Newbie here :))

[kanalomele]

Welcome to TFO

 

[Tom]

The link you provided is for a clamp-style lamp. So, correct me if I'm understanding this wrong...This one is good, but I should hang it, instead of using the clamp part (and the fancy metal guards)?

Correct.

 

[Hawaiifornia]

Thank you, debora and kanalomele (is that from the musical group "Ka Nalo/Kanalo"?)

Thanks for clarifying that, Tom. Going to hit that drawing board, and start planning an enclosure for Squirtle

 

[Hawaiifornia]

Hey Tom, just thought I'd share with you that I bought a puppy pen to use as an enclosure for Squirtle while she's outside. It's pretty cool because I can wrap it around her mallow bush. The sides are 30" tall so I just push it into the ground about 6", then lay a piece of cardboard across part of the top for shade.

I want to start (and hopefully finish) building Squirtle's house this weekend. I don't have a lot of room in my house right now, for a 4x8 enclosure. Will a 2-story 2x4 be okay? Do I need to install lighting/heat on both floors, or will one floor, or one on each floor, suffice? Thanks!

 

[Hawaiifornia]

Tom,

Just wondering where you buy your orchid bark and cypress mulch. The orchid bark at the Home Depot here has fertilizer stuff added to it. In fact, according to the gardening dept, everything they carry has some kind of something added to it (even the stuff marked “natural” and “organic”).

I also checked Walmart, but the only pet supplies they carry are for the usual pets, and they don’t carry much of anything for gardening mediums. They did have mulch, but it was the same color-dyed stuff I saw at Home Depot.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Tom,

Just wondering where you buy your orchid bark and cypress mulch. The orchid bark at the Home Depot here has fertilizer stuff added to it. In fact, according to the gardening dept, everything they carry has some kind of something added to it (even the stuff marked “natural” and “organic”).

I also checked Walmart, but the only pet supplies they carry are for the usual pets, and they don’t carry much of anything for gardening mediums. They did have mulch, but it was the same color-dyed stuff I saw at Home Depot.

• Check for Cypress Mulch .. our HD and Lowes pretty much always has this without any ferts or additives, you can always look for a big old bail of Canadian peatmoss (it’s dry...but rehydrates well once soaked). Check garden centers too!
• PS, Welcome to the Forum....check in here first and often for info!

 

[Pearly]

Tom,

Just wondering where you buy your orchid bark and cypress mulch. The orchid bark at the Home Depot here has fertilizer stuff added to it. In fact, according to the gardening dept, everything they carry has some kind of something added to it (even the stuff marked “natural” and “organic”).

I also checked Walmart, but the only pet supplies they carry are for the usual pets, and they don’t carry much of anything for gardening mediums. They did have mulch, but it was the same color-dyed stuff I saw at Home Depot.

I will let @Tom answer your questions, just wanted to cut in and say:
Hello again and welcome from Texas! Glad you have found us here. You are going through this same stuff I did 3 yrs ago when i bought a couple of tiny Redfoot hatchlings for my daughter and everything I had for them turned out to be wrong. I was on a QUEST! You will figure things out over time, just stick around here and do what you have been doing: keep asking questions. With Tom in your corner you can’t go wrong, you’ll get your little Russian settled into the best long pet tort life he can have. As for the substrate, I know people get their stuff on line, or I’d check out your local family own nurseries. Some carry stufflike coco coir and fine grade fir bark in bulk and that way the prices are the best. Also some of our members keep their pet Russians outdoors, I can recall of the bat that @Oxalis has a great outdoor enclosure for hers. You can check out her threads. Puppy pen is a great temporary measure but it is way too small for long term. I got one of those for mine this past winter just for sunning mine. It was good bcs I could move it around the garden following the sun. I will continue looking for some kind of a temporary portable fencing for wintertime for mine until I get their garden extended around the house. Right now it’s just along one side of my house. It’s big, but in the Winter it doesn’t get much sun which is another „live and learn” experience for me. Never had to think about that before. I like that you can secure that puppy pen with those pins down in every segment of it, otherwise the torts are determined enough to dig underneath, find some weak spots or something to get out. It is just WAY too small. I like it that you can put yours around that mallow bush. I may need to get another 2 or 3 or those to connect/expand and put around one of my front flower beds which my torts love. Or, find another (less expensive) way to secure it for them during winter months. Anyway, once again, stick with Tom and follow his advise which he offers so freely on here, there are many more awesome Tortoise and Turtle keepers here whose knowledge and experience is way more than an average hobby keeper would need to keep their pets healthy, I just can never remember all those user IDs we all come up with to hide behind[emoji38] have a great productive weekend, hope you make good progress on your indoor enclosure. Post pictures! We’d love to see your work[emoji217]

 

[Hawaiifornia]

• Check for Cypress Mulch .. our HD and Lowes pretty much always has this without any ferts or additives, you can always look for a big old bail of Canadian peatmoss (it’s dry...but rehydrates well once soaked). Check garden centers too!
• PS, Welcome to the Forum....check in here first and often for info!

Thanks, Mark! Not much luck in the cypress mulch department at HD, either. I explained to the gardening department employee, with whom I spoke yesterday, that I intended to use the medium for Squirtle, and she advised against using anything they had in the store because all of it had some kind of additive in it. She suggested I try PetSmart which I did, but the cypress mulch they sell comes in a really tiny bag, and costs $30 which I feel is ridiculously overpriced. Where I live is a big, but small, town, if you know what I mean. It's big because of the acreage, but small because of the population and limited resources (mostly caters to livestock and commercial crops) so the "garden centers" here are more geared toward people who want to grow things big and fast. The stores have mulch, but the mulch has dyes (and who knows what else in it), and comes in HUGE 2" pieces. They did have sphagnum moss, but it contains fertilizer. Plus, I read a post or two that warned against sphagnum because tortoises will eat it? The nearest Lowe's in about an hour drive from where I live so that'll have to be a planned trip.

I will let @Tom answer your questions, just wanted to cut in and say:
Hello again and welcome from Texas! Glad you have found us here. You are going through this same stuff I did 3 yrs ago when i bought a couple of tiny Redfoot hatchlings for my daughter and everything I had for them turned out to be wrong. I was on a QUEST! You will figure things out over time, just stick around here and do what you have been doing: keep asking questions. With Tom in your corner you can’t go wrong, you’ll get your little Russian settled into the best long pet tort life he can have. As for the substrate, I know people get their stuff on line, or I’d check out your local family own nurseries. Some carry stufflike coco coir and fine grade fir bark in bulk and that way the prices are the best. Also some of our members keep their pet Russians outdoors, I can recall of the bat that @Oxalis has a great outdoor enclosure for hers. You can check out her threads. Puppy pen is a great temporary measure but it is way too small for long term. I got one of those for mine this past winter just for sunning mine. It was good bcs I could move it around the garden following the sun. I will continue looking for some kind of a temporary portable fencing for wintertime for mine until I get their garden extended around the house. Right now it’s just along one side of my house. It’s big, but in the Winter it doesn’t get much sun which is another „live and learn” experience for me. Never had to think about that before. I like that you can secure that puppy pen with those pins down in every segment of it, otherwise the torts are determined enough to dig underneath, find some weak spots or something to get out. It is just WAY too small. I like it that you can put yours around that mallow bush. I may need to get another 2 or 3 or those to connect/expand and put around one of my front flower beds which my torts love. Or, find another (less expensive) way to secure it for them during winter months. Anyway, once again, stick with Tom and follow his advise which he offers so freely on here, there are many more awesome Tortoise and Turtle keepers here whose knowledge and experience is way more than an average hobby keeper would need to keep their pets healthy, I just can never remember all those user IDs we all come up with to hide behind[emoji38] have a great productive weekend, hope you make good progress on your indoor enclosure. Post pictures! We’d love to see your work[emoji217]

Thanks, Pearly! Unfortunately, I rent so I can't build any major enclosures outside, nor inside, so a portable enclosure is as close as I'll be able to get right now. My landlord wants me to cut down the mallow bush so I'm going to try to replanting it in a pot that can be moved between enclosures with Squirtle. I would like to start building an indoor enclosure this weekend, but I don't have a truck to pick up supplies. I asked my mom for help picking it up because she has a truck, but the problem is she lives pretty far from me so I'll have to wait til she comes to visit. When I do build it, I'll post up progress, and finished product, pics.

 

[Tom]

Hey Tom, just thought I'd share with you that I bought a puppy pen to use as an enclosure for Squirtle while she's outside. It's pretty cool because I can wrap it around her mallow bush. The sides are 30" tall so I just push it into the ground about 6", then lay a piece of cardboard across part of the top for shade.

I want to start (and hopefully finish) building Squirtle's house this weekend. I don't have a lot of room in my house right now, for a 4x8 enclosure. Will a 2-story 2x4 be okay? Do I need to install lighting/heat on both floors, or will one floor, or one on each floor, suffice? Thanks!

There needs to be a visual barrier all around the bottom. They can injure themselves or escape if they can see through the fencing.

 

[Tom]

Tom,

Just wondering where you buy your orchid bark and cypress mulch. The orchid bark at the Home Depot here has fertilizer stuff added to it. In fact, according to the gardening dept, everything they carry has some kind of something added to it (even the stuff marked “natural” and “organic”).

I also checked Walmart, but the only pet supplies they carry are for the usual pets, and they don’t carry much of anything for gardening mediums. They did have mulch, but it was the same color-dyed stuff I saw at Home Depot.

You won't find it at a hardware store most of the time. I get it at local garden centers. OSH sometimes has it, if there is one near you. Look up local nurseries or gardening centers.

I use this one:

 

[Hawaiifornia]

Thanks, Tom. Squirtle hasn’t given any attention to what’s on the outside of her play area, but I’ll be sure to attach something to block the bottom 6” of the pen.

Also, I did manage to find some orchid bark and pear moss. My mom came by, and we found them at Orchard. I also picked up a terra cotta pot and tray for her enclosure, and a couple of peat and plastic pots to pot the mallow and purslane for Squirtle’s indoor and outdoor enclosures. Now, the question is do I cover the entire surface with the peat moss, or do I just cover small, random areas with it?

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome!

 

[Pearly]

Tom,

Just wondering where you buy your orchid bark and cypress mulch. The orchid bark at the Home Depot here has fertilizer stuff added to it. In fact, according to the gardening dept, everything they carry has some kind of something added to it (even the stuff marked “natural” and “organic”).

I also checked Walmart, but the only pet supplies they carry are for the usual pets, and they don’t carry much of anything for gardening mediums. They did have mulch, but it was the same color-dyed stuff I saw at Home Depot.

Hello again and welcome from Texas! Glad you have found us here. You are going through this same stuff I did 3 yrs ago when i bought a couple of tiny Redfoot hatchlings for my daughter and everything I had for them turned out to be wrong. I was on a QUEST! You will figure things out over time, just stick around here and do what you have been doing: keep asking questions. With Tom in your corner you can’t go wrong, you’ll get your little Russian settled into the best long pet tort life he can have. As for the substrate, I know people get their stuff on line, or I’d check out your local family own nurseries. Some carry stufflike coco coir and fine grade fir bark in bulk and that way the prices are the best. Also some of our members keep their pet Russians outdoors, I can recall of the bat that @Oxalis has a great outdoor enclosure for hers. You can check out her threads. Puppy pen is a great temporary measure but it is way too small for long term. I got one of those for mine this past winter just for sunning mine. It was good bcs I could move it around the garden following the sun. I will continue looking for some kind of a temporary portable fencing for wintertime for mine until I get their garden extended around the house. Right now it’s just along one side of my house. It’s big, but in the Winter it doesn’t get much sun which is another „live and learn” experience for me. Never had to think about that before. I like that you can secure that puppy pen with those pins down in every segment of it, otherwise the torts are determined enough to dig underneath, find some weak spots or something to get out. It is just WAY too small. I like it that you can put yours around that mallow bush. I may need to get another 2 or 3 or those to connect/expand and put around one of my front flower beds which my torts love. Or, find another (less expensive) way to secure it for them during winter months. Peat is VERY messy in my view, it was very hard to keep the water dishes and food clean. Bark seems little lower maintenance. For the indoor enclosure I was very successful coir substrate and plant roots directly in it with their native soil around the roots but being ocd that I am about “the clean”[emoji849] I had ended up covering the floor (walking surface) with sheets of live mosses. Now, my torts were little babies and not much of DIGGERS so for the most part this could stay fairly undisturbed for a while. Again, that’s provided there are many plants, and many hide options all over the enclosure. In a barren enclosure of course they will dig and try to hide bcs that’s what young torts do. Mine are almost 3 and still like to find the darkest corner of the garden to hide in and sit there all day. That’s probably bcs they are never hungry... I may need to rethink their feeding schedule[emoji848] Anyway, wishing you lots of fun on this journey. Hope you enjoy all this exploration and learning, and mostly- your little Squirtle[emoji217]

 

[Hawaiifornia]

Thank you, Yvonne

Thanks again, Pearly. You've got me rethinking the moss thing, now, because my kids and I are OCD also haha

 

[Pearly]

Thank you, Yvonne

Thanks again, Pearly. You've got me rethinking the moss thing, now, because my kids and I are OCD also haha

Yep! I was loving mine. Now I’m not talking about the sphagnum moss, the bunch of fiberous stuff that you wet down and hold moisture. Mine has been sheets of moss that you can lay on top of your substrate like an area rug. you can see some here. The bunches of fluffier looking green clumps are what they call “frog moss” or “mood moss”. I loved it around the water bowl, it really did the job in keeping things clean. The only thing is due to extreme heat in there I have never been able to successfully grow it in my tank so it needed to be replaced every few months

 

[Hawaiifornia]

I love how you made it look! All of that green is so gorgeous! Would that work for Russians, also? I saw a few packages of that "frog moss" for sale at PetSmart, but I didn't know what it was, and see mention about it so I left it alone. It does look really nice, though.

 

[Destben]

Hello again and welcome from Texas! Glad you have found us here. You are going through this same stuff I did 3 yrs ago when i bought a couple of tiny Redfoot hatchlings for my daughter and everything I had for them turned out to be wrong. I was on a QUEST! You will figure things out over time, just stick around here and do what you have been doing: keep asking questions. With Tom in your corner you can’t go wrong, you’ll get your little Russian settled into the best long pet tort life he can have. As for the substrate, I know people get their stuff on line, or I’d check out your local family own nurseries. Some carry stufflike coco coir and fine grade fir bark in bulk and that way the prices are the best. Also some of our members keep their pet Russians outdoors, I can recall of the bat that @Oxalis has a great outdoor enclosure for hers. You can check out her threads. Puppy pen is a great temporary measure but it is way too small for long term. I got one of those for mine this past winter just for sunning mine. It was good bcs I could move it around the garden following the sun. I will continue looking for some kind of a temporary portable fencing for wintertime for mine until I get their garden extended around the house. Right now it’s just along one side of my house. It’s big, but in the Winter it doesn’t get much sun which is another „live and learn” experience for me. Never had to think about that before. I like that you can secure that puppy pen with those pins down in every segment of it, otherwise the torts are determined enough to dig underneath, find some weak spots or something to get out. It is just WAY too small. I like it that you can put yours around that mallow bush. I may need to get another 2 or 3 or those to connect/expand and put around one of my front flower beds which my torts love. Or, find another (less expensive) way to secure it for them during winter months. Peat is VERY messy in my view, it was very hard to keep the water dishes and food clean. Bark seems little lower maintenance. For the indoor enclosure I was very successful coir substrate and plant roots directly in it with their native soil around the roots but being ocd that I am about “the clean”[emoji849] I had ended up covering the floor (walking surface) with sheets of live mosses. Now, my torts were little babies and not much of DIGGERS so for the most part this could stay fairly undisturbed for a while. Again, that’s provided there are many plants, and many hide options all over the enclosure. In a barren enclosure of course they will dig and try to hide bcs that’s what young torts do. Mine are almost 3 and still like to find the darkest corner of the garden to hide in and sit there all day. That’s probably bcs they are never hungry... I may need to rethink their feeding schedule[emoji848] Anyway, wishing you lots of fun on this journey. Hope you enjoy all this exploration and learning, and mostly- your little Squirtle[emoji217]

Where do you get your live moss?

 

[stephkesh]

Hello!! Look my little Russian. Enjoy!

 

[Hawaiifornia]

Peat is VERY messy in my view, it was very hard to keep the water dishes and food clean.

O.M.G., I totally know what you went through with the moss. I put it in Squirtle's tank (wasn't able to start on building a new home so still using the same thing), just to get her out of the sand and give her something to dig into, and OMG, the mess!!! First thing she did was walk her little butt right through her water dish, which of course caused a whole bunch of moss to stick to her chin, plastron, and feet!! I wanted to cry, and I kept asking her, "Why are you being SO messy??" I had to fight the urge to give her a bath! haha

Needless to say, this substrate is only going to last as long as it takes me to get my hands on a much, MUCH cleaner option (the moss carpet you use is looking pretty darn good, right about now, but the thing that's holding me back is figuring out how she's going to dig into it?)