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Got the basic foundation of the outdoor enclosure for our Hermann's tortoise set up. Need dirt, sand, and plants and we'll be good to go. It's 8' x 8' so she'll have plenty of room to roam. Gonna shoot for about a foot of soil in there which should be enough to keep her from digging out. 
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May 7, 2025 01:28
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| # ? Dec 16, 2025 08:18 |
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fknlo posted:Got the basic foundation of the outdoor enclosure for our Hermann's tortoise set up. Need dirt, sand, and plants and we'll be good to go. It's 8' x 8' so she'll have plenty of room to roam. Gonna shoot for about a foot of soil in there which should be enough to keep her from digging out. How many feet deep do the boards go? If those are just on top of the ground....
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May 7, 2025 01:48
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Desert Bus posted:How many feet deep do the boards go? If those are just on top of the ground.... Hermann's don't generally burrow. They'll dig down a few inches to bury themselves and that's generally it. I may still put down some chicken wire before I have dirt delivered.
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May 7, 2025 03:20
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I've used those same exact concrete blocks from home depot to make my raised vegetable garden: they're fine, but the boards that slot into them will likely warp a little over time, which makes them loose. There's a hole down through the center of the concrete blocks and it's a good idea to hammer a length of rebar down, to help hold them in place - but then be ready to move them all toward each other by an inch next year. And the whole stack may lean over outwards a little anyway, due to even quite small amounts of ground movement.
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May 7, 2025 03:29
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fknlo posted:Hermann's don't generally burrow. They'll dig down a few inches to bury themselves and that's generally it. I may still put down some chicken wire before I have dirt delivered. I never trust an animal to behave as expected and tortoises have a reputation for digging and bashing through stuff. And they're perfectly happy taking their time doing it. Chickenwire on the bottom might do it. I'm no expert.
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May 7, 2025 03:45
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Go with something sturdier than simple chicken wire, imo; hardware cloth is your better option. 1" grid hardware cloth is a great deterrent for diggers. I use 1/2" grid around my chicken coop perimeter to keep anything big from getting through the chicken wire and run a skirt of it around the run to discourage anything from trying to tunnel under.
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May 7, 2025 14:49
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I have not so fond memories of hunting down Box Turtles who dug deeper than expected and escaped. Luckily my dog was a crazy predator and would find them for me. They were usually under the old rotting chicken coop.
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May 7, 2025 16:59
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Depending on the size of the tort I’d be looking at wiring over the top too. Not only can Hermanni climb well enough to scramble over a wall like that if they’re long enough, but an enclosed tortoise is easy pickings for raccoons/skunks/rats/possums/whatever wild mammals you have in your area and even a wide number of birds (and I don’t even necessarily mean hawks/etc, although they absolutely will go after a tort, but crows and gulls too). Even a bigger tortoise is at risk, a lot of predators like raccoons have no problems with pulling out a leg and having a munch while the rest of the poor tortoise is retracted inside its shell
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May 7, 2025 17:17
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my cat is norris posted:Go with something sturdier than simple chicken wire, imo; hardware cloth is your better option. 1" grid hardware cloth is a great deterrent for diggers. I use 1/2" grid around my chicken coop perimeter to keep anything big from getting through the chicken wire and run a skirt of it around the run to discourage anything from trying to tunnel under. I'll look into that. trilobite terror posted:Depending on the size of the tort I’d be looking at wiring over the top too. Not only can Hermanni climb well enough to scramble over a wall like that if they’re long enough, but an enclosed tortoise is easy pickings for raccoons/skunks/rats/possums/whatever wild mammals you have in your area and even a wide number of birds (and I don’t even necessarily mean hawks/etc, although they absolutely will go after a tort, but crows and gulls too). The walls are 30ish inches tall so once soil is in there there will still be 18 or so inches of wall. I plan on putting boards at the top to create a lip as well at some point in the future. She's 3 years old now so not full grown but a decent size. Not sure how I can get a top with wire on the enclosure with the size it is, but it's something I have and am still thinking about. I will probably at least put up some electric fence around it like I've seen the Garden State Tortoise guy do around all of their enclosures. Should keep mammals out but obviously wouldn't do much for birds.
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May 7, 2025 20:23
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fknlo posted:I'll look into that. Check out any of the good tegu channels, any enclosure that’s good for a tegu is going to be more or less gold-star tortoise safe (and even then, tortoises are strong and many have bulldozed through reinforced enclosures and pried their way between boards, etc)
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May 7, 2025 20:33
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Figure I'll ask here. Do snakes just sometimes have prey preferences? One of our stimson's pythons has never been remotely interested in rats, even when he was a wee little guy and being offered pinkies/fuzzies, but is a fantastic feeder with mice. We've got no real reason to swap him off XL mice, it's just a mild inconvenience of having to order XLs in for him specifically as our local store doesn't keep larger mice (but does keep rats available) in regular supply or we otherwise pick mice up when we're in town with a chiller bag on hand, but I always end up wondering if there's any particular reason why he doesn't respond to rats at all even when they're presented to him in the same way we offer mice.
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May 17, 2025 02:31
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reptiles are pretty well known for being fickle eaters. my hognose decided one day she just did not want the frozen mice we'd been getting from the pet store. when we got them from a local place, she was right back on them. now, this could have coincided with a normal period of being off food, right? nope. still won't touch them.
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May 18, 2025 01:05
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Got the enclosure mostly set up and let her take it for a test drive today. She seemed to like it. Easily 10 times more space than she's ever had.
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May 20, 2025 22:55
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I went to the Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, SD yesterday and took a ton of pictures! Their collection is pretty impressive. Lots of amazing snakes and crocodilians on display. Only $25 to get in and so worth it. https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gna2z1dgsoP82WaW6
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May 24, 2025 14:51
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my cat is norris posted:I went to the Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, SD yesterday and took a ton of pictures! Their collection is pretty impressive. Lots of amazing snakes and crocodilians on display. Only $25 to get in and so worth it. Man, this place ruled when I went there as a kid on a family road trip. Got to pet the giant tortoise and saw my brother lose a game of tic tac toe against a chicken
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May 24, 2025 15:35
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it's a great family road trip stop for sure I didn't get to play tic tac toe or pet a tortoise, but it was pretty chilly and overcast yesterday so several animals just wanted to hide out.
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May 24, 2025 17:54
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Asterite34 posted:Man, this place ruled when I went there as a kid on a family road trip. Got to pet the giant tortoise and saw my brother lose a game of tic tac toe against a chicken And approximately how many times per year do you think you bring up the factoid to your brother? god I hope your brother isn’t dead. That would ruin the picture of annual sibling ribbing I imagine happens.
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May 24, 2025 22:27
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Bored posted:And approximately how many times per year do you think you bring up the factoid to your brother? At least once a year
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May 25, 2025 00:26
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I accidentally trained a roughly 12" shell common snapper to beg me for food when I feed the fish in my pond. I feel bad cause the pellets are so small and it's so big. Anyone got any opinions on feeding human grade food (tilapia, chicken, hot dogs?) or frozen mice to a wild animal?
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Jun 3, 2025 16:35
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Desert Bus posted:I accidentally trained a roughly 12" shell common snapper to beg me for food when I feed the fish in my pond. I feel bad cause the pellets are so small and it's so big. it’s a tame animal now
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Jun 3, 2025 18:22
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trilobite terror posted:it’s a tame animal now I'm thinking about getting a cheap bamboo pole and some string and just putting chunks of meat on the bottom of the string for it. No hook. I named it "Baby" and tame or not it would happily eat my fingers and toes
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Jun 3, 2025 18:32
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I searched caudata.org with no luck, and may not really be able to do anything anyway, but I thought I'd post here for info and/or to make myself feel better. I wonder if my 11 year old axolotl is dying. He's had this strange lumpy bit on his head for a while, but it isn't fungus and hasn't been bothering him so we figured it was just old age. The last couple of weeks he's done a lot more frantic zooming - something that he did from time to time for no particular reason forever and ever, and which hasn't been a particular concern. This evening I heard him going crazy in the tank and went to check on him. Couldn't see him and thought I was going mad - how the hell do you lose a large tank animal? I eventually saw he'd wedged himself between the filter and the side of the tank, and after observing him for a while it looks like he's put himself there so he can keep his head above water and gulp air very frequently. I saw him seem to struggle to take a really huge gulp, and his eye squinted shut... which is really loving weird because axolotls don't have eyelids? Any ideas? I am mostly expecting he'll be gone when I come down in the morning, or at some point in the next couple of days. I did a small water change because I don't know what else to do. We don't have an exotics vet and, to be completely honest, he's an old amphibian so I'm not sure it's worth the stress for him and the expense for us to get him fished out to take him to someone who may or may not know about this particular weird pet.
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Jul 4, 2025 21:26
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What are the water parameters, out of curiosity?
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Jul 5, 2025 00:49
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What temperature is the water? That sounds like he might be too hot to me?
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Jul 5, 2025 05:42
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pH 7.4 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 80 nitrate but I dose every water change with Seachem Prime as the tap water has high nitrate so this value is basically static. The temp is a little high at the moment, about 20-21°C, because it's been hot and I don't live in a country with AC. However, it has always gone up to this for a few days a year and we've never had this behaviour. He's still alive and was down at the bottom of the tank earlier, but is now floating and flicking his gills with the occasional gulp. I assume the gulping is contributing to the floating. Be well, you stupid floaty lump   Bollock Monkey fucked around with this message at 10:22 on Jul 5, 2025 |
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Jul 5, 2025 10:18
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Can you add more air stones or another way to break the water surface? His gills look super small.
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Jul 5, 2025 10:51
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The filter flow agitates the surface and his gill size hasn't changed in years. I am not sure why all the usual environmental stuff would suddenly be an issue? Here he is 3 years ago, no change in gills. e: I am not trying to sound defensive, it's just that he's been fine for ages and ages so it seems strange that changing nothing would cause an issue. Perhaps I am missing something.
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Jul 5, 2025 11:22
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Are you in the US? Have people been setting off fireworks nearby?
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Jul 5, 2025 15:46
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UK, I don't think he's somehow firework or other atmospheric chemicals poisoned. He was back down at the bottom of the tank a bit earlier but still doing a lot of floating and gulping. I don't know whether to offer food.
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Jul 5, 2025 16:03
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can you throw in some frozen water bottles to try and drop the temp? what is the substrate in his tank?
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Jul 5, 2025 17:27
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Axies only live like 10-15 years in the wild, which equals maybe 12-20 in captivity. It might just be old and not able to handle warmer water anymore.
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Jul 6, 2025 00:51
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Cowslips Warren posted:can you throw in some frozen water bottles to try and drop the temp? No substrate. The temp is back down now because the few hot days are over. Desert Bus posted:Axies only live like 10-15 years in the wild, which equals maybe 12-20 in captivity. It might just be old and not able to handle warmer water anymore. He is an old man, I know e: I just triple checked and yeah, temp back down to 18-19. He's sat at the bottom with his mouth open, which is very weird. Still alive. A later edit: back to floating, occasionally swimming. Wasn't interested in food. Sigh. Bollock Monkey fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Jul 6, 2025 |
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Jul 6, 2025 09:14
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Tried moving Max into a temporary bucket for closer observation and big water changes. Turns out he's too big for it, but he did do loads of burps when he was there briefly so let's see what happens!
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Jul 6, 2025 22:01
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Welcome to my axolotl live blog. We got the nitrate down, I think I misremembered the base level from the tap and it's too easy to get complacent when you've been doing the same thing for a decade. Max is spending more time at the bottom as of this morning. Fingers crossed we can do some more good water changes and troubleshoot how it got so high. Poor old man, I feel awful.
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Jul 7, 2025 12:38
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I'm so glad you figured things out!
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Jul 7, 2025 12:43
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He seems to be doing better but still floating a lot, he's more active though and I saw him 'burp' his way down to the bottom so I wonder why he's filling up with air. However, he's also not wanted food for a week now. Still mysterious and worrying.
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Jul 12, 2025 13:46
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Max has died and I desperately hope it was just his time and we didn't gently caress something up
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Jul 24, 2025 06:48
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poo poo dude, I'm sorry. From the sounds of it, it was his time. He had a good long life.
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Jul 24, 2025 12:21
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Bollock Monkey posted:Max has died and I desperately hope it was just his time and we didn't gently caress something up hey, we all do our best to care for our animals. a veterinary trip in this case might have just contributed further pain. remember the good times with max. 
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Jul 24, 2025 16:09
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The nearest axolotl vet is like 2-3h away by car so yeah, not feasible. We buried him in the clay of a dew pond, so his little body will be at one with the great outdoor freshwater. Took a minute to say 3 things we appreciated about him and found a little chalk headstone.   RIP ya dumb little slimy weirdo! I can't believe how teeny and translucent he was when we got him.  Thanks goons for your kind words.
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Jul 24, 2025 16:25
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