3 questions on soak,heat,travel

[stuffedmushroom]

OK, I'm a rookie and am just trying to pack as much knowledge into my brain before I get my torti. First question, I know to soak the torti about 1-3 times per week, but do you guys also keep a shallow dish in their cage too?? From what I read most just poop in it instead of using it!  Second question, do you leave the heat lamp on all day and night? What is your recommendation on when to turn it on/off? I live in a pretty warm climate so I guess I need to know what you'd recommend for that. Like if he's out in his outdoor enclosure, basking in the sun for four hours, do I need to turn on the lamp when I bring him inside?? Last but not least, do you ever travel with your torti? My in-laws live three hours away in Charleston, SC and we always take our parrot along, should we take our torti too or just have the petsitter take care of it? Our parrot LOVES to travel, so as long as I'm taking one I might as well take the other if they like to travel. I know my bunny would go bonkers if I tried to travel with her! Thanks! 

[LedZep2]

You should keep a water dish in their enclsoure for them to drink out of, I use the ones that have a ramp in the front, so they can walk into it if they want to, but they never do . You need to turn the heat lamp OFF at night. I keep mine on for 13 hours. I turn it on at 8 am, and turn it off at around 9 or 10 pm. It's easier if you get a timer for the light, then you don't have to worry about turning it on or off. The light should be on during the day, so if you bring him outside, and take him back in before 9 or 10 pm, the light needs to be on. As for traveling, I travel with mine all the time, and they love it. But other people on this forum have posted that their torts hate to travel. They are like people and they are all different. I think mine were used to traveling because they were wild caught (from petco), they were packed in crates and shipped who knows how long . Are you planning to get your tort from a breeder? If you are, then it will most likely be a year old, or less and you could introduce it to traveling gradually. If you have someone take care or your bunny while your gone, and your tort isn't the kind that likes to travel, it might be better to just leave him/her at home. Hope that helped!

[Jules]

welcome

When you go to the in-laws, do you stay there or only go for the day?  I wouldn't bother worrying about the tort if it was for less than 2-3 days.  But then that is up to you.

Lights, agree with "Zep"

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[vinkel]

We travel with our little guy a lot.  We have crates set up places we go frequently so he feels "at home" and we bring his light with us or keep a second one.  In the car we have a box or a plastic tub with substrate in it and a small tunnel-like box on its side so he has a place to sleep or hide.  He seems to like the variety.

For my lights, I tend to mimick the sky a bit but also watch my tort's behavior.  When he crawls off to bed at the end of the day, I turn the lights off.  If I bring him inside after he falls asleep in the corner of his pen after sunset, I don't throw him inside under a bright light (the sun comes up quite suddenly in tortoise-land) unless it looks like he is looking for a warm spot.  In the morning, if he is peeking around inside his enclosure before the lights come on, I will "turn on the sun" for him. The 14 hour rule is a good one, but we have to remember to have a little flexibility in our artificial environments.

[Jules]

That is why you should have micro environments.  The light/heat should be on one side and a cooler darker area on the other.  That way the tort gets to pick what it wants.