Hi Ryan, In order to keep this in the monitor forum, I will have to compare them to monitors.
Yes, I keep the group,1.2, together all the time. No, the offspring is not with them yet.
Yes, I keep them in a monitor cage with the exact same temps as the monitors would get. Yes, I not only do that, but I also feed them mice(pinkies and fuzzies) not alot, a couple times a week. I either add them to their salad mix, or just toss in a bowl of fuzzies, either alive or FK. The torts will run down the mice and consume them eagerly. I believe if torts, much like monitors, have enough heat, they can process "protien" in their diet without problem. We also feed them a high plant content dogfood. Again, under conditions they have a choice, they have no problems.
Like you, keeping them like monitors(a wide temp choice) has only resulted in beautiful growth, great reproduction, and perfect shell formation. This includes both the original group, wild caught I am guessing) and the offspring.
The truth is, my female goldens are about twice the size I was told and read they would get and are still growing.
The male eats just like the females but does not grow at the same rate. He is much smaller then the females. As any tort, he is randy as all get out, and will mount a marble(anything, anytime)
They are very entertaining as I can hear that little man in action, bang bang bang bang, he does these rapid bumps on the females, then mounts them. All the time, hahahahaha it has not appeared to stress them at all.
I did incure one weird problem, after I found out the greeks will chase down and consume mice, I offered a few crickets(another base monitor diet) Well they did not eat them, and soon the cage became overrun in crickets. So I put egg crates in there to trap the crickets and feed them to monitors. Of course that ended up being both entertaining and a learning tool.
The torts burrowed under the egg crates, then walked around and the crates would stay on their backs(very light). Somehow, the egg crates ended up under the basking lite. Guess what, the male in particular would climb on top the egg crates and bask at an ever higher temps. I don't know if it was an accident or he actually keeps doing that on purpose. But he does this from time to time. So now I leave the egg crates in there.
Also, I use leaflitter on top the dirt. This keeps the dirt from drying out. The torts love to burrow under the leaflitter in the basking spot. They also have deeper shelters/burrows in other parts of the cage.
The hatchling I kept also uses leaflitter. It never digs down, but instead uses the leaflitter or Retes boards to burrow under.
Back to diet, I do feed normal leafy dark greens most of the time. But include mice and dog food(ground up) a few times a week. Where I got this practice from was when I worked at a reptile park, they had torts(I had no interest in them at the time, personally) and they were under my care. I fed them what I was told to feed them. Each day, I made up a salad of greens, some fruit, and two cans of Kal Can dog food. Remember, I was just doing what I was told. I noticed that all torts went for and consumed the dogfood first, then ate the salad. Also, my field partner use to work at Bronz zoo and seperately, he had the same experience. He told me, that their torts would not eat certain plants that they were told was good for them. So he learned to smear dogfood on those plants and then the torts would eat them without problem.
To put the mice and dogfood in proper context, which is sadly missing in all these forums. Wild torts do eat meat(protien) but by all observations, thats very rare. Its my experience, reptiles of any type do not consume types of prey, they would not ordinarily/naturally consume. But again, in context, we already know, animals consume by need. That is, torts normally will not eat mice unless they have an extreme need for protien. For instance, CATs consume plants, yet they are an obligate carivore. They do so to fullfill various needs. The captive torts, eat mice, because the diet we give them is sadly missing what they need to grow and recruit to their full potential. Which leads to this, there are times they will aviod the mice, and there are times they readily consume the mice. Its their choice.
Which brings us back to the monitor forum. Folks seem to feel the need to tell captive reptiles what they do and take away all choice. Yet in nature, the first and foremost and only task is to make choices. In our field studies, all wild reptiles do each and everyday is make choices. Nature has a huge varity of plants, insects, prey animals, temps, humidities, earth types, shelter types, sun angles, moisture catches, etc. Each and every reptile PICKS what is suitable to them and makes daily adjustments to stay alive, healthy and recruit. AS in, that "IS" their life, to make choices, that IS their work, their joy, their requirement. A sad commentary is, people think they are smarter then these animals. Sadly history shows they are not. So people force themselves on these poor victims.
And yes, this is about monitors TOO. hahahahahahahahah Thanks for taking the time Ryan, Cheers
I think all matters of reptiles could be 'monitor related', because it seems some monitor keepers seem to understand reptiles better than anyone else. If I had the space/time/money, I would love to work with monitors. Unfortunately, I am lacking in all those areas (especially money). Comes with being a musician.
