Hey People! I Really need some guidence, Purchased My Female Herman (Annie) last december and shes been living in a viv but keeps sleeping lots, even when let out, shes always hungry :roll: but very lazy! Now i have just purchased my second Herman (Billy) Male obviously, i want to make the enclosure much better. Current Setup: Wood Chipping for floor (not keen on keeping now) Small Cats water Bowl (Seems to big for them to get in) UV Tube Light (is standard one i was given) Lighting for basking area (currently just lightbulb) Logging arch shelter. Please help with making the setup much better, im particularly in a rush to change the wood chippings as they keep eating them which is very dangerous, heard of soil and sand 50/50 mix is that good? All input welcome and please suggest stores to purchase from in the UK. Im looking to change it all i.e adding timers, thermometors, better UV Lights just so they feel more comfortable and safe. Many Thanks!!
RE: Help Make a Better Home For my Herman You're using the same UVB bulb from last December? The fluorescent UVB tubes must be replaced every six months to be effective. Recommended size for russian and hermann's is 200 square inches per inch of tortoise(x2 because you have two tortoises). Feel free to do the conversions to metric. Since it will likely come out as a fair sized enclosure, you should consider building a turtle table. ----------- To address your issues. Yes, a soil and sand mixture is safer. You can get sterile top soil (I think you call it garden loam over there? ) and sand at any garden center. A regular light bulb, if you mean household bulb, will not put out enough UVA to stimulate tortoises to eat and be active. A better choice for light, heat, and UVB would be a mercury vapor bulb. They're more expensive but will last for about a year. If you need to keep nighttime temps up, especially during the winter, you can use a red heat bulb designed for reptile use or a ceramic heat emitter. Timers will help. Too little daytime and it will throw off their cycle completely. .... You must have a thermometer, how have you been measuring the temperatures? If you've just been guessing that it's "warm enough", then that's likely why your female tortoise wasn't very active. For the water dish, do you mean too big as in too tall for them to climb in? If so, check local pet stores to find a nice reptile designed dish that should be easier for them to climb into or even look at some of the saucers they make for going under house plant pots. What sort of diet do you feed them and do you supplement? Wookie,one of the UK members, should be along later to suggest some stores.
RE: Help Make a Better Home For my Herman Great post again strange_wings you are best getting play sand from the local DIY store. The stuff that is supposed to be for reptiles is terrible and expensive. It's always worth having a look around there garden section too, I know I have picked up a few feeding, basking platforms and general play/ decorative items in the form of slate stepping stones, rock borders and rocks for garden rockeries. If you want an MVB, megarays are the best. You can get them from here http://www.southwestexotics.com/shop/upload/index.php and if you need more info on them read http://www.uvguide.co.uk/mercvapourintro.htm . They may seem a bit more expensive, but they last longer than tubes and the output is much better. If you gonna replace your tube I'd recommend the reptisun 10.0, the reptiglo 10.0s are still fairly new on the market and I have not had much luck with them. Timers are great, argos do really cheap ones I use for all my herps. For temp gauges I'd recommend a digital temp gauge with probe like this http://www.livefoods.co.uk/product_info.ph...products_id=768 I'd also recommend getting a fecal float done to test for parasites. Did you quarantine your male before introducing to your female? How old are they?
Thanks for the great advice, i have been using a standard thermometer that was supplied but wasnt the greatest readout. Just bought a digital one today, some hay for there den to hide in (is this ok to use, i heard it was?). Great links too thanks . Didnt really divide them i let them roam around for a while and he seemed rather aggresive towards her, biting and mounting, but now they seem really good after she shown her authority and whos boss lol! The diet consists of greens, tomatos, cucumber, fresh fig, Suppliments from reptile shop, and the odd wet bread for a treat. even after this she still eats soil and her chippings which is quite odd. will now look to replace the UV tube now but the ones i have seen dont look a direct fitment to my standard tube type?? Cheers for all your input, much appreciated!!
The dial type thermometers that they usually sell are pants and can be 10s of degrees off so it's great that you will have a digital gauge. Timothy hay is the only hay you can really use as the rest is too high in protein should your torts nibble on it. You may need to separate them if you male is giving here a lot of attention if they breed and she is carrying eggs stress can cause things like egg binding which can be fatal. I wouldn't feed tomatoes as they are quite acidic, there calcium to phosphorus ratio isn't great and they have moderate oxalates. Dandelion, Endive and escarole are all good. I've not heard about feeding them bread before, I'd keep it to a minimum. Minerall is the best calcium dust I've found here, beware that the t-rex has been know to cause issues. The will tend to look to eat stuff like that if they are missing stuff in there diet, you could always try a little bit of pro biotic like reptoboost. the MVB are screw in bulbs, other wise i think there is a 1" or 1.5" diameter tubes around.
