Hey everyone! I've joined the forum one month ago, and had only vague ideas of what kind of tortoise I'd like to keep. Since then, I've decided I'll get pancakes, and as of yesterday I share my home with three of them: Áfonya (Blueberry), Lift, and Mormota (Marmot). The origin of these names:
Their enclosure is a 120 x 80 cm (approximately 4 x 2.7 feet) IKEA bookshelf that I've made (hopefully) waterproof with some plastic sheeting used to cover furniture and floor while painting the house. The sheet is attached with small pieces of water-resistant double sided adhesive tape, and sealed off with some insulation tape.
The substrate is 8 cm deep coco coir, and the rocky part is made of gneiss. I wanted granite (that is what kopjes are made of), but could not find any non-cut nearby.
The plants are all Aloe and Haworthia species, and they are still in their pots, because they wouldn't like the damp coco coir. According to www.thetortoisetable.org.uk Haworthias are safe to eat, but Aloe have some laxative effects. I hope they won't munch on them anyways, but if necessary, I'll replace them. The plants, I mean, not the tortoises I have also started growing some wheatgrass, which I plan to put in their enclosure once it's nice and green, so they can graze a bit.
They have a basking bulb, a T5HO UVB lamp, and some 6500K and red (620nm) LEDs (ZooMed LED/UVB Terrarium Hood). I made some modifications to the ZooMed lamp, so the lights can be controlled from a Raspberry Pi via a program I wrote. The program can act as a thermometer, a timer, and also records various kind of sensor data (right now it measures temperature and humidity on two different spots, but I also have some UVI sensors I haven't solder yet). I plan to write another post about the technical details, and I will also open source the software probably next week.
All three of them are from a local breeder. The smallest one is almost 1 year old, the other two are almost 2. I've been told that they probably will hide in the crevices for the first one or two days, and they won't even come out to eat, but Lift started exploring right after I put them in their new home. Áfonya joined her soon, and they even started munching on the Haworthias, so I went to the grocery store for some greens. By the time I got back, Mormota also came out of the shelter (btw, he choose the wood cavity instead of rock crevices), and all three ate. Áfonya and Lift accepted food from hand, but Mormota was a bit shy. They all pulled a T-Rex this morning (I mean they were a no-show), and right now I'm at work. I hope they are all right.
- Blueberry is my favourite kind of pancake
- Lift (A.K.A Her Pancakeness) is one of my favourite Brandon Sanderson character who happens to *love* pancake
- Marmot. She seems to sleep a lot, like a marmot. Also, all my softshell jackets are of the brand Marmot, and well, pancakes have soft shells.
Their enclosure is a 120 x 80 cm (approximately 4 x 2.7 feet) IKEA bookshelf that I've made (hopefully) waterproof with some plastic sheeting used to cover furniture and floor while painting the house. The sheet is attached with small pieces of water-resistant double sided adhesive tape, and sealed off with some insulation tape.
The substrate is 8 cm deep coco coir, and the rocky part is made of gneiss. I wanted granite (that is what kopjes are made of), but could not find any non-cut nearby.
The plants are all Aloe and Haworthia species, and they are still in their pots, because they wouldn't like the damp coco coir. According to www.thetortoisetable.org.uk Haworthias are safe to eat, but Aloe have some laxative effects. I hope they won't munch on them anyways, but if necessary, I'll replace them. The plants, I mean, not the tortoises I have also started growing some wheatgrass, which I plan to put in their enclosure once it's nice and green, so they can graze a bit.
They have a basking bulb, a T5HO UVB lamp, and some 6500K and red (620nm) LEDs (ZooMed LED/UVB Terrarium Hood). I made some modifications to the ZooMed lamp, so the lights can be controlled from a Raspberry Pi via a program I wrote. The program can act as a thermometer, a timer, and also records various kind of sensor data (right now it measures temperature and humidity on two different spots, but I also have some UVI sensors I haven't solder yet). I plan to write another post about the technical details, and I will also open source the software probably next week.
All three of them are from a local breeder. The smallest one is almost 1 year old, the other two are almost 2. I've been told that they probably will hide in the crevices for the first one or two days, and they won't even come out to eat, but Lift started exploring right after I put them in their new home. Áfonya joined her soon, and they even started munching on the Haworthias, so I went to the grocery store for some greens. By the time I got back, Mormota also came out of the shelter (btw, he choose the wood cavity instead of rock crevices), and all three ate. Áfonya and Lift accepted food from hand, but Mormota was a bit shy. They all pulled a T-Rex this morning (I mean they were a no-show), and right now I'm at work. I hope they are all right.