New set up - help

[mrl05140]

hello all!

I just set up Lucy’s new habitat she is a redfoot. It’s a nice new wooden tortoise house. she was in a glass tank in my classroom as she is a class pet. I am trying to get her temperature and humidity under control. I just ordered her a fogger to help with humidity too.

Lucy is 10 years old and used to live with another family that did not care for her properly. She was in a 10 gallon tank her whole life until she came to me a little under a year ago. She was pyramiding, I quickly got her the proper light and heat. I had her in a 65 gallon glass tank for almost a year now, but I just bought her a new wooden tortoise house.

What is the ideal temperature for the wire side of her tank? And the opposite hiding side? Her temperature was reading 88 degrees Fahrenheit ..is that too hot? I put the gauge near the light. I’ve attached pictures to show what I mean - I’m wondering what is too hot for her? I am not there 100% of the time, but go in daily for her. I soak her 3x a week. Can you give me any advice on heat and humidity?

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm sorry it took me so long to respond to your post.

I'm not a big fan of those Tortoise House enclosures. In my opinion, they're not big enough. It's hard to tell the size of your tortoise in relationship to the size of the enclosure, so I may be wrong in this case. The RF tortoise needs a humid environment, and I don't think that enclosure will hold up to a moistened substrate.

I like that you're trying to keep out the cool house air by using plastic wrap over the open area. It shows that you're trying to provide what the tortoise needs.

Is the tortoise big enough to live outside? That would be the best option for her.

I like to use separate fixtures for the day light and the night heat. That way you can have the night heat over where the tortoise spends the night, and the day light out on the other side of the habitat.

We have a good care sheet for RF tortoises pinned at the top of the RF/YF section. It may give you some insight as to what your tortoise needs to be healthy:

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/redfoot-tortoise-care-sheet.175319/

From what I can see, your tortoise isn't in bad shape at all.

 

[Toddrickfl1]

88 degrees would probably be ok. I keep my whole enclosure at 86. Anything above 90 and your getting too hot. You could probably use the light on the wire side set on a timer for heat during the day and run a CHE 24hrs set on a thermostat in the hide part.