Questions in setting up for a RF

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Beck

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Hi everyone! I absolutely love this forum; I'm so excited to join you all.

My name is Rebekah and I'm living in humid Savannah GA with my fiance and a 10 year old dachshund. We currently live in an apartment with roofed patio. I've experience with red-slider turtles, garter snakes, and Schneider's skinks, but this will be my first tortoise.

I am planning on buying my baby redfoot from tortoisesupply.com. Please kindly PM if you believe this a good or bad idea, and any preferable alternatives. I'm all ears. I've looked into rescues around here, but I've only been able to find Sullys.

I've attached photos of the RF setup so far. I am planning on making a trip to buy UVB tube, CHE, a couple more hideaways (including one to make quite humid), cuttlebone, and lamp stand. But I figured I would show you these pictures so you could kindly inform me of everything I'm doing wrong, so I can also add those items to the list.

This, of course, is only his starting baby cage. We have big plans for a bookcase inside and a kiddie pool outside as he gets larger. And plans on buying a house with a backyard and building a large pen for him, several years down the road.

Enclosure:

39 x 18.5 x 6.5 under-bed storage container with split top. We plan to keep the right-side closed and humid for the RF, and the left-side open for the heating/light elements. Actually, we plan to cut out the middle of the left-side top, so that there is a lip to hinder escape. We also plan to put a dog fence to block my dachshund from that room when we are absent in case of any escapes.


Humidity concerns:

I've currently got organic sphagum moss in there. I sprayed it down a little (especially the bottom layer, which I also pressed down). As you can see in the photos, from even that light misting, I was able to get 80% humidity under the hide-y section. However, it will take more effort on the open side (currently showing 70% as I type). Is that sort of gradient acceptable? Apartment humidity is about 55% tonight, unsure if that's typical, because I just bought those thermometers today.

Lighting/heating concerns:

Apartment temperature is typically set to 76-80 degrees. Initially the thought was to get a UVB tube, a heating/basking lamp (I currently have a 10.5 in, ceramic base utility light fixture, and a non-reptile-specific 125W heat bulb) and a CHE for nighttime. However, my fiance is concerned with overcrowded the space over that half of the cage. Can you replace a heating/basking light for a CHE? I understand a CHE produces no light, but would a tortoise find it a desireable basking spot?

Also, we are planning on moving the entire cage outside for 30min-2 hours a day (when we can supervise, as we have a first-floor balcony so there are birds of prey, cats, and children), but it won't always be beat-down Savannah GA sun, because our balcony is roofed. With that, do you guys still suggest the purchase of UVB? I know Turtletary says no to artificial UVB in general.

I really appreciate the supportive and brilliant group you've got going on here. Please check out my pictures and let me know what I can do better.

-Rebekah
 
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Yvonne G

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Hi Rebakah, and welcome to the Forum!! Tortoisesupply.com is a pretty good place to shop.
 

Beck

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Yvonne G said:
Hi Rebakah, and welcome to the Forum!! Tortoisesupply.com is a pretty good place to shop.

Thanks Yvonne! I appreciate the welcome and the input. I'm kinda flying blind in ordering a tortoise online.
 

wellington

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Hello and Welcome:) Tyler, owner of tortoisesupply is a member of the forum and a reputable person to buy from. He will also help you out should you have questions you want to ask him. We also have lots of other RF owners here that will help. Also check out tortoiselibrary.com. That site has good RF info and is owned by another member of this forum.
 

abclements

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Hello and welcome as well!

Tyler from turtlesupply is very well respected here and gets rave reviews!

Your set up looks good and if you're getting it to 70% humidity under the open area, you're doing just fine! Just don't let it drop too much more than that.

As for the uvb tube and che combo, that is what I have going on and it works great! Rf basking is a debated topic here and some keepers (myself included) aim for an overall temperature and we try to aim for mid to low 80s. It's up to you to decide if you want a basking spot or not... some rfs love it and others don't... Either way people seem to be successful!

It sounds like you have a good plan! Just remember to keep your little guys warm and humid! And you'll be golden!

If you follow turtletary's diet plan, you should be good too. Just maybe consider replacing the cat food with boils eggs or chicken or something to that effect. And maybe if you feel like it, they love Mazuri!

Sent from my LG-P769 using TortForum mobile app
 

Beck

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abclements said:
As for the uvb tube and che combo, that is what I have going on and it works great! Rf basking is a debated topic here and some keepers (myself included) aim for an overall temperature and we try to aim for mid to low 80s. It's up to you to decide if you want a basking spot or not... some rfs love it and others don't... Either way people seem to be successful!

It sounds like you have a good plan! Just remember to keep your little guys warm and humid! And you'll be golden!

Thanks everyone for the kind welcomes!! I hadn't been to tortoiselibrary; that is a wonderful resource! And its good to hear good things about turtletary as well.

Drew, by aiming for an overall temperature, do you mean for RFs you keep your enclosure basically one temperature and don't have a warm side and cool side with a gradient?

I'm trying just the UVB and CHE combination. Of course, the UVB tube was nonfunctional upon arrival (welcome to the club, eh?). The CHE on the open side of the enclosure didn't ~~magically~~ warm the cool side to the proper temperature like I hoped. It settled around 75 degrees, depending on our apt's AC. I'm experimenting with different CHE positions now.

So glad I haven't ordered the little one yet.

-Rebekah
 

Beck

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Thanks for the input guys.

Completely over-engineered the enclosure, but so far I am happy with it. I used a second under-bed storage container and created a false bottom to increase humidity. The true bottom contains water, heat ropes on a dimmer, and charcoal. Humidity is 75%+ on the "dry side" to 95-99% on the "wet side". I took step-by-step pictures. If anyone is interested I can make a thread.

I've got the UVB on a sunrise/sunset timer, and a CHE to keep one side warmer than the other (78F on the cool side, 84-86F on the warm side, with a spot of 90F).

Tortoisesupply was out, so I ordered from Vicki Hale. My little 'girl' is on its way and will be here tomorrow! It feels like Christmas.
 

Redstrike

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How close to the surface is that CHE? Those get hot, I have bad images of your tortoise getting burned or you having a house fire (or both!).
 

Beck

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It's a 60W CHE in a porcelain base light fixture with the metal guard, hung with a zoomed lamp stand. It's 11 inches from the top of the enclosure (which is closed) and approx 16 inches from the surface of the enclosure.

At 60W, I can actually place my palms on the metal fixture. I think my UVB LIGHT gets hotter! It's just to bump the temperature a few degrees on one side.

I can imagine though, at higher wattage, I'd need to take even more precautions.


By the way, thank you again Chris for helping with the false bottom! I ended up getting a dimmer, because without the dimmer, it heated the enclosure to a perfect ambient temperature, but left no room for me to create temperature gradients.
 

Redstrike

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Beck said:
It's a 60W CHE in a porcelain base light fixture with the metal guard, hung with a zoomed lamp stand. It's 11 inches from the top of the enclosure (which is closed) and approx 16 inches from the surface of the enclosure.

At 60W, I can actually place my palms on the metal fixture. I think my UVB LIGHT gets hotter! It's just to bump the temperature a few degrees on one side.

I can imagine though, at higher wattage, I'd need to take even more precautions.


By the way, thank you again Chris for helping with the false bottom! I ended up getting a dimmer, because without the dimmer, it heated the enclosure to a perfect ambient temperature, but left no room for me to create temperature gradients.



Okay, that sounds fine. I just saw the pictures and thought it looked a bit shallow to hold a CHE, but if it's in a dome lamp, that's perfect!

I hope the false bottom works well for you, happy to help anytime!
 
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