new baby redfoot- a few questions

[Inthevalley]

I received my redfoot (who hatched in April) yesterday in the mail...she is so beautiful! I have a few questions about helping her adjust to her new home. I was at work when she was delivered so my sister in law received her for me and soaked her in water and placed her on some lettuce (i dont think she ate anything).

I brought her to her home and she explored for a little bit until she finally buried herself under some moss and stayed buried for about 20 hours. I just got home from work and pulled her out to soak her so she didn't get too dried out...I wasn't wanting to mess with her until she felt safe enough to come back out, but she stayed in her water for a bit and is now eating for the first time!!

One of my questions is how often should I handle her, or how long should I let her be if she goes into hiding during this transition?

Also I've noticed that she will bulge her neck in and out quite a bit...(kind of looks like heavy breathing or what a frog does)...is this normal behavior or is it anxiousness or what? I just want to make sure she's ok!

Once I get my new lights in the mail I want to post a photo of her enclosure to make sure it looks good!

 

[wellington]

Hello and Welcome. The puffing is normal. I would take her out everyday to soak her and then place her by the food. If she decides to go hide again, then let her be until the next day. Be sure all temps and humidity is correct for her.

 

[mainey34]

Are your temps and humidity where they need to be?

 

[Inthevalley]

They are not at this point. I have a UVB light on, but the one I was given isn't the right kind (it's coil) and it doesn't put off barely any heat. I have a PowerSun bulb that should be here tomorrow or Friday, but I have a ceramic heat emitter that should be arriving any minute now (scheduled for delivery today and last I checked it's in my town so really any minute now). The heat emitter is mostly for night time, since I live where it gets pretty chilly at night in the summer, and is winter most of the year...but until the powersun bulb gets here i can use the heat emitter with the uvb i have now to provide her with some warmth.

So the puffing is normal? It doesn't mean that she's scared or anything? My parents have an adult tortoise that we've had since I was little and i've never seen it do that.

Are your temps and humidity where they need to be?

 

[wellington]

You will mainly see young ones do it, not too worry. They do seem to do it less when they get more accustomed to you and their surroundings.

 

[pfara]

To answer your handling question.. there's honestly no definite answer. Some people like to handle them daily to have them get used to it and some people only handle them when the need arises (soaking, putting them outside for some sunshine). Since you just got him, I'd say to leave him alone except to soak for a week or two. This is only so the little guy gets used to his new surroundings and de-stresses. After that, you should be able to pick which path you wanna take.

 

[mainey34]

So, i would not use the coil bulb at all. Did your other one come in? If not use just a plain house hold light a 60w will do for now. The coil one will damage his eyes...you do not know the temp or humidity?? I would suggest purchasing something soon. You need to regulate them. This is very important. What size enclosure do you have? And what watt che did you get?

 

[Inthevalley]

Thanks everyone! Still trying to figure things out as I'm a new tort owner

The ceramic heat emitter came in today, so I got that all set up and situated, as well as a thermostat to regulate the heat for that. So it is definitely warmer in there. I got it up to 90 degrees earlier but for nighttime its down to around 75. That's what the breeder I got her from recommended, is that correct?

I forgot to mention before that I do have a heat and humidity gauge, and have been able to keep the humidity in the 70-90 percent range, sometimes it drops lower if I have the windows open and the fan going in the room (I live in high altitude so the air is pretty dry here), but have been able to check on it a lot and spray it down, as well as having a humidifier next to her enclosure to help when I'm at work and not able to keep an eye on it when I'm gone for a big chunk of the day and today when I got home the humidity stayed at 60-70 percent. And like I mentioned today she did soak for a little while and ate a good amount of romaine so that's a good sign! What is a good percentage to try to stay at for humidity?

The powersun bulb should get here tomorrow hopefully, but if not it should be here by friday. I'll put a normal bulb in there for the meantime. Would a coil bulb hurt their eyes after just a few days of use?

The CHE is 100 watt and so is the powersun I believe. Her enclosure for now is an underbed storage container, my brother is going to make me a larger wooden turtle box but I won't get that for several months. She's still pretty tiny now so I'm not too worried about it.

Here's a picture of her enclosure, as well as one I took if her earlier (she's buried under the moss right now).

So, i would not use the coil bulb at all. Did your other one come in? If not use just a plain house hold light a 60w will do for now. The coil one will damage his eyes...you do not know the temp or humidity?? I would suggest purchasing something soon. You need to regulate them. This is very important. What size enclosure do you have? And what watt che did you get?

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oh and here she is...

 

[abclements]

She's very colorful!! I would aim for 70% minimum all the time! Her enclosure is ok size wise for now, but she will rapidly outgrow it, like in less than 6 months it will probably be too small. 75 degrees at night might be just a little low. I try to not let my temps drop lower than 80 at any time. The best way to get good stable humidity is to completely cover your enclosure in plexiglass or something to trap the humidity. We call these closed chambers and are very effective for raising happy, healthy and smooth red foots! Even covering 75% of your enclosure would do wonders to raise and stabilize your humidity readings. Also bury that pot hide a little so she has some substrate to dig into inside of the pot! Hope this helps! Congrats on the beautiful baby!

 

[FLINTUS]

Yes, 75 is a little low for a new baby but fine once settled, you should be going for mid to high 70s really, about 77. Ambient temps should be somewhere in the middle of 80-85 in day, basking spot should be around 90. Do remember however, in the wild these guys would often have quite low temps early morning and at night, but when babies they dig down and will get extra moisture and heat.

 

[Inthevalley]

Thanks for the input! That's helpful!

How do you work out the lighting with a cover on top of the enclosure? I've seen some enclosures with the lights sitting on a screen but I'm guessing it'd be pretty hard to really control the temps that way since you aren't able to move the light higher and lower.

 

[abclements]

That is the one problem with a closed chamber. You can't raise and lower heat sources unless you create a very tall one. Setting heat sources on screens is fine but screens typically filter out a lot of uvb so be careful about that. For your case, I would cover the half to 3/4 of your enclosure that doesn't have the light and heat over it and see if that works better for now.

 

[Inthevalley]

Ok thanks ill try that...and the side that doesn't have the basking light should be dry all the time right?

 

[abclements]

As long as you maintain 77+ everywhere, I wouldn't even worry about a dry side and a wet side. I just slightly tip my enclosure so more moisture goes toward the heat lamp, but then I add water equally to both sides. The key is damp not wet, warm temps and high humidity. Red foots aren't like other torts where they need a highly variable temperatures in their enclosures. A simple 5-10 degree shift is all they need from basking spot to cool side. Some keepers on here (myself included) just have an overall temp of mid to low 80s. I tried to have a basking spot and Franklin wouldn't even go near it, so that's why I switched to an overall temp.

 

[Inthevalley]

Ok another question (thanks for helping me out I feel like I just need a tortoise mentor!)...

She has crawled out of hiding today after work, got my powersun bulb in and it's heated up well, covered half the enclosure and its helping a little bit w keeping the humidity in...only thing now is when the light is on, and even now a little bit while I turned it off, she is trying to crawl up the side of her enclosure...could this be coz she sees a reflection and is trying to get out? I spray painted the bottom side so it wouldn't be see through.

 

[abclements]

Haha I think we all need a tortoise mentor lol mines JD! And trust me I went through the exact same problems, I'm just 8 or 9 months of hard research, experimenting and question asking ahead of you! The wall climbing, is most likely due to the enclosure being new and uncomfortable for her. Mine just hid all the time and was afraid to explore. Give her a couple days and she should settle down. If she doesn't, it could be too bright. Red foots aren't forest dwellers like some say, they are edge dwellers between forest and grassland, but younger red foots do like a lower level of light and a mvb can sometimes over do it a little for them. They aren't sun worshipers like we think they are, thay like hiding in the shadows where they are safest, so try to break up the light with some live or fake plants that she can go hide under and poke her head out from. Mine loves creepin on me from underneath plants and at the edge of the entrance of his hides! If this doesn't do it, she may need more space... this is where you can get creative and work on making a closed chamber that can contain all the lights and heat sources inside of it. I used a coffee table, some people convert bookshelves... etc it's a lot of fun tweaking things to get them perfect for your tort!

Sorry for the flood of info! Keep asking questions and all of us are glad to help! Remember, temps 80+ and humidity 75%+ and youll have a happy, healthy smooth tort!

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Also, no matter what, you should get some plants for her. It helps keep humidity high, provides a little snack and makes her feel safer.

 

[FLINTUS]

As long as you maintain 77+ everywhere, I wouldn't even worry about a dry side and a wet side. I just slightly tip my enclosure so more moisture goes toward the heat lamp, but then I add water equally to both sides. The key is damp not wet, warm temps and high humidity. Red foots aren't like other torts where they need a highly variable temperatures in their enclosures. A simple 5-10 degree shift is all they need from basking spot to cool side. Some keepers on here (myself included) just have an overall temp of mid to low 80s. I tried to have a basking spot and Franklin wouldn't even go near it, so that's why I switched to an overall temp.

Reds are very variable in their range and temperature preferences. Some like basking and some don't. I use a similar method to you for my erosa hinges, who have an ambient temp of about 75 and no hot spot or UV.

 

[Inthevalley]

Thanks for the overload of info it's helpful to try to figure all this out! Would you mind posting a photo of your enclosure out of a bookshelf? I'm interested to see!

Well see how the next week goes with the climbing, I was thankful that she came out on her own when I put some watermelon in there and ate a lot and was pretty active for a couple hours!

I've been getting the temps to stay where they're supposed to (90 in the baking spot and 80ish ambient and at night time with the CHE)... But I'm still having some issues with humidity. I covered half the enclosure and that does seem to help a little bit but we live on the 3rd floor and in a mountain town at high elevation so the air is dry, so since it gets warm in our apt we have windows open and fans going a lot during the summer...and it seems sooo hard to keep the humidity up to even 70 even after getting it really wet in there, the gauge doesn't go up very much (it's been around 50-60 and sometimes 70-80 bit rarely)...and overnight it was a little better when all the widows were closed it was mid 60s this morning by as soon as I turned the power sun bulb on it immediately evaporates a lot of moisture and the gauge goes down again. I'm not sure what to do until I'm able to get a closed enclosure since I can't stay home all day and spray the enclosure, I'm afraid it's way way too dry when I come home from work.

 

[FLINTUS]

If you get those temps but him outside and set up a sprinkler system.

 

[abclements]

Ok here's pic of mine. Its a repurposed coffee table that I put some hard work into.








And here's Franklin. Just for kicks

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It sounds to me like you're gonna have to get your enclosure completely covered if you want to keep him inside

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Outside, you'd have to make sure you have a couple very humid burrows.