Humidity & Redfoots

[newforestmum]

Just a quickie as the weather has been so nice lately my Redfoots have been spending a lot of time in a tortoise table on the patio. how can I keep the humidity levels right as the bark has been drying out very quickly due to the heat? Or should I keep them indoors with their new T-Rex lamp on.

Also as they like hiding so much will they be getting enough UV rays. their favourite hiding place is in a piece of drain pipe but the sun cannot get to them in there.

Am I worrying un-necessarily or not?

Lisa

[imported_Lowe]

At this time of year you do need to rehydrate the bark a little more than often in this kind of heat. Don't worry about the lack of UV - Reds are naturally quite secretive and will find small pockets of sunlight as they need it. Reds will also get their vitamin D3 from their diet (few mealworms now and then go down a treat!) so compared to other tortoises it isn't quite as important.

hi lisa

is the sand soil mixture underneath the bark also quite moist

glad you asked about hiding and uv i was thinking about this myself

linda

[piglet]

What i find good when putting redfoots or any forest living speices outdoors is give plenty of plant cover , for instance baby or smaler forest tortoises decorate there enclosure with small potted plants either in the pots resting on the substrate or actually buried in the enclosure table , this way they feel more secure to venyture out and bask in the dabbled sunlight just as they would in the wild .

For grown on speices or adult forest tortoises the same princible but larger shrubs and plants , tree ferns are excellent but a little expensive but this is just an idea also now you can get hardy banana trees that would look and feel natural to a forest tortoise , if these are either planted directly into an enclosure or left in pots dotted about ita again will allow the animals to feel secure while also allow basking time .

Darren