New mommy needs hel

[marleybaby]

Hello all!!!

I have been wanting a tortoise for years and when I found out I was finally getting one for my birthday I started my research. Unfortunately I didnt have much advanced notice so my time to learn was cut down some. Never the less my sweet baby Marley is here and I love him like crazy. I just want to make sure I'm doing my very best to care for him. So I'll be needing plenty of advice .

This is what I have so far......

I built Marley a "starter home" thats about 18 x 30, a little small for now but I will build him a new one in the future. Oh my, i forgot to mention that Marley is a red foot and the geniuses at the pet store have no idea how old he is. One employee said he's probably between 6 months to a year. Also, one employee at the store told me Marley was a female while another took a look and said it was male. The second employee actually has a tortoise and seemed more knowledgeable so I'm going with male but I'm still a little unsure. Okay, back on subject. Marley has some coconut fiber substrate topped with cypress mulch, a couple of tropical terrarium plants and some oat grass in his house. I have a small round dish for his water and i bought him some organic spring mix to eat. He also has a heat lamp that hamgs about 10 inches above the house with a 100 watt basking bulb in it. He has a little room on the side with the xl hut. I plan on buying him the ramp bowl soon. So......what else should i be buying for him?

I noticed some scraping or something on his plastron but the pet store employee said he was fine....hmmmmm....??? I will try to add pics later. Im worried about this but i didnt want to switch him for another one.

Some other questions i have are, why is he bobbing his head all the time? And why does he look like he's choking on the oat grass? :-o

Well, thats all for now thx

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Marleybaby:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

What would you like us to call you?

And may we know appx where in the world you are?

I'll defer to someone with more redfoot knowledge than me to answer your questions.

 

[dmarcus]

Hello and welcome to the forum..

I tend to think the head bob in a new tortoise is nervousness but others may have different thoughts on that.

Pictures will help with your question on the scratches...

 

[marleybaby]

Thank you so much for responding .

I am located in Northwest Connecticut and you may call me Ara.

I am trying to figure out how to upload the photos right now. Also, I'm not sure I was right with the word "scratches" I looked at it again and I'll let someone else with more experience be the judge of that.

 

[pam]

Welcome

 

[Arizona Sulcata]

Welcome!

 

[coreyc]

Welcome to the TFO

 

[qixer01]

Welcome!

 

[marleybaby]

Thank you all so much

 

[Redstrike]

There are two things I'd recommend:

1) See how hot it is under that basking bulb. Ten inches from a 100-watt bulb sounds pretty darn hot to me! I generally shoot for a temp gradient of 80 on the cool side to 90 on the warm/basking side. If it's 110ºF under that bulb, you may consider moving it upward a bit. 95-98 under the bulb would probably be okay.

2) What are your humidity levels like? You may consider covering most or all of the new enclosure to keep heat & humidity in, depending on where you live.

It's possible that the tortoise is wild caught, thus the plastron scraping could have been from this or a multitude of other factors. Post up some pics when you can.

Your temporary house looks darn good!

 

[marleybaby]

Here are some photos of Marley and his home. What do you guys think?

 

[nicoleandrocky]

welcome to the forum!!

 

[marleybaby]

There are two things I'd recommend:

1) See how hot it is under that basking bulb. Ten inches from a 100-watt bulb sounds pretty darn hot to me! I generally shoot for a temp gradient of 80 on the cool side to 90 on the warm/basking side. If it's 110ºF under that bulb, you may consider moving it upward a bit. 95-98 under the bulb would probably be okay.

2) What are your humidity levels like? You may consider covering most or all of the new enclosure to keep heat & humidity in, depending on where you live.

It's possible that the tortoise is wild caught, thus the plastron scraping could have been from this or a multitude of other factors. Post up some pics when you can.

Your temporary house looks darn good!

Redstrike, I guess I have to buy a couple of thermometers! I had a 60 watt bulb but it seemed like he was still cold. I will make sure to check that out. Thanks

Also< I posted a pic of his head because I'm not sure if that spot in the middle is okay, it seems a little dry....??

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome!

 

[Yvonne G]

Those lighter colored spots on the plastron look like shell rot to me.

 

[TORTOISEMAN1]

Welcome to the forum!!

 

[Redstrike]

There are two things I'd recommend:

1) See how hot it is under that basking bulb. Ten inches from a 100-watt bulb sounds pretty darn hot to me! I generally shoot for a temp gradient of 80 on the cool side to 90 on the warm/basking side. If it's 110ºF under that bulb, you may consider moving it upward a bit. 95-98 under the bulb would probably be okay.

2) What are your humidity levels like? You may consider covering most or all of the new enclosure to keep heat & humidity in, depending on where you live.

It's possible that the tortoise is wild caught, thus the plastron scraping could have been from this or a multitude of other factors. Post up some pics when you can.

Your temporary house looks darn good!

Redstrike, I guess I have to buy a couple of thermometers! I had a 60 watt bulb but it seemed like he was still cold. I will make sure to check that out. Thanks

Also< I posted a pic of his head because I'm not sure if that spot in the middle is okay, it seems a little dry....??

You don't have to enclose the entire top, you could provide a humid hide? A member on the forum (Tom) has a nice thread on this somewhere around here.

I agree with Yvonne, those light spots are a bit of plastron fungus. It looks very minor, so don't panic . Take povidone iodine and dilute it down to a 1:10 or sol'n, and a soft bristled toothbrush and scrub the effected areas lightly - no need to exert loads of pressure (betadine would work too). Do this once, then put some anti-fungal creme on the fungal spots for 5-10 days. It will reform if the substrate is kept constantly wet.
More comprehensive directions at bottom of this page:
http://www.turtletary.com/redfootcare.htm

Don't worry too much about getting it off the substrate, just be sure that if it's currently really wet, it dries out a bit while being treated.

I run waterproof heat ropes under the substrate connected to a rheostat. Once a 1-2 times/week I pour ~1 liter of water into certain spots of the enclosure. I dig small pits and pour it into the substrate, this way the top layer of cypress remains fairly dry while the bottom layers are quite moist. The heat ropes warm the water and boost humidity.

Ropes:
http://www.bigappleherp.com/Big-Apple-Flexible-Heat-Ropes - I use these
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006JLPGI/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20 - These also look good.