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Hermanns' help with "creature of habit issue"

terrygar Mar 10, 2004 12:16 PM

I have a beautiful 6 mo old male eastern male and I have a habitat question about the "creature of habit" situation.

Daily set-up(San Francisco area):
1. night/day tank (while I'm at work) 20 gal with basking and correct uvb and cermic night heat, rocks and hiding stuff.

2. living room set-up 3'x5' box 8" sides of semi-clear plastic, lights,heat lots to do,hide & romp.

I have used the following system for the first 6 months of his life and he is healthy and shows no wierd signs:

I get home at 3:30 in afternoon and warm him up and bring him to living room set-up to feed him and play( I do this because it is where I work at home and I can interact with him, his night 20gal nite tank is in a different room thats quiet), then at about 7:00pm when he is napping I take him back to the night tank.

My only concern is habitat changes each day, does anyone else here use 2 setups like this?

I do plan on finding a 50 gal day nite setup for his indoor life and then this spring I will build and outdoor pen.
Link

Replies (4)

EJ Mar 10, 2004 01:34 PM

I do this with many tortoises on a daily basis. Well... actually I don't... I pay my 9 year old to do it. Tortoises are carted in when the sun goes down and carted out in the am when the sun hits the yard. I'm thinking this would have a negative effect if you were trying to breed the animals but outside of that they've never seemed to mind this.
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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Sohni Mar 10, 2004 05:29 PM

I'm just wondering, why do you have two setups? If there's no real reason, I'd just put him in the larger one with plenty of hides, and then put him outside during the day once you have the pen built (too bad you don't have one now, the weather's been great around here lately, lol).

Your tort looks about the same size as mine (10 mos., 90g, 2.75". BTW, you can't sex Hermann's this young, so if "he" was sold to you as a male, "he" actually might be "she."
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Sohni
Northern California

0.1 Baja de L.A. Rosy Boa
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake
1.1 Rubber Boas
1.0 Leopard Gecko
0.0.2 Hermann's Tortoises
plus my kids' herps:
0.0.1 California King Snake
1.0 Mexican Rosy Boa
0.1 Leopard Gecko

johlum Mar 10, 2004 07:55 PM

I agree with Ed (can you believe that!) shouldn't cause any problem. If it was a WC animal that would be a different story.

When I had my brood of Hermans many years ago (early to late '80's) when I moved them from winter to spring/summer quarters they were stressed for about a week. When I moved them back in (this was before I realized hibernation was good thing) they went through the same histronics. My Russian's and Greek's do the same thing today. Once they have an area (home range) figured out they hate being moved.

Sohni Mar 10, 2004 08:34 PM

I don't think there's anything wrong with it, either, it just seems like extra work to have two indoor enclosures.
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Sohni
Northern California

0.1 Baja de L.A. Rosy Boa
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake
1.1 Rubber Boas
1.0 Leopard Gecko
0.0.2 Hermann's Tortoises
plus my kids' herps:
0.0.1 California King Snake
1.0 Mexican Rosy Boa
0.1 Leopard Gecko

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