How This Blog Will Help You With Your Redfoot Tortoise
If you want to learn successful tortoise husbandry over the shoulder of a 40+ year pro with these reptiles, you’re in the right place.
Whether it’s their diet, breeding, indoor/outdoor pens, or caring for your new hatchlings – This blog will help you!
Here’s my mission with this blog:
Help educate current and potential owners of Redfoot tortoises on their husbandry, so they can have a healthy, active tortoise and the tortoise can express its normal behavior and live a long, healthy life.
About Ernie Johnson
I’m Ernie, I’m 58 years old and live in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. This is not the best part of the country to try and keep and breed a Tortoise from the tropical forests of Southern Central American and South America, but it can be done successfully.
Terry Kilgore in Tennessee and Joe Heinen in South Carolina have it much easier, but don’t be concerned if you live in a place that doesn’t have 65-90 degrees and 70-90% humidity every day – I’m here to tell you it’s possible to keep Redfoot’s in your area.
My Background with Tortoises
My involvement with turtles and tortoises began in 1971. That was when I acquired my first Berlandier’s (Texas) tortoise.
In the summer of 2001 I acquired my hatchling Redfoots.
I also have a small breeding group of Russian Tortoises added in 2001 and a couple of old male Greek’s – one originally from southern Libya and one from Lebanon.
The wild caught ones all come with a plethora of parasites and health issues, so your first order of business is getting them to a qualified reptile vet and get them cleaned out.
Once they’re free of parasites they are a highly personable and enjoyable species to work with and once you get the husbandry right, a long-term companion.
Very few animals on the planet are as tightly coupled with their environment and its unique factors as tortoises.
When you can successfully mimic their nature environment, temp/humidity, sun/shade, and food they are virtually bulletproof, from a health perspective.
Why Setup a Blog on Redfoots?
I noticed from browsing in various reptile forums there is a lot of misinformation regarding these tortoises and I want to contribute the experience of someone who has raised them from hatchlings to egg laying adults with 28 babies produced to date.
F2 Redfoots are still fairly rare on Kingsnake.com or in retail outlets, so you get animals twice removed from the wild, which makes for a far healthier and more adaptable Tortoise.
I have have a strong desire to get my young Redfoot’s in the hands of people who either enjoy them as much as I do or who want to enjoy them as I do.
The Currently Available menu on the blog takes you to a page showing the ones available for purchase at this time, but fair warning – I’m particular as to who gets them from me.