I have a an outdoor enclosure (8ft. x 16ft.) and currently keep 2.3 adult Red Foots. Can I keep Yellow Foots with these guys?
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Can Yellow Foots and Red Foots be housed together?
loub
Mar 02, 2004 01:06 PM
Replies (1)
jkrumins
Mar 04, 2004 04:42 PM
Yes and no. Technically, it is always a bad idea to mix tortoise species, due to Hexamita infections, etc., but realistically, this is not a big concern here. (Just my opinion, reasonable minds can differ.)
However, you will have to adjust your husbandry for the more delicate yellow foots, which the red-foots can then enjoy too. Red-foots can tolerate wide fluctuations in humidity, wide fluctuations in temperature, and can thermoregulate if given a choice. (That is, red-foots are pretty bullet-proof.) Yellow-foots are animals that spend their whole natural lives in mud or close to it, at a more-or-less constant temperature. If there is a cold spot in the enclosure, they will happily sit there until they contract an RI. If there is a dry spot, they will also happily sit there until they dehydrate. They simply do not have the programming, as a rule--i.e. some are more adept at this than other--to crawl to a more amenable micro-environment than what they are currently sitting in. They need a constant, uniform temperature in the 80's, very humid BUT NOT STALE air, and a big easy-to-enter lagoon, or once every two days soaking by you.
