Pancakes, how its going...

[pwinkie03]

So ive had Sheldon and Swarley for 6 weeks now, and Spartacus joined us a week ago... so i thought id make a post to check im doing everything right...

since Spartacus arrived, they have all been so active and outgoing which is really good, they all get themselves up in the morning (sometimes before me!) and bask quite happily for much of the day. They are very active and will roam, climb and stomp all around a lot between basking, and they eat and are starting to use the water bowl in their table too. they are also very sociable and often sleep together and bask together which is good!

Temps: are 32(max) at the hot end and 20(min) at the cool end during the day, and at night the warm end is 20(max) and cool end is 16(min) these temps stay pretty stable as i have thermostats running at both ends connected to my ceramic bulb and central heating. They also have an arcadia t5 uv strip which covers most of the table (as its only small) and when we upgrade i will add a second one.

Food: im feeding fresh weeds daily, usually about 50% slender plantain for fibre then a mixture of others such as field marigold, dandelion (twice weekly), bristly oxtongue, icy plant, viola, pansy, grass etc.. im also growing lots of weeds and all my extra seedlings are either in their table or i snip some over their food. they have a small amount of florette lettuce each day too. they get reptovite once a week on their food and limestone flour every day (also have cuttlefish bone and limestone flour avaliable in their table).
ive been advised recently to feed half fresh weeds and half alfalfa hay? (dont know if this is like readigrass?) any suggestons?

they all seem to be eating well, particularly baby Spartacus (who eats anything including my finger.. naughty tort!) im getting good firm poops regularly from all of them. I tend to feed after their bath at night but they also like eating in the mornings too, so i cover it over and mist it with water in the morning so they can come back for more if they want it (particularly Sheldon enjoys it in the morning) is this ok?

Water: they have a 20 minute bath each day, plus water in their table that they often walk through and are beginning to sit in occasionally. I also spray their weeds with a little water before feeding. Im not finding many urates at bath time, maybe every couple of days and only very small amounts though its no longer gritty which is a relief, all sound ok?

Table: ive found they really enjoy all the different textures and areas in the table, and since moving it around prior to the arrival of Spartacus have been using the whole table and all of the hides much more. The oyster shell in the basking area they like and they clamber over everything else like nutters! there is no part of the table that they dont use! the substrate is about 50/50 sand soil mix that i painstakingly sieved so its nice and smooth, i mist it gently in the morning but most of the time its fairly dry. they love digging into it ive read about having a sand only area, worth a try?? i did have slabs before but they knocked them over (no idea how) and so for now ive used the log hides instead but to be honest they love them and climb over and bask on top of them too, i have squished them down though so they are nice and low. Was thinking about a humid hide too, any suggestions? also would i put it at the warm end or the cool end? you can see a pic of my table here: http://www.shelledwarriors.co.uk/for...ad.php?t=48700

Weight: ive also weighed them all this week and: Sheldon (14 months) - 7cm, 48g. Swarley (13 months) 6.3cm, 39g. Spartacus (4 months) 5.2cm, 28g. i have no idea what their weights should be or what size they should be for their age... Sheldon also has a slightly flatter and wider shell which is a little lumpy in places and the other two have quite smooth, curves shells still. Any advice would be appreciated!

Sorry for the looong post, ill leave you with a pic of them all basking together that i took yesterday, Thanks Louise