HOW TO CARE FOR THE REDFOOT TORTOISE

in today's video i go over the care guide for the redfoot tortoise so sit back and hold on tight because we have a lot to go over my name is nick pulaski growing up i have always had a passion for wildlife and with that passion along with my passion of filmmaking i get taken on some amazing adventures creating wildlife content getting up close with a variety of incredible animals so come follow along as i pursue my goals of educating inspiring exploring and conserving wildlife all while having fun seeing the beauty in our natural world hey guys and welcome back for today's video as you can see right behind me this is my baby red for tortoises set up right now so as you can see we have it blocked off right here with some plastic wrapping you can get this anywhere i use like window coverings i live in the northern part of the united states so that being said we do get cold and we do get winter here so with that being said we can't keep the tortoise outside so what we do is we actually enclosed off an area specific for the tortoise so it's kind of like a greenhouse inside here um if you look in the back right over here we also have wrapped um insulation right there the insulation i actually used to be honest from packaging that i got actually for my rodents through all this quarantining i've been getting all my rodents shipped here covered in wrapping and everything like that it's not just straight out um insulation you don't want to do that but i wouldn't do that honestly if it wasn't covered in plastic but it's nicely wrapped um insulation right there if you don't have that this stuff you can get for like five bucks and it could literally wrap around this whole thing there's a lot of it so yeah this kind of creates a greenhouse effect in here where it keeps the temperatures right and then up here we have the uvb but i'm going to get into all that because the general gist i want to go over for this video is red for tortoise care also to account for my tortoise is still just a baby so we don't know the sex of it just yet as well as the tortoise is very shy and that's very prominent something for baby redfit tortoises especially because a lot of them don't make it in the wild where they come from is actually in south america in the forest they're a forest dwelling species so when they're babies and they hatch out a lot of them don't survive because they are eaten and taken up by predators so naturally what a baby red foot tortoise does is it actually hides and sleeps all day from predators so that's something that's quite common amongst the species so don't worry about that you do want to have in your habitat some hiding positions for your baby especially you should have a hide in there in general i'm going to go over a whole rundown of how i built this in the upcoming video that's going to be following this one so make sure you check out that one as well too if you want to see how i kind of built this but there's a whole bunch of different ways to have an enclosure for red for tortoise bottom line it just kind of depends on the climate that you're in as well as the space that you can utilize and what you have uh creativity-wise to build or buy or anything like that there's a whole bunch of different options out there and i'll get in all of that in the upcoming video now redford tortoises are a commitment and they are actually a big commitment so in terms of their lifespan red for tortoises can live above 50 years so yeah that's 50 years so you definitely are going to be in the long run with these guys and you definitely want to make sure that you have the ability to take on that red for tortoise or any tortoise species in general or any animal in general for a life span that is very long it's definitely something that is not just for you to commit to but for the animal too it's definitely something you want to make sure that you are able to take care of for the longevity now obviously situations change over time and you never know what things are going to happen you can't just plan things out extremely far in advance but having ideas and backup plans and like safety nets definitely important in general like for example like i have a vet safety net in case of anything goes wrong for any of my animals it's definitely important to have these things set out and kind of have a general idea of what to do because of these long-term commitments that you have to make with these animals and it's something that's rewarding to keep but it's not for everyone and in terms of availability as well too red for tauruses definitely are something that's available in the pet trade uh captive born so normally these guys do still come in imported i don't really know why because a lot of people are breeding these guys there's a whole bunch of blood out there in terms of bloodlines and everything i don't think you'll have an issue buying something that's a captive bred animal and it's going to be a quality captive bred animal versus something that's going to come in imported so i definitely recommend that you guys buy something from a captive bread quality breeder as well too versus something that's an import i don't think there's any reason whatsoever that anyone should have an imported redford baby versus a quality captive bred baby there's so many out there trust me but in terms of redford tortoise care like i said they are from south america they are a forest dwelling species so while they are hiding and growing and everything like that their shell is quite soft as babies it's not fully hardened yet so it's very important to not only give them those hiding spaces but also because they are from a more tropical climate provide them that higher humidity and i'm saying probably about you want it to be because it is a greenhouse in here right now because i want to hold in that humidity you want the humidity to be at about 70 to 80 percent which is a lot of humidity so you definitely want to make sure you keep that up not only do i miss this down daily i have a water bottle specific for my mistings you want to make sure you have one of those on hand that is fresh from the store you don't want to have one that you think may be clean and free of chemicals don't guess it just buy a brand new one these guys cost like a dollar they're very easy they missed quite well no issues whatsoever with these guys but for these guys i missed him twice a day and then i also have a fogger in here that i built myself i will go over that um in another video how i build my foggers but you can also get a reptile fogger two and that's what this tube is right here so i will turn this on it's on a timer goes on periodically throughout the day not only does it raise the humidity up but it's also good for their shell growth as well as their skin keeps their skin hydrated keeps their shell hydrated because that's part of the reasons for i know a lot of people stress out including myself is about pyramiding um it was a huge thing that i was stressed out about before getting a tortoise and it's kind of like having a newborn child honestly you're like oh my gosh you got to do this then the other otherwise these things could happen to it and it just kind of happens naturally once you get into a flow of things don't have to worry about it as much i mean i am quite confident in the setup that i have and know what i'm doing and everything like that and know that i'm providing the proper care everything's just kind of going to work out so you got to always keep those things in mind and not always constantly stress about it because that's the one thing people really stress about with tortoises is the pyramiding now pyramiding in general that's something that can happen especially if you're keeping them more so indoors if you're in like the northern climate like i am a little bit of pyramiding is nothing to worry about it's when you get those drastic cases where the shell is completely growing out of control and the pyramids are quite large and prominent and everything like that that's when you know that there's a deficiency somewhere there's a lack of something in the care and that's just not something that grows overnight there's definitely ways to fix your problems early because like i said they are slow growing animals tortoises are in general you don't want to grow these guys too fast so i'm gonna kind of tie those things in as we go along here but so right now i think i'm going to kind of break this down into parts of care for the tortoise all right so after that brief summary about the red foot tortoise i kind of want to go over the first thing which is going to be the handle ability of the tortoise now the redford tortoise in general is a smaller species of tortoise so you're going to get a tortoise that's going to be about 15 to 20 pounds and that's an adult growth and you're going to have a baby that's going to be super super tiny and that's in general for any tortoise obviously um but handle ability wise like i said you're not getting a tourist that's hundreds of pounds so it's something that's easy to maneuver it's an easier tortoise to have and keep if you're in an indoor setting and you need to move the tortoise around a little bit it's totally fine for that so i would say too i'm just going to take this little one out she's kind of waking up right now but as you can see super mellow in my hand no issues whatsoever these are tortoises in general are something that like people generally aren't afraid of because they aren't intimidating you know these are more so creatures that you can kind of walk up to they're an easier more inviting animal i would say versus like a snake or like a gecko of some sort or anything like that tortoises and turtles are something that people are kind of more invited to come and check out and hold and pet and touch it's something that the tortoise is totally fine with and very comfortable with they're a little bit more timid as babies if i move my hand a little bit closer she kind of goes into her shell and then she'll just kind of pop back out because they are curious as well too definitely something it's good to see her head bobbing and everything like that when she's out of her shell kind of checking things out kind of examining the world but it's not going to be something like i said with babies that they're going to be running around trexing around all day they're going to be something that's going to be more confined they're going to find a hiding spot they're going to be sleeping they're going to be hiding because that's just kind of what they do for the first couple years of their life as babies and then they kind of branch out and then they get to be more confident in themselves have a hardened shell being able to defend themselves a little bit more with their sides and they'll be more comfortable to being out and about and trexing around but in terms of the handle ability throughout their whole lifespan you're not going to have an issue with it so i'm going to put this little guy down and we're going to get back to the list and then for the enclosure i'll give you a quick briefing and then as well too like i said we're gonna have that other video out and i'll show you a better angle of this too but you can see from above here i have the warmer side over here and then i have the cooler side over here and then the tortoise has the ability to thermoregulate and decide where they want to go the red for tortoise like i said are more tropical they do best but they're not prominent for basking they more so will kind of go in the area for a bit and then they will more so trex around and they like to be in the more mid to lower 80s side of things so you definitely want your tortoise to be in that type of range in terms of the setup like i said i have an open area over here for the basking and then over here i normally keep the bowls i'll have the food bowl out in a bit and we'll see him eat and then i have a water bowl you always want to provide fresh water for your tortoise and make it something for them to be able to soak in themselves if they wish you don't want to have a lot of water in there you just want it to be enough that they can get their legs wet in and they can sit down in there and soak and everything like that but clean it daily because they can and they will normally poop or pee in their water or in a water source that you either bathe them into and i'll show you the bathing process as well too later in this video but you definitely want to provide those things for your tortoise because believe it or not tortoises are pretty independent they can figure out what their needs are they have amazing senses in general so they have amazing senses and smell especially like when these little guys smell food i mean they come running they love to eat and they love to chow down that's for sure yeah in terms of like the bedding inside here i use sippers mulch and then i will mix that with sphagnum on the cooler side where the hide is because i know that's where she's going to be spending most of her time so i want to get that humidity raised over there it's not going to do as much on the basking side because that stuff's just going to keep drying out um so i have the super sun here throughout and it's nice too because it keeps it kind of uneven which is actually good when they're tracking along because it's actually good for their legs and it's good for their movement because you can see sometimes it can also be like a vitamin and calcium deficiency thing too very much down the line but like it's something to if they're on a flatter surface i've noticed and i've seen is the tortoises will not use their back legs as often and they'll be kind of pushing along on their front legs and they'll just kind of be dragging their back legs so you want them to be exercising like we do and everything like that and working all their muscles keeping their muscles moving and having them being like altering vehicles like they are and having them move around and work around where they need to go and really make them put in the effort to work that's something that you definitely want to consider doing um rather than having it just straight and smooth because i've just noticed that it's good for them in terms of like for longevity purposes and stuff like that it definitely helps give them a workout that they need i don't have like anything in here in terms of like fake plants or anything like that i don't really necessarily like those because tortoises will kind of perceive those as real live plants and they will try to go after them and then get impaction and that's something i just wouldn't recommend having in there because the impaction is not worth the aesthetic look of it in my opinion personally so you can also do like natural plants that are good for your tortoise as well too um you can have those throughout there make it like a greenhouse if you can get plants in here that work for your tortoise and you can kind of like plant them around or as the tortoise grows if you're having like a tortoise table and then like because these guys have to have an enclosed i mean it's recommended that they have an enclosed enclosure greenhousing it there and then having plants growing in there too i mean it's a fun thing to kind of combat two things at once where you're growing plants and you're growing the tortoise at the same time as long as the plants are safe for the tortoise i say go for it it just only benefits the tortoise it could be a snack for the tortoise as well as it could be something to raise up the humidity levels it'll be a lot of fun i think that's a lot of fun to do and that's definitely something we'll do down the line with this one um as well as if we get other ones too but for right now this is the simple setup it's in the concrete mixing container it's one of the larger ones for this guy over here you can kind of see there's a tube hanging down here that's the mister i kind of move this tube all around but right now it's sticking underneath the hide pushes out the mist right down here comes on in increments then we have cork bark right here i lift this up there it is and the little catch is hiding right there loves to climb on those rocks i'll tell you that but we have the rocks right here that i just put up right now very simplistic this is just stuff that i have um backup supplies of but you can kind of make these out of like the wooden rounds or anything like that any supplies you just want a good hiding spot for them and this definitely does the trick keeps it nice keeps it dark in there secluded then we have the sphagnum moss over there too so as long as that's staying damp which it does because of the fogger we're totally fine you just don't want the enclosure completely wet per se if you keep it completely damp and it's not something that can stay dry and you can't get your tortoise dry you're going to come into problems with like fungal infections and different issues with bacteria and stuff like that so you definitely want to not only be cleaning the cage but you also want to be wary of that where you're going to have issues in those kind of aspects too if you don't give the tortoise an ability to kind of dry out a little bit and kind of not be sitting in wetness all day though they are a forest dwelling species that doesn't mean they're like a swamp dwelling species where they're literally just sitting in muck all day and just water you definitely want them to have the ability to dry out a little bit too so that's something you definitely want to keep in mind like i said that's a quick quick rundown of what the enclosure is like for this little one right here and then the next video i'll show you like completely how i set this up from scratch and kind of give you the rundown and ideas of what i did and kind of give you some more added tips about that we do have two different lights in here we're going to go into the lighting aspect and heating aspect of this now so right here this covers about two thirds of the enclosure right here this is going to be a uvb strip um that's going to give full spectrum light in here so that's going to be helping with because i can't get sunlight in here naturally for the tortoise itself we need to have uvb lighting in here to make up for that so that's what we have in here we have a full spectrum light right here and then over here we do have a heat bulb right here so that's going to be causing this basking spot over here of about 95 degrees and i do have this guy right here which is going to be my temp gun so my temp gun right here if i shoot it right here right there we're about 95 degrees so over here we're going to be in the 80s right here so i will give my tortoise about 8 to 12 hours of uvb as well as i will give the i will keep this heat lamp on all night because this is a wide enough space where they can thermal regulate if they need to and it just keeps heating this enclosure up so it keeps those uh temperatures consistent regardless of if it's just hot over here so i will keep this on the spectrum on for about like eight hours um and then this guy over here the heat lamp will stay on continuously throughout the whole day i have the lamp perfectly stationed where i'm getting these 95 degree basking areas you want the basking area to be in the mid 90s to low 100s i would say that is totally an acceptable basking spot and then over here i kind of break it down where i said like i said i have the food in the water bowl normally here in the middle that section right there is probably going to be in your mid 80s and then over here we have the humid side so the human side after you missed it it drops down into the 70s but the lowest you ever want your taurus to ever be um especially at night would be 70 degrees you normally preferably want your red foot tourists to be within the 80 degree range i would say that's a better preferable cool down temperature for these guys on the cooler side is probably around the 80 degree range and then just kind of working up the spectrum from there but yeah i would say as close as you can to 80 degrees but no lower than 70 degrees that's definitely where you want to make sure and you want to change some things if there is an issue with that if that's an issue for you guys you can always put like under the tank heaters on the cooler side so they are getting some sort of heat um going and channeling over there that's something to implement over there totally fine as well as heat emitters you can always get like low wattage heat emitters put them on that side too that way there's no light issues or anything like that if you want to keep it darker in there for your tortoise and make it more secluded for them the emitters are nice too because they also don't provide light so it's literally just a ceramic heat emitter where it's just blowing out the heat but it's not providing any light so your tortoise while it's hiding and everything like that is not being disturbed by the light so in terms of the lighting and the heating elements those are what i have for my tortoise right here it's also great too if you can provide them some sort of natural sunlight um getting them out and about it's nice too like if you're in the northern climate to take out your red for tortoise and have them experience sunlight i think that's definitely something beneficial for them kind of like us where we have cabin fever and we're cooped up all day these guys even though we're kind of mimicking as much as we can in nature you definitely want to also provide the best way that you can the natural sunlight for these guys because there's nothing better than natural sunlight for these guys so the next part like i was kind of mentioning earlier would be like the bathing portion of things so you're red for tortoise especially as a baby you definitely want to bathe them once a day it just helps with their health in general so something good for their shells it's something good for checking to make sure there's no fungus growing on them as well as to it's good for the hydration purpose of them in total and another huge benefit for allowing your tourists to soak is it allows them to actually use the bathroom too putting them in the lukewarm water and letting them soak actually helps with them relieving their systems now if you do have more than one red for tortoise i wouldn't bathe them in the same shoebox container or whatever you have them in and the reason being kind of goes back to them going to the restroom so you want to see that each individual one is going to the bathroom on its own and it's not having any issues or anything like that it's just good to do things individually in general just so you can kind of see the individual tortoises health too for example if you see blood in the water and you have two tortoises in there it's kind of hard to tell what happened to which you know what i mean so having separate soaking containers is definitely something i would recommend doing if you have more than one red food tortoise and it's a good time to check them all around in general to check on their health because they are babies and you're watching them grow and everything like that so it's definitely something important for them to do for the first year or two of their life to make sure you're giving them daily baths so what i have right here is a shoe box container full of a little bit of water right here it is a little bit above room temperature water you don't want it to be boiling or scorching hot water you want it to be just a little bit above like room temperature water so it's like lukewarm water here i do have a fresh brand new toothbrush that is specific for the tortoise that i clean after each bathing and everything like that as well too these are good to clean off the shell i'll show you how i clean the shell as well too but to start off you want to bathe your tortoise about 15-20 minutes and you want to monitor them in that time so what i normally do is i will grab this little one right here who has went back off to sleep land hello little guy and what we will do i'll show you guys on camera here is i will literally put them down in the water i'll just drop them in though i kind of let them realize where they are so then they kind of pop out so they don't just like drown themselves and there you go so as you can see right there it's just enough water that once they kind of wake up and realize what they're doing they stand up in the water and they can kind of soak in there so right now what i'm going to do is i'm going to drop her below the camera and she's just going to sit there like i said you don't want to leave them unmonitored during this time because you don't want to risk them flipping over and drowning or anything it's something you definitely want to monitor them with so i will normally take this one with me to the kitchen and during this time normally i will prep the food for the tortoise and i think it's a good time too because they're awake during this time if you're around them during this time it's important because they are getting used to you and they're getting used to seeing you they're getting used to your smell everything like that like i said they have phenomenal senses so if you're doing those types of things with them they're getting used to you and they're getting accustomed to you so that down the road you're not having a tortoise that's worried about you coming into the room and they're scared of you and they're thinking of you as a threat even though redford tortoises are slow growers you definitely are going to see rapid growth for the first 10 years of its life what i mean by that is you're probably going to see another inch to an inch and a half of growth probably every year but you definitely want to grow these guys slowly and i think a big thing that comes into play in terms of growing these guys out for sure is their diet so in terms of a red food tortoises diet it's something that you definitely want to vary up dark greens are very important for this species and i'm talking about leafy greens i'm talking about spring mixes i'm talking about dandelion greens uh mustard greens anything like that the list goes on and on there's a whole bunch of different things that are beneficial for your tortoise in terms of greens to eat here's where redford tortoises kind of differentiate between other species of tortoise you can actually provide a little bit more fruit into their diet so i would say if you're providing in moderation you can probably implement fruit into their diet probably once or twice a week as long as you're not overdoing it where it's ruining their gi tract i don't see why you couldn't do that there's a whole bunch of different fruits that you can also use like papaya mango blueberries are great too passion fruit guava pineapple there's a whole bunch the list goes on and on and as long as you're putting that in moderation into their diet it's definitely something that could be beneficial for the species and they love it they absolutely love it i love giving my blueberries and seeing him go to town at those uh it's definitely something cool to see now in terms of green sometimes when they're growing up they don't have an attraction to them and that can be something that's totally normal some kick off to greens right away some they kind of get hesitant towards it so i would recommend doing is i would actually blend up the greens that you give them and kind of get it into a nice blend inside a blender or something like that and then kind of spoon it over like other pieces of food that you have inside their enclosure and it provides more of an aroma and it kind of provides more of an attraction to eating the greens and then from there they should be able to start kicking off and being able to you can kind of put the paste over like a leaf of a green or something like that and then they'll start kind of going over that and then kind of weaning off of the puree per se and then going directly to the greens and they should be totally fine with that now also too what you can see in my salad is you're also seeing missouri tortoise diet provide two pellets for this one um during the meals as well too and what that does is it's just an added vitamin and mineral supplement as well as it provides all the different nutritional values that the tortoise needs i think it's a great thing to also add into their meal going back to everything that you provide these guys it's a lot more nutrient dense from the grocery store than what they get in the wild so that's where you're going to get all these huge growth spurts and everything like that is from all the beneficial foods that you provide them because they're nutrient rich and you want to make sure that you're not growing these guys too too quick or anything like that because that can also cause problems too believe it or not so i feed mine every other day and i've had no issues with that whatsoever what i do too with the missouri tortoise diet is i let it soak in water a little bit it's easier for them to chew on um for the while they're babies and hatchlings and then when they get older they're totally fine just taking pieces that are straight from the bag and have no issues with them whatsoever it's just an easier way for them to digest it and then as you can see i also have a calcium and multivitamin supplement mixed and blended on top of it so they are also getting that added too as an added supplement so these guys are definitely getting spoiled in here in terms of their diet so you definitely like i said you want to vary it up had no issues with that i normally do it right after bathing these guys and what we're going to do now is actually i'm going to so i'm just going very very lightly here super super lightly right on the shell they may pee i see it's quite a common thing now tortoises too it's not like a crab shell where these guys can literally just kind of hop out of their shell or anything like that the shell is actually attached to their body and its nerve endings and stuff like that too so anything that i'm doing with this um they are actually feeling right now you've probably seen videos whether it's on tick tock or some other social media platforms where there's like tortoise brushes and they're rubbing their butts against them they're feeling all that so they are getting that stimulation from that this guy actually loves this as you can see he's coming out he's enjoying it right now but i'm just kind of going in circles around the shell then i'm going to the bottom on plastron and i am rubbing around here and i am just making sure one that there is no this is where you'll probably see the most um obvious fungal infections down here if there's any fungal growth just making sure there's none of that but you're seeing a happy healthy baby right here beautiful shell on this one and it's okay to flip them for a very short amount of time that's not going to harm them anyway and then voila you have a clean and happy tortoise like that so they are good to go they are ready to eat so i think we have talked long enough i think we're going to let this guy chow down like i said they are all terrain vehicles so they are going to trex around the enclosure and it's great because like i said you can see like there's bigger pieces of cypress in here and they will just kind of maneuver their way all around it it's not level but they are altering vehicles and they know exactly what they want oh yeah going straight to the food these guys are hungry hippos let me tell you and today we just have a good mix of fruits and vegetables mixed all around in here and i think this is the most rewarding thing to do is i think versus any other reptile that i've ever kept it's very rewarding and just very satisfying just sitting here and watching them eat they're so adorable for one but for two then it goes back to that lifelong commitment where you're gonna have this animal for 50 plus years and you're going to be watching this thing grow it's kind of like i have an oak tree in my dad's house right now and i've had that since it was an acorn watching that thing grow up i mean it's definitely satisfying and there that's a slow grower and this is going to be a slow grower too so if you can keep up with the tortoise commitment i definitely recommend it because these guys are absolutely phenomenal pets i've always wanted them like you guys know but generally that's going to be the care for your tortoise i would definitely would say that if you can hit all those marks like i said i think you're going to have no problem with handling and taking care of a red foot tortoise if that's something that you think you can take on i definitely say go for it but i think that's going to be today's video so thank you guys so much for watching today's video if you could do me a couple favors if you could like the video and subscribe to my channel i would greatly appreciate it definitely check me out my social media so you can see more of this little guy as well as all my other animals and i think we're going to close this video out by watching this little guy eat so thank you guys so much for watching and until next time we will see you guys [Music] soon [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: NJP Exotics

Views: 34,393

Keywords: njp exotics, nick polaski, reptiles, reptile care, reptile room, redfoot tortoise, tortoise care, tortoise, redfoot tortoise care, pet care, reptile collection, redfoot tortoise setup, tortoise setup, pets, baby redfoot tortoise, snakes, geckos, caring for, setting up, diy fogger, diy tortoise cage

Id: KGkyDZ_aWAo

Length: 27min 49sec (1669 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2020