KeeprHusbandry You're a Pro? Click here to meet Rex
Atlas / Library / Testudinidae / Red-footed tortoise
Beginner-IntermediateDiurnal · active nowCITES II
Testudinidae

Red-footed tortoise

Chelonoidis carbonariusเต่าขาแดง

Traceable. The figures above appear in the page we cite, which we opened on 10 Aug 2026. That means you can check them, not that we have confirmed they are right. reptifiles.com

Photograph: Matteo Bellucci · CC BY

Photographed by an observer on iNaturalist and published under a Creative Commons licence; the photographer and the licence are named under the image. It is not an animal of ours, and no animal was handled by us to produce it.

14:00
Day

Drag the sun. Red-footed tortoise is diurnal, so what it is doing changes with the light. The sheet states a night temperature, and the rail follows it.

CITES II is a global listing and holds in every country. National law is not global, and we hold no national wildlife law for any country, Thailand included. Check your own authority before buying or selling.

Check your setup against this sheet I keep one 102 plants usable with this species
Back to the globe My keep

https://keepr.pet/husbandry/en/chelonoidis-carbonarius

‹ All husbandry guides
warm end32–35 °C
cool end24–29 °C
Humidity70–90 %

The numbers

Thermal gradient

152025303540 °C
24–29°Cool side
32–35°Warm side
20–23°Night

Day: a real gradient, 32–35°C warm against 24–29°C cool, so the animal chooses. Night: 20–23°C.

Why

Same scale on every sheet here, so two species compare by eye.

The sheet stateswarm 32-35 °C / cool 24-29 °C / night 20-23 °C

Humidity

70–90%Target RH

The sheet states70-90 % en interieur

UVB

T5 6%UVI 2–3

The sheet statesArcadia T5 HO 6% / Zoo Med T5 HO Reptisun 5.0 at mesh: 11-14″ / 28-35cm, no mesh: 14-17″ / 35-43cm; Arcadia T5 HO 12% / Zoo Med T5 HO ReptiSun 10.0 at mesh: 17-22″ /43-55cm, no mesh: 21-25″ / 53-62cm; UVI between 2.0 – 3.0 in the basking area

Enclosure
the minimum recommended enclosure size for one red-footed tortoise looks like: Length > 8-12′ / 2.4-3.7m, Width > 4-6′ / 1.2-1.8m, Height > 2-3′ / 0.6-0.9m
Diet
a red-footed tortoise's diet should be around 90% plant matter and 10% animal matter. Once they near adulthood, this should be reduced to every other day to prevent obesity

Identity

Family / Order
Testudinidae / Testudines
Origin
Temperament
Bold, social for a tortoise

Enclosure and conditions

Temperature
warm 32–35 °C / cool 24–29 °C / night 20–23 °C

What your climate adds

This sheet states a range to hold. Your local climate decides how much work holding it is. Pick the nearest city: nothing is sent anywhere, the choice stays in this browser.

Behaviour and handling

HandlingTolerant, personable
HousingCan co-house with space
NoteVocal: makes clucking sounds

Reproduction

Sexing
Male: longer tail, 'waisted' shell, concave plastron
Breeding
Egg-layer; several clutches

When to see a vet

H

Good to know

  • One of few tortoises that eats fruit & carrion in the wild: and 'talks'.

Common questions

Is it a good tortoise for Thailand?

One of the better matches, because it comes from humid tropical forest, so our climate suits it far better than it suits desert species.

What does it eat?

Greens as the base, a real share of fruit, and a little animal protein now and then, which is unusual for a tortoise.

How big does it get?

Around 30 to 40 cm, occasionally larger, so a small garden pen is manageable.

Can I keep two?

Females together are usually fine, but two males will ram and bite each other. Give them room and two separate feeding spots.

What it needs

A heat sourcebecause temp — warm 32-35 °C / cool 24-29 °C / night 20-23 °C
A thermostat to regulate itbecause temp — warm 32-35 °C / cool 24-29 °C / night 20-23 °C
A thermometerbecause temp — warm 32-35 °C / cool 24-29 °C / night 20-23 °C
A way to check the night figurebecause temp — warm 32-35 °C / cool 24-29 °C / night 20-23 °C
A hygrometerbecause humidity — 70-90 % en interieur
UVB 6-6% (T5), stated as requiredbecause uvb — Arcadia T5 HO 6% / Zoo Med T5 HO Reptisun 5.0 at mesh: 11-14″ / 28-35cm, no mesh: 14-17″ / 35-43cm; Arcadia T5 HO 12% / Zoo Med T5 HO ReptiSun 10.0 at mesh: 17-22″ /43-55cm, no mesh: 21-25″ / 53-62cm; UVI between 2.0 - 3.0 in the basking area
Not stated: The size of the enclosurethis sheet describes the enclosure without a figure: « the minimum recommended enclosure size for one red-footed tortoise looks like: L »

Every line above is deduced from a value this sheet states, and names which one. Nothing here is a general recommendation. What the sheet does not state is listed too, rather than left out: a kit that looks complete is worse than one that names its gap.

Sources

The Tortoise Table — Red-footreptifiles.com — lu le 2026-08-04speciesplus.net — lu le 2026-08-08

Others in this group

Russian TortoiseTestudo horsfieldiiHermann's tortoiseTestudo hermanniGreek TortoiseTestudo graecaEgyptian TortoiseTestudo kleinmanniLeopard tortoiseStigmochelys pardalisAfrican spurred tortoise (Sulcata)Centrochelys sulcataYellow-footed TortoiseChelonoidis denticulatusElongated tortoiseIndotestudo elongata

What this sheet states

77%
TemperatureHumidityEnclosure sizeActivityOriginDietSourcesUVB

This sheet states 5 of 7 of the fields this product runs on. What is missing turns something off: enclosure size audit, the diet section. We show the gap rather than fill it with a plausible number.

UVB is measured but does not count: it is absent from 421 of 678 sheets, and on most of them that is not a gap, since a nocturnal snake's sheet has no reason to state a UV index. Counting it would call the library incomplete without cause.