Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello -

I have a group of baby red foots about 1-2 inches and I have had them for about a month now and they live in a large glass encloser whitch in mist daily, they eat turnip greens, collard greens, mustard greens, and when availble also dandylion greens and clover. i SPRINKLE REPTI-CAL AND VITOMINS ON FOOD WATER DISH GO IN out freely and a hide log and some fake non-toxic plants for shade. I use news paper to line the enclosure whitch i chance offten. I give them about 12-13 hours uva/uvb lighting a day that sits directly over the enclosure at just shy of 18 inches high and have a 150 watt heat lamp on one side. the normal temp in the room was round 85-93 f for the most part until yesterday when i installed a window air condtioner to take it down a notch, now room temp is 85 f so with the heat lamp it should be about 90-95 in the basking area. I FOUND ONE BABY TORTOISE DEAD THIS MORNING, HE WAS MOVING AROUND LAST NIGHT BUT WHEN I PICKED HIM UP, HIS SHELL WAS A LITTLE SOFT?! I WAS WONDERING IF THEIR IS SOMETHING ELSE I COULD HAVE DONE TO PRVENT HIS DEATH AND ALSO MAKE SURE THAT THE OTHERS SURVIVE? PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE EXPERENCE WITH RED FOOTS AND HAVE ANY SUGESTTIONS!
Link

Follow this caresheet for RF hatchlings and they should be in excellent shape; it's the best RF caresheet I have found to date that specializes with RF hatchlings:

http://www.turtletary.com/redfootcare.htm

P.S. I think 150 Watt lamp is too much for hatchlings and mabye your guy got too hot; I would use a 100 or 60 Watt at most for the little guys. If the shell was soft that points toward metabolic bone diease; follow the caresheet with proper diet and moderate UVB exposure - I'm still trying to find out what the average intake of UVB in uW/cm^2 is on the tropical forrest floor for RF's; you can burn their eyes out if given too much UVB.

Cheers,

-r

"Redfoot Tortoise" CARESHEET

Yeah, forest floor reptiles typically don't get a ton of sun, besides following small patches throughout the day. For the most part, they're not really a basking tortoise either, are they? I recall hearing that they mostly like a higher ambient temp as opposed to basking, but I haven't kept one yet, so I don't know.

I don't trust the mercury vapor bulbs. There just hasn't been enough research done on them in my opinion, and people seem to forget the fact that the amount of unfiltered sunlight most reptiles are exposed to in the wild is somewhat low, considering that they have to spend ample time staying out of predators' reach.