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- Jul 8, 2017
- Messages
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- Low desert 50 mi SE of Palm Springs CA
Hi! Welcome to the forum!
Kenji is very cute! But all of us on the forum think they are all cute!
Did you get Kenji recently? Did he come from a pet store?
Tortoises aren't really looking for 'fun'. They seem to enjoy basking, walking, eating, and sleeping. I think they like exploring too, but that's probably just looking for food. If you want him to have fun, put some rocks or logs in his enclosure to climb on. He would like a plant to hide under...pothos or spider plants work well. If you decide to get plants, come on here and ask us for instructions before you put them into the enclosure. If you can get cuttings from someone who uses no chemicals, that's the best. Or get seeds and grow from them.
What is he eating in the picture? It looks like fruit, but Kenji should not be eating fruit. It will mess up his digestive system, since torts cannot process the sugars in the fruit.
Here is a good care sheet for him, along with info on heating/lighting. Please read it carefully, and come back with any questions.
www.tortoiseforum.org
4 elements of heating: By Tom
There are four elements to heating and lighting:
Basking bulb. I use 65 watt floods from the hardware store. I run them on a timer and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb.
Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT.
Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish.
UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html
Kenji is very cute! But all of us on the forum think they are all cute!
Did you get Kenji recently? Did he come from a pet store?
Tortoises aren't really looking for 'fun'. They seem to enjoy basking, walking, eating, and sleeping. I think they like exploring too, but that's probably just looking for food. If you want him to have fun, put some rocks or logs in his enclosure to climb on. He would like a plant to hide under...pothos or spider plants work well. If you decide to get plants, come on here and ask us for instructions before you put them into the enclosure. If you can get cuttings from someone who uses no chemicals, that's the best. Or get seeds and grow from them.
What is he eating in the picture? It looks like fruit, but Kenji should not be eating fruit. It will mess up his digestive system, since torts cannot process the sugars in the fruit.
Here is a good care sheet for him, along with info on heating/lighting. Please read it carefully, and come back with any questions.
The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise
I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...
www.tortoiseforum.org
4 elements of heating: By Tom
There are four elements to heating and lighting:
Basking bulb. I use 65 watt floods from the hardware store. I run them on a timer and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb.
Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT.
Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish.
UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html
He is such a cutie!
SasquatchTortoise
Active Member
Remember: fruit only every now and then. For "fun", you could provide visual interest. My sulcata has a fascination with metallic things or white colored things (well, tries to eat them)
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