Redfoot Tortoise pictures

[Anyfoot]

This is Boris, my 10wk old hatchling

[CherryBrandy]

wow so sweet, cant really get a good understanding of size. how much does Boris weigh? lovely photographs again. Some very good learning going on for us folks who don't know about Redfoots and habitat, CB

[Anyfoot]

S/he is 49g now. Was 21g when hatched out.
Love redfoots, they are one of the more sociable species, living in groups in the wild. Need to be kept very humid, that's why I use a viv instead of a Tortoise table, you can't get the humidity up high enough in a table. Also they prefer an ambient temp, no basking spot. They like it relatively dark at this age.

[emma_mcraf]

Gorgeous little Boris. I'm enjoying this thread so much. As CB says, it's really informative for those of us who don't know too much about Redfoots. I've put Redfoots on my 'if only' list now, next to 'a garden big enough for Aldabras'.
I'm really content with all I'm blessed to have but my goodness your set-up is really fantastic.

[Anyfoot]

Originally Posted by emma_mcraf

Gorgeous little Boris. I'm enjoying this thread so much. As CB says, it's really informative for those of us who don't know too much about Redfoots. I've put Redfoots on my 'if only' list now, next to 'a garden big enough for Aldabras'.
I'm really content with all I'm blessed to have but my goodness your set-up is really fantastic.

It's suprised me how uncommon redfoots are in the uk. I thought they would be more popular. They really are a soft sociable Tortoise. Dont get me wrong I've seen some ramming from time to time but generally they are easy going. All have different personalities though.
I guess in our climate a tropical species doesn't appeal to most. My adults enclosure wasn't cheap, but I reckon it can be copied on a smaller scale for a relatively small cost. I'm going to build something similar for my hingebacks, this time I'm doing it as cheap as possible in hope we can help uk tort addicts to the tropical species. I'm thinking a 8x10 plastic shed(insulated). This would do for a small herd of reds too.

[Jan W]

Absolutely blooming wonderful! I really enjoyed going through your photographs.

Until I came on shelled warriors I thought all tortoises were like mine! So I have learnt so much.

I need to build cave next.....

[Anyfoot]

This is the enclosure I raised the 3 juveniles in, they are now in a bigger enclosure. This is a 2x4" viv, 3" of coir for substrate, I also add sphagnum moss in there too, they like to dig in and keep humid. CHE on a stat and a 5.0 uvb strip half length of the enclosure, so heat and light all comes from the same end(like the sun), towards the cooler end is darker. No temp less than 27deg c for these guys. Humidity is at 90%.
These are an omnivore species, I feed roughly 60% weeds, 40% fruit/mushrooms and protein once a wk. Protein can be, catfood,scrambled egg(with shell), pinkies,cooked chicken. I prefer pinkies, 1 pinky each per week as a juvenile. Animal protein gives them vitamins they need too, like Vitamin D.
I offer cuttlebone constantly, which they love for calcium. Never bothered with any other supplements. I spray their carapaces in a morning and the enclosure, I soaked these guys every day for the 1st 12 months to keep them hydrated.

[Anyfoot]

[Robbiec]

Originally Posted by Anyfoot

Yeah, I'm in Sheffield , so not to far.

This enclosure is 300sq ft. I started with an old outside toilet, I live in a very old house. We knocked it diwn and cleaned every brick. What a nightmare it was, but well worth it. Then hired a builder to rebuild for me out of the old bricks. It's fully insulated with a cavity wall, inside walls are made of thermal blocks, not that expensive. Wish I had building skills, I'm an engineer. My next project is to build something for my homeana hingebacks. Thinking a fully insulated upvc shed. This could be done for a smaller herd if reds too. I'll start a thread soon on how I built this. The caves were made of all sorts of rubble, dirt cheap to do. All the paint I used was chlorinated rubber paint, it's swimming pool paint, so it copes with high humidity.
BTW I have a clutch of 9 in the incubator(northerns) see what happens, your welcome to some if they hatch.
Your right to stick with northerns, my male cherryhead is only just reaching sexual maturity so I know I'm safe for now with the northerns.
What do you feed for protein?

Hi Craig,

Your enclosure (indoor and outdoor) is nothing short of extraordinary. I'm so happy you have so many Reds in such a good environment. They're clearly all thriving

I would massively appreciate your advice/thread about building an outdoor enclosure. I don't have the finances to go as far out as your outbuilding since I just bought my first home - but certainly upvc shed seems viable and an affordable option.

As for your potential hatchlings - I could certainly be interested - but it might be troublesome before I can sex my own. But definitely keep me informed of developments please!

For protein I feed the torts Calci worms and boiled eggs mainly. Sometimes mealworms though my partner hates these as they crawl out of the bowl and sometimes turn into beatles! I'm sure they find the occasional garden grub as well since I found my tort with half of a worm or something hanging out of his mouth from the garden today. Hope this is OK?

[Robbiec]

Originally Posted by Anyfoot

This is the enclosure I raised the 3 juveniles in, they are now in a bigger enclosure. This is a 2x4" viv, 3" of coir for substrate, I also add sphagnum moss in there too, they like to dig in and keep humid. CHE on a stat and a 5.0 uvb strip half length of the enclosure, so heat and light all comes from the same end(like the sun), towards the cooler end is darker. No temp less than 27deg c for these guys. Humidity is at 90%.
These are an omnivore species, I feed roughly 60% weeds, 40% fruit/mushrooms and protein once a wk. Protein can be, catfood,scrambled egg(with shell), pinkies,cooked chicken. I prefer pinkies, 1 pinky each per week as a juvenile. Animal protein gives them vitamins they need too, like Vitamin D.
I offer cuttlebone constantly, which they love for calcium. Never bothered with any other supplements. I spray their carapaces in a morning and the enclosure, I soaked these guys every day for the 1st 12 months to keep them hydrated.

Stunning enclosure also - may I ask - when you refer to pinkies do you mean tiny mice? Also, how do you keep the humidity at 90%? When I raised the humidity to that level we got some small patches of mold in the viv so lowered to 80% and eradicated the problem.