All tortoise….all the time!

Here are a few pics of the Redfoots setup when I got them in. Last night I moved the large female to a 6ft long, 70 gallon sheep stock tank by herself and the smaller one was moved into a 2×3 concrete mixing tub so I will post pics of them after I take some new ones this evening maybe. I have a new male coming in for the bigger girl so I wanted to get her a bigger setup ready for when he was ready to go in with her after a quarantine period. I also wanted to try and get a fecal sample from the smaller one since it doesnt seem to be gaining weight but eats like a horse.

This setup below is made up of a 50 gallon polystyrene sheep stock tank, the sheep tanks have much lower sides then regular cattle stock tanks do. I love the polystyrene, they are MUCH MUCH lighter than traditional metal or hard rubber stock tanks. Substrate consists of coco bedding with a cypress and sand base. The dark end of the tank is filled with long strand Sphagnum Moss, which can be found at most Home Depot, Lowe’s or local garden centers. I use the Mosser Lee brand. I wet down the entire substrate really good before the torts were ever placed in there. The moss is misted daily and once a week I check the substrate and add water if its getting too dry. On one end of the tank I put crushed oyster shell. I use this because if the tort consumes it while eating (food never stays on the terra cotta saucer used for feeding!) it will not harm them and actually has beneficial calcium. I see mine grazing on it occasionally even though there is a cuttlebone in the enclosure for them. I cover the opposite end of the tank away from the fluorescent lamp to give them a dark area. The fluorescent lamp is aimed at the opposite end so the light doesnt shine back into the dark end. They have a choice to be out in the light or back in their warm and humid hide area. They use every inch of the tank, constantly exploring. The torts are given a wide, shallow water bowl that they can easily walk in and out of. This water is changed daily because they do get it very messy. I will post pics of the new setups over the weekend. I must also mention that all of my torts are housed in my snake room, which is kept at an ambient room temp of 82-85 at all times, thus not requiring me to supplement the Redfoots heat with a ceramic heat emitter. If your room temps are below 80 you will need to supplement heat with a ceramic heat emitter or basking heat bulb.