Skip to content

Built in Calgary since 2000

Sign in Account Cart

Tortoise and box turtle

Red-footed tortoise

Chelonoidis carbonarius

Kept the same way as the box turtle, Hermann's tortoise and Russian tortoise, so they share one kit: the same heat, light, and humidity, sized to the animal.

See the gear

We are still putting together the setup for a red-footed tortoise. Ask us and we will help you choose, or start with the gear below.

Photograph of a Red-footed tortoise
Photograph by Bjoertvedt, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Care sheet

What it needs

We have taken these figures from published sources and are still checking them against our own experience. Treat them as a guide, and ask us before you buy.

Basking surface
30 to 35°C Measured on the surface the animal lies on, not in the air.
Daytime air
21 to 30°C The cool end, away from the lamp.
Night air
20 to 23°C
UV index at the basking spot
0.6 to 3 Zone 2. Partial sun or occasional basker, thermoregulator
Humidity
70 to 90%
Daylight hours
13 h in summer, 11 h in winter
Where it lives
Rocks, crevices, or burrows, Grassland or savanna
Adult length
30 to 46 cm
When it is active
Diurnal
How it lives
Terrestrial
Longest recorded life
49 years A record from the literature, not what to expect. Most animals live well short of it.

Our reading of the literature, not veterinary advice. Animals vary, and so do rooms, so take these figures, and any setup the builder puts together, as a starting point, and ask a reptile vet about your own animal. Where the figures come from.

From the catalogue

Gear that may suit a red-footed tortoise

Matched to its size and care by the catalogue, not yet checked by us. Ask before you buy.

Same care group

Kept the same way

Where it comes from

Nicaragua (Great Corn Island and mainland locations), SE Panama, Colombia (west of the Andes in Choco), east of the Andes in E Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, E Brazil (south to Rio de Janeiro; seems absent from almost all but the eastern parts of the Amazon Basin: Rio Grande do Sul, Goias, Espírito Santo, Ceará, Roraima, Bahia, Sergipe, Piaui, Tocantins etc.), Peru, E Bolivia, Paraguay, N Argentina, Trinidad, Virgin Islands (St. Croix); introduced to a number of Carribean Islands (incl. Providencia, Grenadine islands, St. Kitts)

Breeding: oviparous. Temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD)mechanism with females produced at, or above, 29°C.

Where the figures come from