Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a captive-bred three-inch(ish) young Redfoot with a 2x3 aquarium, a 100-watt spotlight, a full spectrum fluorescent light, cypress mulch, a shallow water dish, and a hut for hiding. I have been doing a lot of research and still have some questions. I say "he" here as a generalization because I believe it's difficult to sex them until they are 6 inches long or so, correct?

1. The tortoise is obviously very young, but I wasn't able to get information on how old it was. Is it possible to estimate by carapace length? The reason I ask is because many care sheets differentiate between doing A for hatchlings and B for adult tortoises, but I'm not sure at what age that cutoff occurs.

2. What do you do at night? Is it okay for the tortoise to be in light 24 hours a day or is it important for him to have darkness? I am concerned about the temp as it would probably fall to about 60 degrees at night if I turned both lights off. If I leave one one, which one should it be?

3. How often should he be soaked? This is one place where there were distinctions for hatchlings vs. adults - daily for hatchlings and I've read anywhere from every other day to twice a week for adults. Also, how long should I soak him for and should the water be warm to the touch? Room temp? Other?

4. How often should I feed him? This is the other place with different info for hatchlings vs. adults. Daily with a pinch of calcium/D3 suppliment for hatchlings, every other day with the suppliment 2x a week up to a year, and twice a week with suppliment for adults. Which plan should I follow for him at this time?

Anything else you can think of is also appreciated!

Also, Where should I put the food and water bowl? Under the heat lamp or in the cooler part of the cage?

And hopefully last "also"...

How deep should the mulch be, and what is the best to have under it? I just have a layer of newspaper right now. Is that okay? How often does the mulch need to be changed?

I saw that no one replied to this post. Whether or not you turn the lights off at night depends upon how low the temperature will get. You said around 60...that's a bit low. What I would do in that situation is use a red heat lamp instead of (or in conjunction with) the regular basking bulb, so that you can set all of the lights that actually produce clear light on a timer to turn off at night and on in the morning. I use this for the stock tank that some of my tortoises live in in my basement. It gets too cold down there to turn off the lights every night...my russians would go into hibernation if I did, so I use a red basking bulb instead of a white one, and that stays on at all times. I sometimes see one of the tortoises basking under it in the middle of the night, so I figure they must appreciate it

As for soaking...if you keep the red foot in a very humid environment, you won't need to soak it as much. Cut off a lot of ventilation and use a substrate (such as mulch or dirt) that will hold moisture. You'll know you've got it right when you see condensation. Remember, these are rain forest tortoises. Other people will argue that if you soak them frequently, you don't need to keep them in a humid environment. Don't be fooled...they're still dehydrated. When you soak a tortoise, it hydrates them in the same way as moist food items do. They take in the moisture, but they need to be able to keep it inside of them. If you take this well-hydrated tortoise and put it in a warm, dry (no humidity) enclosure, it's back to a dehydrated state before the next day arrives. They're designed for high humidity and a good amount of ambient heat. I have also heard that, being a rain forest dwelling critter, they tend to not need as much light as other torts (and in some cases I've heard it can be bad for them, especially their eyes, like when mercury vapor bulbs are used). It would be fascinating to see them in their natural habitat and see how much exposure to direct sunlight they actually ever get.

Oh, and a 2-3" redfoot is still usually considered a hatchling.