New Owner of Baby Aldabra Tortoise

[Smith.Tyler]

Not to be captain obvious but make sure you don't use that greenhouse outside, it will heat up like a car in the sun and roast him. You are going to need to get a tube UV bulb like an Arcadia Desert 12% T5 bulb and you will probably need several heat sources and thermostats for an enclosure that large.

As far as food sources go, You have to go outside and find it as well as grow some yourself. Plant hibiscus everywhere you can around the house. We have ripped out almost all of our hedges and replaced them with hibiscus. Ask your friends and family to grow it too and have them save the trimmings. I would suggest planting the variegated leaf variety if you can find it, it tends to produce much more foliage than flowers which is what you want.
Weeds are easy too, we can feed anything we find around our property with the exception of Lantana. Use the Picture This app on your phone to see what is growing around you. You can look up the plants on tortoise table or ask here. Usually you can look on the internet and find someone asking if their horse can it it, if it is safe for a horse we usually feed it.
Vines are everywhere. Grapevine and Virginia Creeper smother everything around here.
Spineless Opuntia Cactus pads can be found at your local Mexican/Latin market. You can and should grow them yourself too. Keep an eye out for it when you are driving around, you can always stop and ask if you can have some. Most people are happy to get rid of it and are thrilled to find out you are feeding it to a tortoise. We actually printed flyers that we put in the mailbox of houses that have tons of cactus, we also check Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for people that want to get rid of it. We need a lot of it though so that is a bit extreme. It is a fantastic food because it lasts for weeks or months.
The pellets can be ordered off Chewy, make sure you get the Mazuri LS type.

Thanks so much for all the advice, yea the greenhouse will be inside, using the exact UVB you said right now, and right now im using a single 35w halogen bulb for heat, what kind of bulbs/heat would you recommend.

 

[wellington]

I only needed two che's for night heat for the enclosure I had that was 3x6 and it was in my cold basement.

 

[dd33]

I think that the bulb/heat stuff is covered pretty well in some of Tom's posts. @wellington suggestion would be a good starting point. You can get thermostats to control them for really cheap on Amazon now.

 

[Smith.Tyler]

I think that the bulb/heat stuff is covered pretty well in some of Tom's posts. @wellington suggestion would be a good starting point. You can get thermostats to control them for really cheap on Amazon now.

Would you reccommend CHE or Halogens, basically light vs no light in terms of bulb heat sources

 

[Smith.Tyler]

I only needed two che's for night heat for the enclosure I had that was 3x6 and it was in my cold basement.

What did that keep the temp like in the 3x6

 

[wellington]

What did that keep the temp like in the 3x6

80 day and night, it was for my leopards.
You want dark at night, light during the day. No halogen bulbs.
Incandescent flood bulb for day time basking, heat and light.
Tube Florescent for uvb and the che's for night heat and added day heat if needed.

 

[Smith.Tyler]

80 day and night, it was for my leopards.
You want dark at night, light during the day. No halogen bulbs.
Incandescent flood bulb for day time basking, heat and light.
Tube Florescent for uvb and the che's for night heat and added day heat if needed.

How come no halogen bulbs, and for the incandescent flood bulbs is there a specific brand you reccomend or does it not really matter. Everywhere I look for flood bulbs it says "Halogen Flood Bulb"

 

[wellington]

Halogen are to harsh on the shell, will cause pyramiding even with proper humidity.
I believe Arcadia has a proper incandescent flood or any incandescent flood.

 

[Smith.Tyler]

Halogen are to harsh on the shell, will cause pyramiding even with proper humidity.
I believe Arcadia has a proper incandescent flood or any incandescent flood.

The Arcadia Solar Basking Flood? It's fine that it has UVA right?

 

[wellington]

Yes that's the one

 

[Smith.Tyler]

Yes that's the one

Substrate wise what do you recommend, currently using topsoil and bark mixed together, also wondering if I should include a drainage layer since it will be on a tarp indoors or what do you think is best for that setup

 

[wellington]

I wouldn't use top soil. You never know what's in it. Even organic soils have crap in it that is not good for a tortoise.
I like coconut coir on the bottom with orchid bark or fir bark on top. You won't need a drain layer, the coir and wood will soak up extra liquids and the heat will help it dry up some, adding the humidity.

 

[Smith.Tyler]

I wouldn't use top soil. You never know what's in it. Even organic soils have crap in it that is not good for a tortoise.
I like coconut coir on the bottom with orchid bark or fir bark on top. You won't need a drain layer, the coir and wood will soak up extra liquids and the heat will help it dry up some, adding the humidity.

How thick do you recommend it be. Like how thick for the coir and how thick for the orchid.

 

[wellington]

How thick do you recommend it be. Like how thick for the coir and how thick for the orchid.

I always did about 2inches thick of coir and just a single layer of chips over top, to help keep the coir from being so messy. You can use just coir too, but pat it down tightly. The two together does make the coir less messy though.

 

[dd33]

I light my indoor enclosures with LED light bars meant for aquariums. I don't want any extra heat from incandescent lights during the day because our AC turns off and the house is already getting up to 80 when we aren't home. The LED strips are in addition to the Arcadia UV bulbs which don't run all day.

For heat I use cheap CHE bulbs from Amazon. I control them with BN Link Heat Mat thermostats from Amazon or on some of the more fancy enclosures I use Herpstats.

@wellington's substrate advice is the same thing I do. I use cypress mulch on top of the coco coir instead of orchid bark though now because it is so much cheaper and easier to get.

 

[wellington]

I light my indoor enclosures with LED light bars meant for aquariums. I don't want any extra heat from incandescent lights during the day because our AC turns off and the house is already getting up to 80 when we aren't home. The LED strips are in addition to the Arcadia UV bulbs which don't run all day.

For heat I use cheap CHE bulbs from Amazon. I control them with BN Link Heat Mat thermostats from Amazon or on some of the more fancy enclosures I use Herpstats.

@wellington's substrate advice is the same thing I do. I use cypress mulch on top of the coco coir instead of orchid bark though now because it is so much cheaper and easier to get.

Yes good point about the added heat from the incandescent. This summer, if I had little ones inside, I'd likely would have to switch to something cooler. We are having temps more like AZ with Florida humidity. Even with the AC on, I'm having to monitor my aquariums closely.
So do consider the temp of your house if you don't keep it cold.

 

[Smith.Tyler]

Yes good point about the added heat from the incandescent. This summer, if I had little ones inside, I'd likely would have to switch to something cooler. We are having temps more like AZ with Florida humidity. Even with the AC on, I'm having to monitor my aquariums closely.
So do consider the temp of your house if you don't keep it cold.

I feel the keeping the aquarium cool, had to get a chiller for my 200g saltwater.

 

[Smith.Tyler]

So should I get a flood bulb for the day and a CHE for the night or is it okay to just use a CHE for both day and night?

 

[dd33]

So should I get a flood bulb for the day and a CHE for the night or is it okay to just use a CHE for both day and night?

The CHE, or CHEs plural need to be connected to thermostats. They will turn on and off as needed all day and night.

 

[Smith.Tyler]

The CHE, or CHEs plural need to be connected to thermostats. They will turn on and off as needed all day and night.

gotcha, so I could just use like 2 CHEs and run them day and night on thermostats? I dont have to have flood bulbs.