Hi all, hard to believe I am able to find this site and my login again after so many years!
www.tortoiseforum.org
Pretty interesting to read things I'd forgotten writing long ago. Very ironic about my comments on buying/building a new home in 2011 -- we didn't end up moving in until fall of 2014!!!
I didn't get around to finishing the basement until a year ago, and after that, it was kicking it into high gear to upgrade Sheldon's home!! And again, I fell into the spiral of indecision (I'd forgotten that the same thing had happened the last upgrade)... I bought a 125 gallon tank (72" x 18") second hand, but it had predrilled holes in the bottom due to having been a saltwater aquarium. Having driven a long way, I took it despite my misgivings, then I researched various ways to use or plug the holes. Eventually I decided to scrap the idea, despite this tank being a huge, heavy beast, and bought ANOTHER one, without the drilled bottom, and lugged the old one out and the new one in. ?
Then, more indecision. In the meantime, I neglected poor Sheldon in his current home, knowing that I'd be moving him into nicer quarters soon, which ended up being far longer than it ought to have been. Poor guy. Finally, I decided on my approach, which incorporated most of the ideas I had in his last upgrade -- a water area with filter and river rock, a raised platform with clay pellets layered underneath cypress mulch (no soil and sand as this dirties the water beneath the platform too much. And then most difficult was an aesthetic transition for him to easily get up or down. The platform and stairs were constructed from florescent light louver/egg crate stuff. Then I cut up a bunch of resin terrarium ornamental stones to create a veneer for the steps, and siliconed them down -- one of the big issues with his old setup was that I had the resin rocks stacked unsecured and he was constantly destroying the arrangement.
I was very relieved to get him out of his neglected current home. It's crazy that I've had this Gulf Coast box turtle for just about THIRTY YEARS, having gotten him when I was just in 5th grade and knew absolutely nothing about caring responsibly for him. He's gone from 10 gallon tank to 20 gallon to 40, every substrate under the sun, consistently low humidity for years and now I feel at long last he has a comfortable home. I still hope to one day do the outdoor enclosure, but I worry about animals getting at tough ol Sheldon. Still, maybe in future this will only be his winter home.
See attached for the end results. I hope everyone's doing well, human and turtle alike!
aquatic snails and other water food?
i have a 3 toed boxie that has led a poor quality of life for the past 20 years in a 20 long fish tank on newspaper. i've since tried to provide him with a better home, keeping him in a vivarium type setting, in a pretty large 3'x2' aquarium, using a false bottom platform for drainage...
www.tortoiseforum.org
Pretty interesting to read things I'd forgotten writing long ago. Very ironic about my comments on buying/building a new home in 2011 -- we didn't end up moving in until fall of 2014!!!
I didn't get around to finishing the basement until a year ago, and after that, it was kicking it into high gear to upgrade Sheldon's home!! And again, I fell into the spiral of indecision (I'd forgotten that the same thing had happened the last upgrade)... I bought a 125 gallon tank (72" x 18") second hand, but it had predrilled holes in the bottom due to having been a saltwater aquarium. Having driven a long way, I took it despite my misgivings, then I researched various ways to use or plug the holes. Eventually I decided to scrap the idea, despite this tank being a huge, heavy beast, and bought ANOTHER one, without the drilled bottom, and lugged the old one out and the new one in. ?
Then, more indecision. In the meantime, I neglected poor Sheldon in his current home, knowing that I'd be moving him into nicer quarters soon, which ended up being far longer than it ought to have been. Poor guy. Finally, I decided on my approach, which incorporated most of the ideas I had in his last upgrade -- a water area with filter and river rock, a raised platform with clay pellets layered underneath cypress mulch (no soil and sand as this dirties the water beneath the platform too much. And then most difficult was an aesthetic transition for him to easily get up or down. The platform and stairs were constructed from florescent light louver/egg crate stuff. Then I cut up a bunch of resin terrarium ornamental stones to create a veneer for the steps, and siliconed them down -- one of the big issues with his old setup was that I had the resin rocks stacked unsecured and he was constantly destroying the arrangement.
I was very relieved to get him out of his neglected current home. It's crazy that I've had this Gulf Coast box turtle for just about THIRTY YEARS, having gotten him when I was just in 5th grade and knew absolutely nothing about caring responsibly for him. He's gone from 10 gallon tank to 20 gallon to 40, every substrate under the sun, consistently low humidity for years and now I feel at long last he has a comfortable home. I still hope to one day do the outdoor enclosure, but I worry about animals getting at tough ol Sheldon. Still, maybe in future this will only be his winter home.
See attached for the end results. I hope everyone's doing well, human and turtle alike!
