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Redfoot/Yellowfoot
Tortoise Care Sheet |
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 General Care -
This is a medium size species. Adults are
12-18", though tortoises over 14" are rare. With
proper care they should out live their owners. |
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 What To Look For -
When you get your tortoise, it is highly
recommended look at it well. Many Redfoots/Yellowfoots
are wild caught or farm raised. And while yours
may appear to be healthy the stress of being
brought home and placed in strange surrounding
may cause a hidden problem to surface. This is
true even with long term wild caught and captive
born animals. Look for runny nose, watery eyes,
and scraped under the shell bottom. |
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Pyramiding -
Visually this is when the scutes of the shell
are raised up into pyramid shapes.Pyramiding is
a form of metabolic bone disease (MBD). It is
characterized by a build up or stacking of
keratin in the scutes. In advanced cases the
shell becomes soft and flattens out. Sometimes
plastron can be so soft you could push it in
with light pressure. If you were to tap on the
pyramids, they sounded hollow. After a summer of
grazing on grasses and weeds with plenty of sun
and exercise, and a proper diet. The shell will
get rock hard. |
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I have discussed this extensively with
veterinarians that specialize in reptiles,
reptile rehabbers and experienced keepers. It
appears that pyramiding in tortoises is from a
number of causes. Some are fairly obvious and
are mentioned on just about every web site that
deals with chelonians: |
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too much protein
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too little calcium
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too much phosphorous (a poor calcium
:phosphorous ratio)
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not enough D3
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Basically Feed better, use better light, use
better vitamins = stop Pyramiding!
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Diet -
Redfoot/Yellowfoot Tortoises are opportunistic
grazers and enjoy broad leaf plants. However
they also eat overripe fruit and carrion,etc.
The best diet is one that contains a wide
variety of weeds (leaves and flowers), greens,
vegetables and fruit. |
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A good starting point:
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greens : turnip greens, collards, kale, red &
green leaf lettuce, endive, escarole, chicory,
dandelion etc.
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fruit: papaya, mangoes, apples, melons, cactus
fruit etc
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vegetables: all squash, carrots, occasionally
green beans
For detailed diet information:
(see
our Salad chart) for a list of edibles:
Use calcium with D3 every day, and multi
vitamins once a week. |
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Water -
Redfoo/Yellowfooy tortoises should have water
available at all times. The dish should be large
enough for them to soak in. Outdoors they enjoy
a small wading pool. I use a cement mixing tray.
They also love to wallow in mud. |
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Housing (indoors) -
For hatchlings I use small cement mixing
trays...Rubbermaid storage containers work well
also.. Up until they are about 6 months old, I
use only long stem sphagnum moss as a substrate.
Hatchlings are very prone to dehydration and
moss holds the moisture very well. As they get
older I start adding Eco Earth-
coconut coir
to the mix. |
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Suspend a basking light and UVB bulb over one
end of the container. I prefer to use a 100 watt
Basking Bulb, and a Zoo Med 10.0 Reptisun
UVB Bulb.. I raise or lower it to get the temps
in the low 90's in the basking area, The cooler
end should be in the mid to upper 70's. Night
temps can drop to 70°F use a small heat matt
place it so the it is under 1/3 of the container
at the basking end. This give a temperature
gradient which allows them to choose a comfort
level. Be sure that they can not lay directly on
it, or that they can not chew on it. Lights on
12 hours Daytime for basking, the heat mat on 12
hours a night to burrow in. |
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For juveniles and adults,
a tortoise table is the best option. Since they
do get rather large, the bigger you can make
this the better. |
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