Our new baby Greek!

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mommytoeandj

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Hello! After much help (thank you all for your help with my prior posts), we are now the owners of a baby (1 month, 9 days old) mountain Greek tortoise! "Her" name is Grassy, per my daughter. I am going to try to add photos of "her" and the set-up. Any advice/feedback will be appreciated. The substrate is a mix of coco coir and cypress mulch which she has been burying in, but not apparently eating. We have an 100 watt mercury heat/UV bulb with the temp below being between 94-100F. The other end of her habitat is about 70. The hygrometer reads 60%. We do not have a night heat source right now, though I do own an appropriate heat pad which most of you told me not to use right now, though I am still very much open to input on that. We are feeding her spring green mix (no spinach) with a soaked Mazuri pellet once a day. She doesn't seem to like the purple leaves of the spring mix much, as that was all that was left today. We are soaking her daily now for about 5-10 minutes in warm water. What do you all think?
Nikki
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jeffbens0n

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Great looking tort! I would suggest you maybe bury that food dish a little to make it easier to get into for the little guy. Also, you could add a water dish such as a small terra cotta plant saucer to his enclosure if you don't have one already.
 

mommytoeandj

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jeffbens0n said:
Great looking tort! I would suggest you maybe bury that food dish a little to make it easier to get into for the little guy. Also, you could add a water dish such as a small terra cotta plant saucer to his enclosure if you don't have one already.

Thanks! He has been struggling a little getting out, so great idea!
 

Tim/Robin

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Looking GREAT Nikki. I love the set up, it turned out fantastic.
 

TortieLuver

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What a cute tort! Thanks for sharing your pics with us. I love to see other people's torts and setups.
 

Aristotle

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Hi Nikki. Grassy is SO cute and beautiful!! I love your tortoise table and its set-up too, which leads me to a question for you: How are you keeping the humidity at 60%? I'm very much a beginner and love to learn about new things to add to my little girl's quality of life! :D I have a tortoise table set-up quite similar to yours, and the only area where I am able to consistently keep the humidity between 55-65% is in the covered hide (I have a lot of rocks and damp moss spread around the perimeter). But my tort rarely if ever goes in there, preferring the log hide in the hot part of the table. What's your secret?

Congrats on your new baby!

Thanks,
Kristina
 

SnakeyeZ

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Cute! Not much pattern on that little guys shell... is this a golden greek? Our's looks so different.
 

mommytoeandj

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SnakeyeZ said:
Cute! Not much pattern on that little guys shell... is this a golden greek? Our's looks so different.

Ours is a mountain Greek, testuda graeca buxtoni, apparently. She won't grow quite as big as a regular greek, per the breeder.

Aristotle said:
Hi Nikki. Grassy is SO cute and beautiful!! I love your tortoise table and its set-up too, which leads me to a question for you: How are you keeping the humidity at 60%? I'm very much a beginner and love to learn about new things to add to my little girl's quality of life! :D I have a tortoise table set-up quite similar to yours, and the only area where I am able to consistently keep the humidity between 55-65% is in the covered hide (I have a lot of rocks and damp moss spread around the perimeter). But my tort rarely if ever goes in there, preferring the log hide in the hot part of the table. What's your secret?

Congrats on your new baby!

Thanks,
Kristina

You ask a good question, which makes me wonder about our hygrometer! We've only had Grassy for 5 days, and the hygrometer was just picked up at the local pet store, so it might not be working. I'll get a new one and let you know if the humidity is real or not.
 

Aristotle

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Hi Nikki. Since I posted I have added more moss to the cooler humid hide section of Ari's house, and as a result the humidity has remained pretty stable @ 60% with a couple sprays here and there. I used Forest Moss (Exo-Terra) layered with coco coir substrate, spraying each layer of both the moss and coco coir with a lot of water (basically thoroughly soaking it) and pressing them down. I tried the New Zealand Sphagnum Moss used by a lot of people on this Forum, but it didn't get nor remain very moist, and I didn't find it very aesthetically pleasing (it is yellowish as opposed to the dark green of the forest moss [which Ari isn't eating thank God]. Some people have said that affixing wet pieces of sponges at various places in the enclosure (where the tort can't get at them) maintains appropriate levels of humidity, but I'm not comfortable using a strong glue with its smell and chemicals, and I can't really staple sponges anywhere in Ari's enclosure. Let me know how things go with your baby.
 
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