TortoiseHabitats.com

Tortoise House and Playpen

redfoot — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:28:10 +0000

There are a couple of interesting and quite affordable solutions for new tortoise owner looking for a great indoor/outdoor house and outdoor pen.

Zoo Med’s Tortoise House (available from PetSmart) provides excellent privacy and security for your tortoise. This indoor/outdoor unit provides both a safe hide box area, as well as an area with a wire screen top. The unit is lockable for added protection. The end panel of the tortoise house is removable to allow for a second tortoise house to be attached to double its size. For indoor use, the wire screen top provides an excellent area for your tortoise lighting/heaters.

Zoo Med’s Tortoise Pen (available from PetSmart) is a great way to allow your tortoise to naturally and safely forage for food, while absorbing natural UVB rays from the sun. Just be sure not to place it on chemically treated lawns as this may be harmful to their health.

Outdoor Tortoise Pool for Soaking and Drinking

redfoot — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 04:58:06 +0000

Keeping your tortoises cool during the hot days of Summer is vital for their health and happiness. Creating an effective watering hole for your chelonian is essential. A couple of solutions for creating a tortoise pool include using a pond liner or creating a custom cement form. A great solution for a large and safe pool is to use a washing machine pan.

Washing machine pans are about 30″ square and are about 2″ deep. This is a safe depth, while still providing a good drink and belly (aka plastron) soak on a hot day. They are available from hardware/plumbing stores for around $20.00.

Spring Planting

redfoot — Fri, 16 May 2008 23:48:14 +0000

When planning my outdoor tortoises habitat each Spring, I focus on two areas: Food and Protection.

My redfoot tortoises eat a variety of greens, flowers, and fruit throughout the Spring and Summer. This includes a lettuce mix, dandelion greens, nasturtium flowers, fresh figs, and berries.

The dandelion greens grow wildly in my yard each year — I have a non-chemical lawn, so I feel that this is safe to feed them. I grow berry bushes in my yard, as well as a couple of fig trees.

In the habitat, I plant organic nasturtium flower seeds, an organic salad green mix, and seeds from a variety of weeds. The weeds provide both food and protection — with some growing up to 5 feet tall.

Turtle Gifts

redfoot — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 17:53:04 +0000

I found an interesting website that offers embroidered turtle gifts for kids. Just thought I’d share this link with anyone interested in turtle gifts for kids!

Winter Care

redfoot — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 01:50:55 +0000

When it’s time to take my redfoot tortoises in for the season, I try to keep them as happy as possible. This year I changed their habitat systems a bit to keep them at a more comfortable temperature and humidity. For their humidity needs, I mist them a couple of times a week for about 30 minutes. They become quite active and make their happy grinding/chirping/clucking sounds.

Every few days, I feed them a variety of greens with papaya. I supplement their salad with with Dr. Donoghue ’s Forest Tortoise Complete available through Rock Solid Herpetoculture. I think that it has really done wonders for my tortoises.

I hope to post photos of their current indoor habitat soon. Please feel free to comment on the techniques you use to keep your tortoises happy and healthy over the winter season. Thanks for reading.

Herp Products

redfoot — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 12:05:18 +0000

There are many herp supply stores of the Internet that I have used. Here are a few of my favorites:

Big Apple Herpetological - offers an extensive selection of reptile products with excellent service, same-day shipping, and great prices
Doctors Foster and Smith - excellent prices on herp products
Central Florida Sulcata Rescue - great tortoise pasture seed mix and calcium supplements
Rock Solid Herpetoculture - previously known as the Walkabout Farms/Quantum Series, this full line of advanced nutrition support products is the result of many years of research, testing and design by Dr. Susan Donoghue, VMD, DACVN
X10 - the easiest and most versitile way to automate and control your herp systems

My Redfoot Tortoises

redfoot — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 07:19:31 +0000

Thanks for stopping in! I own two redfoot tortoises. I adopted my female redfoot tortoise in July 2001 and I adopted my male redfoot tortoise in September 2002. They are amazing and intelligent creatures.I have built a few different habitats for them over the years. The purpose of this website is to share my techniques and experiences with housing my redfoot tortoises. This includes the building of their enclosures, the substrates that I use, and the managing of their habitat environment.

This information represents what has worked for me and my tortoises. Please make your own decisions when caring for your tortoises.