Originally Posted by bothrops

Thanks again for all the advice!

Firstly, the red bulb in question came with the ceramic holder when I got it and is not working. I will be replacing with a 'white' light before anyone moves in. I had assumed that like chams, the torts associate the light with the heat.

Tortoise Dude - Thanks for the info. Firstly, what is RNS and how is it avoided/controlled? What would be the 'ideal' 'begginers' tortoise.

Please excuse the inverted commas but I have a pet hate in as much as, I often find that 'begginers' species almost always in reptiles/herp circles means 'bulletproof'. i.e. 'it doesn't matter if you don't keep it correctly as the chances are you will get away with it'. IMO NO reptile or exotic species is 'begginer' or 'expert'. Admittedly some are much more difficult to keep than others and some require massively specific conditions /diets but that surely just makes them difficult to keep rather than 'not for the begginer'?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that people should recommend difficult to keep species as 'first pets' but surely their are plenty of people keeping (for example) Indian Stars, successfully and with their advice anyone could theoretically do the same.

I know, for example, that corn snakes are one of the most recommended 'beginners' snakes, mostly because you could practically keep them in a cardboard box and they would survive (and calm temperament, small adult size, range of colours, price etc). However, I have a number of corns but I am very careful to keep them in their absolute optimum conditions based on the shared knowledge of hundreds of keepers years worth of experience shared on this site and many others like it. I do the same with my boas, leos, chams, spiders, beardies, mantids etc. I am hoping to do similar with the Indian Stars.

The reason I have chosen IS's is because I have been offered this particular species and know them to be captive bred in the UK (they are currently eggs and in the incubator.)


If the outcome of this particular thread is that nobody on here keeps them successfully and people can convince me that is due to a lack of knowledge about optimum conditions in general ( or maybe when tortoise_dude explains RNS that will help) then I will decline the offer of the torts and look out for a different species that there is much better cumulative knowledge on.

I will not, however, choose a species based on how well it can cope with being poorly kept.


*Climbs down off soap box and eagerly awaits responses hoping that I haven't come across as a narky know-it-all who is getting what he wants regardless of advice*


Cheers

Andy

Originally Posted by bothrops

Thanks again for all the advice!

Firstly, the red bulb in question came with the ceramic holder when I got it and is not working. I will be replacing with a 'white' light before anyone moves in. I had assumed that like chams, the torts associate the light with the heat.

Tortoise Dude - Thanks for the info. Firstly, what is RNS and how is it avoided/controlled? What would be the 'ideal' 'begginers' tortoise.

Please excuse the inverted commas but I have a pet hate in as much as, I often find that 'begginers' species almost always in reptiles/herp circles means 'bulletproof'. i.e. 'it doesn't matter if you don't keep it correctly as the chances are you will get away with it'. IMO NO reptile or exotic species is 'begginer' or 'expert'. Admittedly some are much more difficult to keep than others and some require massively specific conditions /diets but that surely just makes them difficult to keep rather than 'not for the begginer'?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that people should recommend difficult to keep species as 'first pets' but surely their are plenty of people keeping (for example) Indian Stars, successfully and with their advice anyone could theoretically do the same.

I know, for example, that corn snakes are one of the most recommended 'beginners' snakes, mostly because you could practically keep them in a cardboard box and they would survive (and calm temperament, small adult size, range of colours, price etc). However, I have a number of corns but I am very careful to keep them in their absolute optimum conditions based on the shared knowledge of hundreds of keepers years worth of experience shared on this site and many others like it. I do the same with my boas, leos, chams, spiders, beardies, mantids etc. I am hoping to do similar with the Indian Stars.

The reason I have chosen IS's is because I have been offered this particular species and know them to be captive bred in the UK (they are currently eggs and in the incubator.)


If the outcome of this particular thread is that nobody on here keeps them successfully and people can convince me that is due to a lack of knowledge about optimum conditions in general ( or maybe when tortoise_dude explains RNS that will help) then I will decline the offer of the torts and look out for a different species that there is much better cumulative knowledge on.

I will not, however, choose a species based on how well it can cope with being poorly kept.


*Climbs down off soap box and eagerly awaits responses hoping that I haven't come across as a narky know-it-all who is getting what he wants regardless of advice*


Cheers

Andy

Originally Posted by ukphd

Hey there
I don't wish to throw a spanner in the works but have an interesting addition to the thread (perhaps? ).
Clearly it seems that IS have specific requirements so please don't think I'm recommending this approach at all, this is just for info!
I work in Indonesia a lot (in fact am back off there for 6 months next week) and IS are very easy to get hold of there. I'm certain they are not captive bred, they are almost definitely wild caught. One of my friends decided to buy a couple of hatchlings 4 years ago. Had I known I would have advised him against it. He did it with the best possible intentions and I didn't realise he'd done it until I visited his home again recently. He's been keeping them for 4 years in a plastic tank type of thing (you know those plastic ones they sell in pet shops with a plastic mesh top in bright colours). Their substrate is a sheet of newspaper, changed several times a day. They are fed watercress, lettuce and the occasional bean sprout. Every now and again they get a sprinkling of a reptile vitamin.

They have an outdoor run which I got him to build and they go in that on sunny days - but it rains for many months a year there so there are long periods with no sun. They have no basking spot, no artificial UV, no hides etc

Clearly heat isn't a real issue as it's hot there - but it can get quite "chilly" in that area and temperatures drop to 15 - 19 degrees fairly regularly. Humidity is almost always high.

They're at least 4 yrs old now and they look amazing! I'm sure any problems may not be evident yet but they are healthy, bright eyed, smooth shelled and generally in what appears to be perfect tortoise health! They're regularly handled too!

I'm working with him to improve his set up. It's not easy to get hold of the lamps and things there so we're working on what we can and we're going to build a tortoise table when I go out this time.

I'm clearly not condoning this approach to keeping them, and I'm not trying to suggest it's ok but I just thought I'd mention it as it goes to show that perhaps they're not as fragile as they are thought to be? or he is very lucky, or they're yet to show problems - but they're not shown any signs of RNS at all. I wonder if the humidity is the saving grace out there?