Tyrones New Enclosure ...Help with Temps.!

[Watsonpartyof4]

Let me know what you think of the temps
Warm end 75-80
Cool end 65-70
Basking spot 98-104
Humidity 85%

How do those sound? He is in a 72 inch long aquarium, with plexiglass lids. Substrate is coco coir bricks soaked with excess water squeezed out and coco nuggets.

Should I leave the lids on? I am trying to. Upload pictures, I do have to say he is loving it! He is walking around and exploring and eating.

 

[wellington]

Sounds pretty good to me. I would leave the lid on. What is the coco chunks? If its coconut coir chunks, then okay, if its the coco as in chocolate coco chunks they sell for landscaping, get rid of it, I believe it is not good for animals. I know it's not good for dogs.

 

[Watsonpartyof4]

Sounds pretty good to me. I would leave the lid on. What is the coco chunks? If its coconut coir chunks, then okay, if its the coco as in chocolate coco chunks they sell for landscaping, get rid of it, I believe it is not good for animals. I know it's not good for dogs.

It is repti bark coco nuggets

 

[Tom]

Looks good Dawndy. From what I've seen other redfoot keepers post, I think your basking temp is a little warm and your cool end a little too cool. Hopefully my post will bump you back to the top of the page and one of our redfooters will help you out.

 

[diaboliqueturtle]

Looks awesome! I like your rocky wallpaper, I went with the green theme, makes the whole thing seem so much bigger, doesn't it
I use the same 2 substrates, they're great. Your temps are also pretty identical to mine.
I gotta stop tinkering with it long enough to post pics without them turning "day old" ;-)

 

[tortadise]

Looks great. Tom is spot on. I would keep low end around 76 and warm end around 90 tops. Reds usuallh dont bask so more an even flow of temp is used with these guys. They are quite hardy however, so they can take a variety. But mid 70s to low 80s is perfect.

 

[Watsonpartyof4]

[QOUTE="Tom"]Looks good Dawndy. From what I've seen other redfoot keepers post, I think your basking temp is a little warm and your cool end a little too cool. Hopefully my post will bump you back to the top of the page and one of our redfooters will help you out.

Looks great. Tom is spot on. I would keep low end around 76 and warm end around 90 tops. Reds usuallh dont bask so more an even flow of temp is used with these guys. They are quite hardy however, so they can take a variety. But mid 70s to low 80s is perfect.

Ok I will try to move lights around and see if temps will even out. The high temp is right under the MVB should I angle it? Would that make a difference?

 

[tortadise]

That might help. Give it a try

 

[RosieRedfoot]

Mvb bulbs should be hanging as close to vertical as possible to maximize bulb life. From what I've researched, redfoots in wild and captivity are most active between 80 and 86 degrees. I'm planning on building Rosie's enclosed enclosure to stay around 77-80 at night, 80-85 day, and a basking spot of 92-95. I'm fairly new to redfoots though, so hopefully a more experienced redfooter will chime in and say yay or nay to my temp suggestions.

 

[tortadise]

Those are perfectly fine. A bit warm on basking side. But shouldnt hurt anything at all. When reds do tend to be seen basking its more to soak up some rays and not really warm up unless temps are too cold elsewhere either being outside or inside enclosure. Should work just great though. I dont want to confuse anyone but it also does depend on the "race" of redfoot. Most are about the same all around. But when you get into northern, southern, eastern, north eastern, and north western temps for those kinds of reds can vary. Like my Bolivian tends to like it very warm. No need to really get into that though.

 

[Watsonpartyof4]

Those are perfectly fine. A bit warm on basking side. But shouldnt hurt anything at all. When reds do tend to be seen basking its more to soak up some rays and not really warm up unless temps are too cold elsewhere either being outside or inside enclosure. Should work just great though. I dont want to confuse anyone but it also does depend on the "race" of redfoot. Most are about the same all around. But when you get into northern, southern, eastern, north eastern, and north western temps for those kinds of reds can vary. Like my Bolivian tends to like it very warm. No need to really get into that though.

I am very interested in how you know where your RF is from, is it by markings ? Or do you get them from that area? I would love to know where Tyrone is from.
I have read some of your postings on here and I am fascinated by your research and would love to know more about how RF differ from their locations, such as looks, behavior, diet, temps etc

I do have to say I think this enclosure is probably much better for Tyrone, because the humidity is staying pretty high and consistent. And I am having better control on the heat too versus the open table he was in before, even when I covered part of the table I still couldn't keep things right.

 

[tortadise]

Typical ways to tell is by plastron view and shape. Its very difficult to rely on scalation pattern or color for most animals around. If they are captive bred sometimes its almost impossible to really know for sure. Usually its easy to define whether or not they are northern, southern, eastern, or north western. They all show similar chacteristics amongst differences. Like a southern will have very round wide shell shape more like a sulcata, and northerns will have a "rubber band waste" they kinda hourglass. Photos would help. Im not the best at it, I know mark is pretty good at decifering them. I will give it a try. Lots of times too if you know when you got it and if its wild caught I could probably tell you which country it came from, alot of the south american countries kinda swap on export years. Like right now and the past 2 years have all been guyana exports. 7-8 years ago they were all suriname, venezuelan imports. 8-10 years ago they were columbian, venezuelan, suriname, guyana, and some smuggled brazilians moved around through the other countries that were exporting.

---

See the hourglass affect on the northern, and then the more roundish square of the southern bolivian. It can get pretty detailed. but its pretty cool.

 

[Watsonpartyof4]

Typical ways to tell is by plastron view and shape. Its very difficult to rely on scalation pattern or color for most animals around. If they are captive bred sometimes its almost impossible to really know for sure. Usually its easy to define whether or not they are northern, southern, eastern, or north western. They all show similar chacteristics amongst differences. Like a southern will have very round wide shell shape more like a sulcata, and northerns will have a "rubber band waste" they kinda hourglass. Photos would help. Im not the best at it, I know mark is pretty good at decifering them. I will give it a try. Lots of times too if you know when you got it and if its wild caught I could probably tell you which country it came from, alot of the south american countries kinda swap on export years. Like right now and the past 2 years have all been guyana exports. 7-8 years ago they were all suriname, venezuelan imports. 8-10 years ago they were columbian, venezuelan, suriname, guyana, and some smuggled brazilians moved around through the other countries that were exporting.

That is awesome! I will take pictures and post here tomorrow when is is awake ... I had to restrain myself from waking him up just to take pictures!
He does have a slight pinched waist. We have had him 18 months, and they told us he was 2-3 at the time. So we are guessing he is 4-5yrs old.
My daughter bought him from Petsmart. She said she couldn't help but bring him home, he was living in a very tiny container on sand and being fed pellets only! He does have pyramiding, but I can see some smooth grow lines, so hopefully we are doing something right!

I just can't believe how attached I have become to this little guy, when I talk about him to other people, they think I am nuts! I can't help but love him!

 

[tortadise]

Typical ways to tell is by plastron view and shape. Its very difficult to rely on scalation pattern or color for most animals around. If they are captive bred sometimes its almost impossible to really know for sure. Usually its easy to define whether or not they are northern, southern, eastern, or north western. They all show similar chacteristics amongst differences. Like a southern will have very round wide shell shape more like a sulcata, and northerns will have a "rubber band waste" they kinda hourglass. Photos would help. Im not the best at it, I know mark is pretty good at decifering them. I will give it a try. Lots of times too if you know when you got it and if its wild caught I could probably tell you which country it came from, alot of the south american countries kinda swap on export years. Like right now and the past 2 years have all been guyana exports. 7-8 years ago they were all suriname, venezuelan imports. 8-10 years ago they were columbian, venezuelan, suriname, guyana, and some smuggled brazilians moved around through the other countries that were exporting.

That is awesome! I will take pictures and post here tomorrow when is is awake ... I had to restrain myself from waking him up just to take pictures!
He does have a slight pinched waist. We have had him 18 months, and they told us he was 2-3 at the time. So we are guessing he is 4-5yrs old.
My daughter bought him from Petsmart. She said she couldn't help but bring him home, he was living in a very tiny container on sand and being fed pellets only! He does have pyramiding, but I can see some smooth grow lines, so hopefully we are doing something right!

I just can't believe how attached I have become to this little guy, when I talk about him to other people, they think I am nuts! I can't help but love him!

Yep tortoises are great animals. They are so docile, peaceful and wonderful to watch. Usually petsmart gets their red foots from breeders that are northern "race". But you never know I have found brazilians at petco before and the kid working didnt even know where any red foot came from.

 

[Watsonpartyof4]

Yep tortoises are great animals. They are so docile, peaceful and wonderful to watch. Usually petsmart gets their red foots from breeders that are northern "race". But you never know I have found brazilians at petco before and the kid working didnt even know where any red foot came from.

I do feel zen like watching him walk around and explore. Much better than watching fish swim! I don't think very much of the people working at the pet stores, not that they are bad people, just that they are not trained and dont have the knowledge they should have. The advice we recieved compared to what I have learned from this forum is a world of difference! I don't think Tyrone would be the happy healthy guy if it wasn't for this forum and kind people like yourself! Thanks!

At least I think he is a guy ...!

 

[tortadise]

They really are a very zen and therapeutic animal.

Well maybe we can tell you what sex it is as well which "race" or "type" of redfoot.

 

[Watsonpartyof4]

They really are a very zen and therapeutic animal.

Well maybe we can tell you what sex it is as well which "race" or "type" of redfoot.

Ok here are pictures as promised!











Let me know what you think !

View attachment 30822

 

[tortadise]

Definitely in the northern classification possibly northeastern. The northeastern are more readily bred and imported recently here in the US. Hard to tell exactly 100% on the sex. looks very male to me. Sometime though when they are in the akward size to accurately sex size, like this. They can have growth spurts and show chacteristics of both. Could go either way but right now looks like a boy.

Northern consist of - Ecuador, Peru, and Columbia.

Northeastern consist of - Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and parts of Northern Brazil.

 

[Watsonpartyof4]

Also take a look at the white spot... I just noticed that today, It is kinda flakey. Could it be fungus? Or something else !

 

[Moozillion]

I don't know anything about redfoots but I sure like that enclosure! You've given me some ideas! But I AM a bit miffed that you STOLE the name I was going to give my tort: if it's a male I was going to name it Tyronne E. SaurusRex. But you were too quick for me! Ha!