Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I had written in a little while ago with the concerns about the fungal/bacteria infection on my young RF (that seems to be clearing up just fine thanks to everyone's help)

Before the little guy would not come out of his hide very much, and would only eat when I put him in front of his food. This concerned me a lot, but I figured it was either because his infection was slowing him down or me applying treatment to him twice a day had stressed him out a lot.

I was reading up on climate control in his tank on Tortoisetrust and Turtletary, and noticed that both strongly recommended heating the hide. So I did just that, placing his infrared heat lamp above his hide....and BAM, he is now all over the place...running around his enclosure, eating every time he passes the food plate, burying himself, digging new hides, taking baths. The COMPLETE opposite of his behavior before.

My question here is, did I make his hide so hot that he doesn’t want to be in it so now searches around for the next best thing? He does not seem to be avoiding the heat, because he has buried himself in his substrate directly under his spotlamp several times.

I keep his setup with an ambient heat of about 80F, basking spot at about 95F, his hide is NOW around 85-90F (filled with constantly wet spag). I keep the humidity around 70% with misting, and he is on about 2.5" of a loam/cypress mixture as a substrate.

thanks for any help that you can give

Key ingredients for a healthy tortoise is heat and hydration.

With the humid hide I'd suggest easing up or eliminating the misting. I really think Redfoots like it dryer than most people keep them as long as they have a choice to find a humid area but I think that's the case with most if not all tortoises with a few exceptions.

>>Hi,
>>
>>I had written in a little while ago with the concerns about the fungal/bacteria infection on my young RF (that seems to be clearing up just fine thanks to everyone's help)
>>
>>Before the little guy would not come out of his hide very much, and would only eat when I put him in front of his food. This concerned me a lot, but I figured it was either because his infection was slowing him down or me applying treatment to him twice a day had stressed him out a lot.
>>
>>I was reading up on climate control in his tank on Tortoisetrust and Turtletary, and noticed that both strongly recommended heating the hide. So I did just that, placing his infrared heat lamp above his hide....and BAM, he is now all over the place...running around his enclosure, eating every time he passes the food plate, burying himself, digging new hides, taking baths. The COMPLETE opposite of his behavior before.
>>
>>My question here is, did I make his hide so hot that he doesn’t want to be in it so now searches around for the next best thing? He does not seem to be avoiding the heat, because he has buried himself in his substrate directly under his spotlamp several times.
>>
>>I keep his setup with an ambient heat of about 80F, basking spot at about 95F, his hide is NOW around 85-90F (filled with constantly wet spag). I keep the humidity around 70% with misting, and he is on about 2.5" of a loam/cypress mixture as a substrate.
>>
>>thanks for any help that you can give
>>
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

You might simply want to give him a second hide in the cool end of the enclosure as well. That way you can be sure that he is not forced to choose between the body temperature he would like to maintain at any given time or the feeling of security (hide).
I actually provide three hides per enclosure. One each in the hot and cool end and one in the middle.

Gaby

he has three hides that i have made for him...a cool hide with spag, a hot hide with no spag (he has dug most of this out himself), and then the hot hide with spag in question. He also does the whole microclimate deal by burring himself in different parts of the enclosure.

Looks like if he has everything to keep him happy then!
Good luck with him,

Gaby