[Music] thank you put your hands up remember there we go this is a brand new baby madagascan radiated tortoise what's really interesting about baby tortoises and turtles they can fend for themselves right out of the eggs meaning they need No Parental Guidance [Music] questions so if tortoises need no help from mommy or daddy how do we get from this to this well let's go back and take a look at what babies do in the wild so by going back I mean let's take a look at what the animals do within the first few days or even years of life in the case of a Russian tortoise like many other species the Instinct right out of the egg is to look for cover but what they're really looking for is a precious microclimate that's going to offer them humidity right off the bat and of course cover from predators and when it comes to tortoises they often position themselves under Leaf litter or debris right alongside the areas that they're going to graze so that they can literally pop out warm up real quick eat something and get right back to cover because upwards of 90 of the time these animals stay hidden and that's our first key to keeping them properly here at Garden State tortoise over the years we have hatched and raised dozens of species of tortoise and what I'm about to show you represents how we raise 98 of them with the exception of a small few the following points are how you can ensure that the animals are going to stay safe and grow appropriately those four points are humidity and substrate food and water refuge and Lighting humidity is absolutely crucial to a baby tour to staying healthy and growing properly from the gecko but how do we accomplish that with a lot of different reptile enclosures out there it's nearly impossible because it's not a closed chamber well there's a very inexpensive easy way you can create a closed chamber and you're looking at one this is simply a storage tote or container it's a 66 quart and the dimensions are roughly about 16 inches wide 23 inches long and somewhere around 13 or 14 inches in height and the height is important and we're going to get to that later this completely closes and the lids can even lock and air still gets through these they are not completely sealed shut but if you wanted to put a couple of air holes with a drill along the sides or top that's perfectly fine so if you look along the side here you can see that moisture building up on the inside that's because this closed chamber is creating a constant microclimate for the baby tortoises growing up inside it but what do we put inside it to make the tortoises feel at home well number one is the substrate and that goes hand in hand with humidity because it retains the moisture let's take a look at this one over here okay this enclosure is open so that we can actually see what's going on inside it but come here I want to show you down here really closely what I'm talking about as far as substrate goes this is the kind of substrate you want when you turn it over you see the moisture that's being held within it now all this is is forest floor which is cypress mulch and of course reptosoil I also like to add some sand because sand is a natural component and all tortoise habitats across the globe and when used correctly it is perfectly safe this retains moisture and why is that important tortoises are going to spend so much of their time burrowed into it and they're going to absorb that moisture through the skin through the Shell through the cloaca that's their butt and they're going to be able to start growing smoothly [Music] see that this little tortoise was underneath there getting some precious moisture and that's why the depth of the substrate is so important I like to give at least four inches to make sure that these animals can really fully go underneath there so that they can stay as hydrated as possible [Music] the right substrate is everything a tortoise doesn't only need humidity but it also needs traction so make sure you're using things like soil and Sandy substrates mixed together you can make your own and you can learn how to do that by studying an animal's natural habitat substrates like Aspen shavings total garbage don't use the stuff why it doesn't retain any moisture at all and the tortoises have a hard time walking on it now there's something else you need to know about the substrate so come here come take a closer look with me when you look inside this tortoise enclosure it looks like it's pretty dry right well no it's only the surface that's dried out within the substrate it's still good and moist so if the tortoise decides to burrow into it it's still subjecting itself to that precious microclimate and that replicates what would happen in many of the wild areas that they occur in in nature take a coastal species for example that Ocean Mist is going to come in and really wet things down early in the morning but by midday it dissipates however within the substrate it's still safe for a tortoise to burrow into if it wants to find moisture all right next up we're going to show you how to feed your baby tortoises and of course offer them water starting with the diet there's only really three main components you need to be aware of a tortoises diet should be high in fiber high in calcium and lower in protein but don't forget tortoises like many animals are opportunistic feeders meaning they will take advantage of what they come across so if it's a grazing species that's normally eating weeds and flowers and shoots coming up out of the ground they will not hesitate to eat something like a dead animal it's true you can see plenty of YouTube videos of hermit's tortoises eating dead rabbits and Beyond so we're using Missouri Tortoise diet formula 5m21 you can order this off Missouri's website you simply soak it it's got a little bit of protein in it but this is okay because it's being offered in moderation with things like organic greens these are dandelions it's a weed that you can find in your backyard among others so all I'm going to do is Rip this up and mix it into the Missouri and that way we are going to make sure that the tourist are eating everything so here we go gonna mix up this Missouri Tortoise diet with the dandelion and every time you use the Tortoise diet you can mix something else into it I know zumad makes a grassland species diet that can be mixed into the Missouri but primarily you're going to want to feed them things like naturally occurring weeds and flowers hibiscus flowers are great mulberry leaves are great veg clover but this isn't a feeding video specifically we could do a whole nother video on that but right now just showing you how to get these animals going and all you really need to feed them off is a simple Deli container lid you don't have to do anything fancy these can be thrown out or easily cleaned and they're perfect for the tortoises to climb right into and eat off last up we're going to add a little bit of phosphorus-free calcium powder with vitamin D3 don't do that okay let's try that again lastly we're going to add just a little bit of this calcium powder that is phosphorus free but has vitamin D3 in it you just want to add a little bit of this just a nice little sprinkle to the mix that you've made now I only want to see this done about once a month you may read on other sources that you should be doing this weekly or every single time you feed a tortoise but you should never be forcing calcium or any vitamin on the animal excessively I like to do it once a month tops but what you can do is actually leave cuttlefish bone in the enclosure for the tortoises to chew on when they feel the need to do it that's a safer way of doing it and it also keeps the beak in check because of course the tortoises beak can get very overgrown in the wild tortoises tend to eat every single day because they're grazers they'll go out into the fields or savannahs where they live and they'll find what they want to eat go back to hiding then come back out later on when the heat of the day subsides so you can offer your tortoises food every single day or you can even feed them every other day it's really not that big of a deal as far as missing meals goes because when tortoises are experiencing unfavorable weather in the wild they typically won't come out at all and just won't eat that day so this isn't like having to worry about feeding your dog even though we've already talked a lot about hydration moisture and humidity you still need to give your tortoises water so you should put a shallow water dish in these enclosures that they can get in and out of very easily so check this out in one I have a simple terracotta saucer and in the other right over here I have a simple reptile water dish which you can find at Petco PetSmart or really anywhere get it off Amazon too they're shallow the tortoises can walk in and out of them without effort what you can also do is put some rocks or Stones inside them because a lot of people get concerned that a baby tortoise is going to flip over and drown that Cannon does happen even though it's rare so you simply put a couple of these in so that if a tortoise does get on its back somehow it can pivot off these and write itself no problem here is why you need to take hydration humidity and drinking water very seriously this radiated tortoise here was grown improperly see how pyramided her shell is she is not supposed to look like that this tortoise right here is almost bowling ball smooth and this is what they would look like in nature this animal has been subjected to hydration properly from a very early stage what happens well the outer layer of the carapace scoots which are made of keratin start to expand but then they also stack upwards and that's why it looks like this some people think it looks cool but it's not healthy and it can lead to things like kidney and liver failure security is crucial for your tortoises to stay healthy and Thrive and that's because if they don't have Security in the form of refuge and hiding areas they will break out in a stress attack basically and stress is the number one killer of reptiles of all kind even those that are captive bred you don't need to go nuts here especially since these are just temporary units to get your tortoises out of the very fragile stage once they start approaching sizes like three inches they can be moved to different units and you can get a little bit more creative but when they're this small you really just want to make sure they have their basic needs and they're not going to be doing too much they're going to be spending the majority of their time burrowed into the substrate or hiding under plants whether you want to use live or fake or they're going to be going underneath things like half logs for example there's many different things on the market today that you can use to make your tortoises feel secure or you can even make your own lighting lighting is important how important when it comes to UVB that's a debatable subject some reptiles absolutely need it other reptiles maybe not so much but always error on the side of caution tortoises are absolutely Sun dwellers they take every single opportunity to bask in the Sun and they tend to come from very sunlit areas now there are Forest dwelling species like redfoot tortoises forestons tortoises just to name a couple that really probably don't utilize UVB as much as other species like Herman's or radiated tortoises do but again you're going to want to err on the side of caution this is a coil UVB bulb oh my God it's a coil bulb everybody's gonna freak out when they hear this right it's an angel tale that these things are terrible now for some reptiles they really are not suitable because they are too close to the reptile's eyes which can cause damage but when you use the unit that I'm describing in this video These are actually beneficial one because they're being held 13 to 14 inches above the animal and the animal is only about this big on average and also because this is a coil bulb it is only throwing UVB in one spot which is important because when tortoises hide they're underneath things whether it's Leaf litter debris or a log or a plant and they're usually not getting the UVB unless they purposely try to expose a little bit of their shell so the Zoo Med 10.0 is great for grassland species or Mediterranean species like Herman's just to name one the 5.0 is better for ones like red foots or elongated tortoises or Asian Forest tortoises because they naturally will not be subjecting themselves to that much UVB now in addition to this you of course need a spotlight a simple reptile daylight Spotlight which is going to be about only 50 watts is all you need because this is a closed chamber it's going to get hot in there quick you go throwing 160 watt mercury vapor bulb on this thing you're going to cook your tortoises if you're like me and you have a very warm reptile room you want to use a lower wattage bulb so that you don't cook these poor things it's that simple now let me show you how to install the lights on this cool unit these simple but effective units come with a lid they are after all storage containers so all you want to do to get the lighting hooked up to it is take a utility knife and cut to the size of the Dome you're going to use but of course cut a little bit smaller than the actual circumference of it so that it doesn't fall in and then you place it on top and you can use a little bit of Gorilla Tape here to keep it in place this isn't really a fire hazard because we are not using very high wattage here these coil bulbs are very very low wattage sometimes only 13 watts and of course the heat lamp that I suggested using is only about 50 Watts so I can actually touch these even the ceramic portions and it doesn't even burn if you're going to start using really hot lights because you're going into a much bigger enclosure don't bother using this method but again for hatchling tortoises that we're trying to get started properly this has proven to be the best method for me indoors for decades now this method has proven to be successful for us with a wide variety of tortoises and really the only species that comes to mind that I would not do this for would be something like an Egyptian tortoise which we've done videos about right here is living proof of just how amazingly smooth these tortoises will grow when you raise them in this closed chamber environment with the proper humidity lighting and diet on top of all of that I would also suggest even going bioactive by adding isopods and springtails to this so that you don't have to change the substrate much the cleanup crew will do it for you if you guys enjoyed seeing this and you want to know what to do next because your tortoises are of course going to grow up and start getting to this size before you know it click this link right here to watch a video on what to do when they reach that juvenile size [Music] foreign