w.]

Hello, I finally brought my red foot tortoise home yesterday. But I'm having some questions and concerns .

I'm in the process of building him an enclosure.
Currently for the time being, he's in a 75 gallon tank with half orchid bark and half jungle mix mixed with sphagnum moss. I have a mesh top on it currently. I have a 5.0 UVB florescent bulb, a daytime heat lamp and an infrared bulb on him. The tank won't heat up past 75. And the humidity won't stay past 70. I know they have to be in the 85 temps and 85% humidity. What can I do to keep this in?? ):

Also. He ate some greens last night but today he hasn't touched his veggies and he's hiding in his little hut .

I want to do everything right so please help.

 

[bryson white]

what kind of bulb do you have and humidity system

 

[Sara G.]

He's probably very stressed out for the time being. Since he just moved into the new tank and all. Torts get stressed over that, so don't worry about him hiding a lot and not wanting to eat all of the food you give him.

But I would get rid of the infrared bulb, red bulbs are not very good for torts. Kinda whacks out how they view the world....at least that's how I think of it.

What other sort of heat bulb are you using?
You already have a UVB bulb, though hopefully not a coil type bulb because those can cause damage to a tortoise's eyes. You can use a tube bulb or an MVB bulb (those provide both UVB and heat). But I'm not sure what wattage UVB bulb you would need for your tank and tort.
What sort of night heat do you use?
Ceramic heat emitters are pretty great for heat, night heat and ambient heat. They produce no light at all and you can find them pretty cheap on Amazon.

With a screen top over it the heat probably zips out of your tank really easily.
Plus, I noticed that when you have the lights placed on the screen top (instead of cutting a hole in the screen) not as much heat makes it to the bottom of the tank.

Hope that helps! And if you have anymore questions please ask!

 

[sarah w.]

I have a 5.0 florescent UVB strip, a 75w infrared and a 60w daytime light.

I don't have a humidity system. I was looking into those today, any recommendations?

 

[sarah w.]

Do you think I should ditch the orchid bark and just do an entire soil and moss mix?

 

[bryson white]

just get a pump sprayer or if you don't want to spend time spraying get a zoomed reptiRain

I have a 5.0 florescent UVB strip, a 75w infrared and a 60w daytime light.

I don't have a humidity system. I was looking into those today, any recommendations?

I have a 5.0 florescent UVB strip, a 75w infrared and a 60w daytime light.

I don't have a humidity system. I was looking into those today, any recommendations?

 

[Sara G.]

You're probably not going to be able to keep the humidity in your tank very well unless it's a closed chamber.
I know some members use a shower curtain to cover their tanks.
Others use a plastic wrap/tinfoil method.
But if you can build your own closed chamber, that winds up being very helpful because then you can make it however it needs to be.


Is the new enclosure you're building a closed chamber? Or did you mean outdoor enclosure? Either way, very exciting! New enclosures make me so happy.

If you can't get the heat up in your tank, I'd say get a higher watt bulb. Try a 100Watt day bulb instead of a 60 watt.

 

[bryson white]

Do you think I should ditch the orchid bark and just do an entire soil and moss mix?

I use eco earth and it works just fine mixed with organic potting mix

 

[Sara G.]

I think @Tom uses fine grade orchid bark and has great results with humidity levels.
But he has primarily closed chambers, if I'm correct in that assumption.

 

[sarah w.]

I've read up on the shower curtain idea and I'm thinking about doing that. I'm going to build one indoor enclosure and an outdoor so he can venture outside they'll be giant tortoise boxes lol.
I tried a 100w Ceramic heat emitter and the lamp I used tried to kill me and shot sparks out of my sockets lol so I'm frightened but I'll return the infrared and try again. I work at a pet store and have access to tons of stuff.

The whole cuttlebone thing...yay or nay? I've read mixed answers.

 

[sarah w.]

Do you think a plexiglass top could work?

 

[bryson white]

I use cuttlebones my tortoise likes them more because they can get calcium on there own

 

[wellington]

Get Che's for day and night heat. I would not use just moss it molds easy. Redfoots are prone to shell rot, so you need to get the humidity up to proper levels, but keep the top layer of substrate dry. Coconut Coir on the bottom with orchid bark on top would work for humidity while keep the bark dryer. To lift humidity, pour warm water into the corners, getting the bottom layer wet while trying to keep top dry. Cover the enclosure to help keep heat and humidity up.

 

[bryson white]

Do you think a plexiglass top could work?

plexiglass might work i have not tried it yet.

 

[Sara G.]

That's so scary with the CHE. I'd check the wattage on your dome/lamp to make sure it can handle a 100 watt anything before trying it again.
Odds are that's what happened. I think it's recommended to have ceramic sockets for them too, though that might just be MVB's.

I use cuttlebone. I'm not sure why anyone wouldn't recommend it. It's always nice to have in there just in case they want to munch on it. Helps keep their beaks trim too which is nice.
I know my two red eared sliders love the cuttlebone way more than my Forsten's Tort but she'll nibble on it from time to time.

If you don't want to do cuttlebone you can always sprinkle a little calcium powder on your tort's food. I think it's usually once or twice a week. You don't want to overdo it on the calcium.

 

[sarah w.]

okay I'll pick up a cuttlebone tomorrow!

Is coconut coir the same thing as cocosoft or whatever it's called? I picked up a bag of the jungle mix soil because it was recommended for high humidity reptiles. I tried to do a half and half environment for him. But I just want to make sure I do everything perfect lol

 

[wellington]

I think @Tom uses fine grade orchid bark and has great results with humidity levels.
But he has primarily closed chambers, if I'm correct in that assumption.

But he doesn't have RF. Not that it wouldn't work for them, but more care has to be taken with RF and wet substrate, as they are much more prone to get shell rot

 

[bryson white]

the eco earth coco coir and all of the coco things are basically the same things the jungle mix will work great

 

[sarah w.]

So do you think I could do bottom layer jungle
Mix and then orchid bark? Or do the half jungle mix and then the other half cocosoftwhatever and orchid bark?

 

[bryson white]

just mix them together that will work