- Joined
- Nov 11, 2012
- Messages
- 4
Hello!
One week ago today we brought home our first tortoise - a Hermann's. We're guessing its a female, who we've called River.
We had done some research first but then afterwards we've been reading everything we can get our hands on. I wanted to share what we're doing and ask the community for any advice. So prepare yourself, I think I've gone into a lot of detail about her and her care.
Background: We're located in Canada, and it's currently shuffling between -5 and -15 ourside, so obviously we've set up for an indoor enclosure. Next summer, we'll try to let River outside when we can.
River is 85 mm and 150 g, which is smaller than shown on the Jackson ratio graph but looks like an OK weight for her size. However, since we just got her home we're not planning to hibernate her until next year.
We purchased a "tortoise house" for an enclosure, knowing that a terrarium is not appropriate. It is 2" x 3", and has a large cave area that is away from the light when it is closed.
We're using shredded bark as a substrate, and have placed in her enclosure a basking rock, a water bowl, a turtle block, and a tortoise block.
We're using three lamps - a spot heat lamp pointed at the basking rock that leaves the small area at 87-89 deg F, a compact florescent UV light for the entire enclosure, and a second heat lamp for the entire enclosure which keeps the temperature elsewhere at 82-84 deg F. The temperature in her covered enclosure where it is dark is 76-78 deg F. We're leaving all the lamps on for 15 hours a day. At night, the temperature drops to about 66 deg F.
We've soaked her 3 times during the last week for about 20 minutes each time.
We're feeding her the diet suggested on http://www.austinsturtlepage.com. Her diet includes endive, escarole, shredded carrot, kale with ground timothy hay and calcium suppliment. (We just added the Turtle block today and may stop the calcium suppliment in her food if she uses is). One of the things we're not completely sure about is how much to feed her. We've been feeding her either once or twice per day, and more or less filling her dish.
She gets active a few times per day, especially if we leave her covered enclosure open so that she gets a little more light. It has happened that we put food out for her in the morning and it is untouched by evening when we get home from work. We refill the dish then and she eats. Other times, (Today for instance) we put her food out and she did most of her eating in the late afternoon, so we did not put more out for her in the evening.
So we welcome any thoughts or advice! We are especially interested to hear how much activity and eating is normal and if there is anything else we should watch for to make sure she's healthy. (We're going to book a vet visit for this Friday afternoon)
Thanks!
N & R & River
One week ago today we brought home our first tortoise - a Hermann's. We're guessing its a female, who we've called River.
We had done some research first but then afterwards we've been reading everything we can get our hands on. I wanted to share what we're doing and ask the community for any advice. So prepare yourself, I think I've gone into a lot of detail about her and her care.
Background: We're located in Canada, and it's currently shuffling between -5 and -15 ourside, so obviously we've set up for an indoor enclosure. Next summer, we'll try to let River outside when we can.
River is 85 mm and 150 g, which is smaller than shown on the Jackson ratio graph but looks like an OK weight for her size. However, since we just got her home we're not planning to hibernate her until next year.
We purchased a "tortoise house" for an enclosure, knowing that a terrarium is not appropriate. It is 2" x 3", and has a large cave area that is away from the light when it is closed.
We're using shredded bark as a substrate, and have placed in her enclosure a basking rock, a water bowl, a turtle block, and a tortoise block.
We're using three lamps - a spot heat lamp pointed at the basking rock that leaves the small area at 87-89 deg F, a compact florescent UV light for the entire enclosure, and a second heat lamp for the entire enclosure which keeps the temperature elsewhere at 82-84 deg F. The temperature in her covered enclosure where it is dark is 76-78 deg F. We're leaving all the lamps on for 15 hours a day. At night, the temperature drops to about 66 deg F.
We've soaked her 3 times during the last week for about 20 minutes each time.
We're feeding her the diet suggested on http://www.austinsturtlepage.com. Her diet includes endive, escarole, shredded carrot, kale with ground timothy hay and calcium suppliment. (We just added the Turtle block today and may stop the calcium suppliment in her food if she uses is). One of the things we're not completely sure about is how much to feed her. We've been feeding her either once or twice per day, and more or less filling her dish.
She gets active a few times per day, especially if we leave her covered enclosure open so that she gets a little more light. It has happened that we put food out for her in the morning and it is untouched by evening when we get home from work. We refill the dish then and she eats. Other times, (Today for instance) we put her food out and she did most of her eating in the late afternoon, so we did not put more out for her in the evening.
So we welcome any thoughts or advice! We are especially interested to hear how much activity and eating is normal and if there is anything else we should watch for to make sure she's healthy. (We're going to book a vet visit for this Friday afternoon)
Thanks!
N & R & River
