New to the forum

[David y]

Hey there! My name is David and we are the proud new owner of a little marginated!! We named him/her Totoro unless you ask my 4yo daughter who named him ninja turtle?After doing some research the last few months and looking, we were finally able to purchase the little guy from a person at the reptile show in Tinley Park who informed us they were hatched in late June. We live in the Chicagoland area so outside time isn’t the best bet now but just wanted to post a pic of our enclosure and maybe get some tips or tricks on what can be changed to make it better for the tort. He’s been pretty active and eating a lot, we do daily soaks and as of now, when we’re not home( because of work) we only run the uvb bulb. He’s flipped over a few times so I’m very vigilant about him not doing it underneath the mvb. Never thought for something that could outlive us I’d be so paranoid but all the posts I’ve been reading have really been helping me realize I'm not the only one who worries so much about the little dude. Thank you all for being so helpful and free with all the info to keep him/her happy and healthy.

 

[Josh]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Ink]

Welcome! Cute tortoise

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Hello
Welcome

 

[Karen(pebbles)]

Hi and welcome

 

[Maro2Bear]

Greetings & Welcome to the Forum

very cute little tortoise you have there.

Hopefully you already found this care sheet on Marginated torts, if not, here you go -

➡️ https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/marginated-tortoise-testudo-marginata-care-sheet.98564/

 

[wellington]

Hello and Welcome such a cutie.

 

[Lyn W]

Hi and welcome,
This is another up to date cover caresheet which covers your species and should help your tort thrive.

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...

tortoiseforum.org

Do you have plexiglass or mesh on the top of the enclosure?
I can't tell from the pics but if it is plastic or glass it will block the uvb.

 

[David y]

Hi and welcome,
This is another up to date cover caresheet which covers your species and should help your tort thrive.

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...

tortoiseforum.org

Do you have plexiglass or mesh on the top of the enclosure?
I can't tell from the pics but if it is plastic or glass it will block the uvb.

Hey there. Thanks for the care sheet. It is a screen on top?

 

[Lyn W]

Hey there. Thanks for the care sheet. It is a screen on top?

The caresheet is a great resource to making sure your tort stays safe and healthy.
Large vivs are often recommended for babies because it's easier to control the temps and humidity. Maybe consider something like a pop up greenhouse over the top of what you have.
He will probably need some heat even when you're not there to keep the temps within the range given in the caresheet because babies quickly get cold and then you have all sorts of health problems.
MVBs aren't recommended anymore because they've been found to dry and damage tort shells so many of us use the T5 HO uvb tubes with a separate flood basking bulb and CHEs run through a thermostat to keep temps even.
A digital thermometer/hygrometer is good to monitor temps at tort level.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome!

 

[CharletteK]

Hi and welcome ☺️

 

[David y]

Thank you everyone for all the info and warm welcomes!!! Glad I found this forum!? good to know there’s so much help out there for newbies like us