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Soaking a Hermann's

zookeepnhippie Feb 12, 2006 07:55 PM

How often is it good to soak a 6 month old western hermann's. She doesn't seem to like getting into her own water, but when I soak her she drinks a lot of water and seems to like being in it.
Thanks A Lot
Kirby

Replies (3)

bradtort Feb 12, 2006 08:10 PM

I keep russians, which are sort of similar.

I don't know of any rules on frequency of soaking, but here's what I do.

When my russians are living outdoors 24 hours a day - I never soak. Humidity is high around here, and it rains every so often, etc. I do keep a shallow, glazed water bowl in the pen.

When they are indoors, and living on a newspaper substrate (only a few weeks at a time), I soak them once or twice a week. It's very dry in my house, as it is in most houses, and the torts spend a lot of time baking under the heat lamp.

When they are hatchlings, staying on a substrate of sand/soil into which they dig at night, I soak them twice a week. Those little bodies seem prone to dehydration, so I try to work against it. The substrate helps them retain moisture when they dig in at night.

melgrj7 Feb 12, 2006 08:35 PM

I soak my hermann's, who is about 7 months old (hatched june 30th 2005) usually daily for 20 minutes or so, I change the water after he defecates. Then usually after that soak he gets to walk around the turtle safe room and then he gets soaked again for about 10 minutes (this is more to clean him off) and then put back in his cage. So he gets soaked for about a total of a half an hour a day, sometimes every other day. During the summer I soaked him less, but in the winter the air is so dry from the heat being on that his skin looks dry, so I soak him more often.

zookeepnhippie Feb 13, 2006 07:08 AM

Cool, thanks a lot for the replies. I figured that she would be getting pretty dry in her enclosure because I have a sand and bed-a-beast substrate and had timothy hay on about 1/3 of it. It seemed so dry, so I took out the hay and replaced it with about an inch and a half of cypress mulch. She has a hide on both sides and I have been spraying the cypress lightly every day.

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