I will be getting a brown mountain tortoise towards the end of the month or mid april. He will be about 9" and i can wait. So any experts for a lil extra info i will greatly appreciate it. Ive done some reading but i wana know what works for you.
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Maggie Cummings
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twtraudio said:
I had a Manouria that was a few weeks old when I got her. She was so different than the desert tortoises and Sulcata that I am most familiar with. She was shy and a pain to feed. The moss dried out so quick it was a pain to try to keep her humid enough. She didn't want to eat and so for the 6 months or so that I had her she was trouble.
I figure with one the size of yours he's already set on the path to grow and eat correctly. My sister has her's set in a rain forest type setting. Creating humidity will be the hardest thing I think. I'm just not impressed with them. They are seriously prehistoric and don't seem to think or react normally. Bob is a quick thinker and from what I've experienced with Emmie and Yvonne's adults, they are kinda dumb...
Tsk! Maggie! I'm so ashamed of you! 
Dumb? REALLY! I Never! But yes, they really are prehistoric. It is my opinion that they see in frames...really slow frames. Just by having watched them and watched the Aldabs and watched the sulcata. The other two large tortoises actually see in real time and can follow me with their eyes no matter how fast I'm moving. However the Manouria see in slow frames...like click.....click.....click. So if I walk past one of them at a slow speed they can watch me, but if I run past them or jump over them, they don't see where I went. Its real easy to fool them. One morning at zero dark thirty I was standing at the aviary filling the feeder. I had a premonition to look down at my leg. My largest Manouria (65lbs) had sneaked up on me (I say sneaked, but they just move so slowly that they don't make any noise) and was standing there with her mouth open going, "I'm going to take a bite of the food goddess's leg...I moving in to take a bite of the food goddess's leg...here I go to take a bite of the food goddess's leg...almost there now to get a bite of the food goddess's leg..." And all of this taking place about 4" from my calf and in super slow motion. If I hadn't seen her, it would've hurt like hell, but she moves so slowly, it was very easy just to move my leg over behind her.
Here's what I have planted in the rain forest (but its fenced off because they eat it before it can grow):
(Some of these types of plants are NOT ok to feed other type tortoise)
gazania, iris, allocasia, banana tree, rose of sharon, 4 o'clocks, button fern, buddlea, grape vine, shepherd's purse, orange tree, fig tree, pony tail palm, and its all under a very large Mullberry tree.
Because I'm letting the plants grow, I have to feed the tortoises, and here's what I feed them:
zucchini, crook neck squash, cantaloupe, strawberry, hard boiled egg including the shell, bell pepper, broccoli, cucumber, rappini, mustard greens, banana squash, yams, turnip greens, spring mix, red leaf lettuce, romaine, endive, escarole, etc. About once a week I give them moistened Pro Plan cat food.
When I first moved to this house I temporarily set a few 1 gallon-sized plastic pots with plants along the Manouria fence just to get them out of my way until I could do something with them. Every morning I had to set them upright again. And I wondered why the tortoises kept tipping them over. It wasn't the kind of thing they wanted to eat and the plants weren't damaged, just tipped over. So one morning I got up real early and went out there to spy. One of the larger females walked up to the first pot and reached out with a front paw and dragged the pot over. Then she dipped her head in there looking for slugs. She went right down the line tipping and eating slugs.
Yvonne
Dumb? REALLY! I Never! But yes, they really are prehistoric. It is my opinion that they see in frames...really slow frames. Just by having watched them and watched the Aldabs and watched the sulcata. The other two large tortoises actually see in real time and can follow me with their eyes no matter how fast I'm moving. However the Manouria see in slow frames...like click.....click.....click. So if I walk past one of them at a slow speed they can watch me, but if I run past them or jump over them, they don't see where I went. Its real easy to fool them. One morning at zero dark thirty I was standing at the aviary filling the feeder. I had a premonition to look down at my leg. My largest Manouria (65lbs) had sneaked up on me (I say sneaked, but they just move so slowly that they don't make any noise) and was standing there with her mouth open going, "I'm going to take a bite of the food goddess's leg...I moving in to take a bite of the food goddess's leg...here I go to take a bite of the food goddess's leg...almost there now to get a bite of the food goddess's leg..." And all of this taking place about 4" from my calf and in super slow motion. If I hadn't seen her, it would've hurt like hell, but she moves so slowly, it was very easy just to move my leg over behind her. Here's what I have planted in the rain forest (but its fenced off because they eat it before it can grow):
(Some of these types of plants are NOT ok to feed other type tortoise)
gazania, iris, allocasia, banana tree, rose of sharon, 4 o'clocks, button fern, buddlea, grape vine, shepherd's purse, orange tree, fig tree, pony tail palm, and its all under a very large Mullberry tree.
Because I'm letting the plants grow, I have to feed the tortoises, and here's what I feed them:
zucchini, crook neck squash, cantaloupe, strawberry, hard boiled egg including the shell, bell pepper, broccoli, cucumber, rappini, mustard greens, banana squash, yams, turnip greens, spring mix, red leaf lettuce, romaine, endive, escarole, etc. About once a week I give them moistened Pro Plan cat food.
When I first moved to this house I temporarily set a few 1 gallon-sized plastic pots with plants along the Manouria fence just to get them out of my way until I could do something with them. Every morning I had to set them upright again. And I wondered why the tortoises kept tipping them over. It wasn't the kind of thing they wanted to eat and the plants weren't damaged, just tipped over. So one morning I got up real early and went out there to spy. One of the larger females walked up to the first pot and reached out with a front paw and dragged the pot over. Then she dipped her head in there looking for slugs. She went right down the line tipping and eating slugs.
Yvonne
Wow I love hearing about new tort species I have never heard of before...thanks!
Interesting commentary about "speed." I always wonder how much Trevor understands...he trusts me now, but sometimes no matter how slowly I move my hand in it will startle him. He knows where he is fed, where he should sleep to stay warm, etc, yet is still trying to climb and escape, and even has scratched at the walls of his tort table to test them. He'll get stuck between cage furnishings because of stubbornness!
I looked up what type of tort this is here; they have a pretty cool gallery: http://www.chelonia.org/manouriagallery.htm
Interesting commentary about "speed." I always wonder how much Trevor understands...he trusts me now, but sometimes no matter how slowly I move my hand in it will startle him. He knows where he is fed, where he should sleep to stay warm, etc, yet is still trying to climb and escape, and even has scratched at the walls of his tort table to test them. He'll get stuck between cage furnishings because of stubbornness!
I looked up what type of tort this is here; they have a pretty cool gallery: http://www.chelonia.org/manouriagallery.htm
awsome thankyou for the info . I had heard that they are extremely personable from a couple of keepers so i will just have to see. I live on an acre of land that is nothing but forest so my outdoor for this guy is going to be an easy setup. I cant wait !
Yvonne could you post some pics for me of yours adults and juvenlies or whatever you got.
thankyou
Yvonne could you post some pics for me of yours adults and juvenlies or whatever you got.
thankyou
I have several M. emys and have found them very personable guys. They being forest torts don't need or like bright light (ambient room light is fine) and are comfortable at lower temps (mid sixties to eighties). They need a humid, damp enviornment with a soaking/wadeing bowl. I kkep mine on a humis/mulch substrat with a sphagrum moss filled hide. They are a little more vegetarian than other forest torts (I give a protein source every two weeks) Yvonne's diet is excellant.
These are Blacks.
For some unknown reason the past couple time I've tried to upload pictures to my Photobucket account I get a "upload failed due to network problems." So I'll try to use the forum's upload on a couple of the pix that aren't in Photobucket.
This is Medea, a 65lb'er and my largest female Asian Black, Asian Mountain, Manouria emys phayrei:
And this is Emmie, the only baby that hatched last year (Mep):
This is an 11 year old male intergrade Mee/Mep that my tortoise partner kept:
And this is one it its siblings that I sold as a hatchling. The woman only fed romaine and gave him back to me after she went through a divorce:
This is all of my Mep together with the male on the left, then a young female a year older than the male, then VicMorgan, a young female and lastly Medea, the 65lb'er:
The two Manouria emys emys, Asian brown or Asian forest tortoises is the picture that I don't have in Photobucket. If I can get it to post, its the wild caught adult female at 35lbs and a cb male unk. age, but probably around 10 to 15 years old because of his size.
This is Medea, a 65lb'er and my largest female Asian Black, Asian Mountain, Manouria emys phayrei:
And this is Emmie, the only baby that hatched last year (Mep):
This is an 11 year old male intergrade Mee/Mep that my tortoise partner kept:
And this is one it its siblings that I sold as a hatchling. The woman only fed romaine and gave him back to me after she went through a divorce:
This is all of my Mep together with the male on the left, then a young female a year older than the male, then VicMorgan, a young female and lastly Medea, the 65lb'er:
The two Manouria emys emys, Asian brown or Asian forest tortoises is the picture that I don't have in Photobucket. If I can get it to post, its the wild caught adult female at 35lbs and a cb male unk. age, but probably around 10 to 15 years old because of his size.
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She brought her back to me this past week-end because she's having trouble getting her to eat anything besides zucchini. So far she hasn't eaten anything for me. She has what Danny calls "reverse pyramiding." I have a sneaking suspicion that this is quite common in baby Manouria and I notice that your very young picture has it too. My (or I should say "my partner's") male looks like he started out life with it too. He's still a little "indented" as you can see from the shot of the four of them together, but he's not as bad as Emmie.
Yvonne
Yvonne
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Maggie Cummings
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Itort said:
Thanks for the compliment...but unfortunately it's not correct. She has been diagnosed by Danny as having 'reverse pyramiding". So I don't think I did good. I don't know what I did wrong tho...
The "reverse pyramiding" appears to be normal growth. All of mine (12 to 18 month MEPs and MEEs) have it or had it. At about a year or so the scutes begin to raise. The colony has come from three different sources (all knowledgeable). They also seem to take a while for the shell to firm up. What I have been told to watch for is curling of carapace as indication of less than optimum humidity. As I said, she looks good. Has she tried mushrooms (forest tort candy).
I always buy mushrooms for my bigger tortoises (forgot to list that in my feeding up above). She's still pretty scared at being in a new place, but I'll try giving her some mushrooms and see how that goes.
Yvonne
Yvonne
I've read the same stats that Itort gave you. I have had my adults (meaning they haven't grown since I've had them so have stopped growing) for over 15 years and the largest Mep female is 65lbs. The female Mee is 35lbs. I've seen pictures of Vic Morgan's herd and they "look" the same size as mine, but its hard to tell from pictures. I would assume that mine are pretty much the average and I really doubt you'll find many larger. There are exceptions to every rule, though.
Yvonne
Yvonne
twtraudio said:
About 2' long.
Y
I just use a regular incandescent 60 watt bulb when they're indoors. For Emmie I have her right next to a baby box turtle habitat and she only gets whatever light spills over from them. At night I put on the black light to keep it from getting too cold. I never have worried about not using the UVB bulbs with my tortoises.
Yvonne
Yvonne
Mine have a 100 watt CHE on a thermastat (probe is in RFs enclosure set at 85 degrees) that keeps them at about 80 degrees (like it a little cooler). No UVB. The light is just ambient room light from basking herps (Bluetongue skinks and Star torts}. UV B light is not critical for forest type torts.
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