We have made a better home for the red-footed tortoise!?

Question

Now he has a heat lamp, a log hut, he eats peaches and carrots and we are going to get a UV B bulb and some calcium powder, and maybe some Mazuri. We have built him a large turtle table.

Answer 1

Shelb- check some reliable information sources. Peaches, carrots and dried pellets are not recommended by most experts except as a very small part of the diet.

Tortoise tables are great- but what is your plan for offering very high humidity? Red-foots pyramid in low humidity situations.

PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH- you are getting some very bad advice from people who mean well, but are using old outdated information that can cause your tortoise long-term problems.

For example, and not to pick on anyone...

- Tortoise tables are hard to keep good humidity levels and constant heat on unless the room they are in is warm and humid all the time.

- UVB is not proven to help Red-foots, many of which live in near-darkness naturally. They get their Vitamin D3 (the key element) in their wild diet, and we can offer it through good vitamins. UVB CAN be a decent insurance policy, however!

- Red-foots ARE NOT pure vegetarians and will do poorly on a pure vegetarian diet. In the wild, in the rainy season, they eat 15% meats and 'other', 70% fruits, and 15% other plant matter. In the dry season, it is more like 15% meats and other, and the rest split between green, flowers, cacti, fruit, etc. They NEED protein in their diet!

- Pyramiding has been conclusively proven to be the result pf poor hydration and humidity in this species. They want at least part of their habitat to be 95% humidity at all times.

- Much of the dietary advice has been questionable or confusing, or based more on what other species eat than this one.

For good information, try:

- http://www.redfoots.com

- http://www.redfoottortoise.com

- http://www.tortoisetrust.org

Answer 2

Whoa....... u've thought of everything.

Answer 3

from my suggestions? Thanks. Your turtle will be happier from now on.