Red footed Tortosise

Question
Hello all, I have recently home a wonderful female Red Foot, she is stunning and a real charm to the family. Now Unfortunately I am homing her in a reptile vivarium and she is loving it ( she also gets run of the garden as good sun comes over and gets her investigating the grounds, I mainly want to get some help on her indoor home. The vivarium is just under 5ft width . Glass front and 5 vents. Now I asked around and was informed I can use Zoo
Repti Bark,All Natural! Made from the bark of fir trees.

Hygroscopic. This means it absorbs moisture and then releases it, creating humidity. The perfect substrate for humidity loving reptiles. This is what I have inside, I have a UV lamp and a red heat lamp inside the homea and a moon light lanp for night time.

What more should I have for her, would it be a good idea to have a fan in one of the vents to freshen the air?

Look forward to your reply's

:)

Answer
Congratulations on the Red-foot, and for trying to do thing the right way.

This species appreciates humidity but also needs for the substrate surface to be somewhat dry to avoid shell rot. It also needs plenty of fresh, clean air. As long as the air in the vivarium is smells OK and not too much moisture is building up on the inside, you probably don't need a fan.

On-going research by Richard Fife, etc. has shown that one way to help prevent shell problems with most tortoises is to simply wet the shells down well a couple times a day- as one author puts it, mist them until they drip. By doing this, you can back off on the very high humidity many sources recommend and prevent shell rot, mold, mildew, etc. (although you still want some humidity!)

The fir bark works fine. I tend to use cypress mulch or something similar from the garden store just to keep the costs down. You can also go for a bioactive substrate, a mix of soils, mulches, and sand or clay kitty litter that allows natural helpful bacteria to grow in it. An Internet search for "bioactive substrate" can give you the basics.

Lighting for Red-foots can be very simple. A UVB bulb (not just a plain UV bulb, please) is fine for most purposes, and quite honestly, as long as it is getting real sunlight on a fairly regular basis, not even all that important. Nighttime bulbs are not really recommended unless it doubles as a heating element on cool nights- but night temps of about 75F are fine.

Some good sites for further research and info would be:
- http://www.turtletary.com
- http://www.tortoisetrust.org
- http://www.tortoiseforum.org