Recent content by idcowden

Looking at the box you have, they really need double that space each. That said, I had two living in 2ft x 6ft tortoise table up until they were about 4. The problem you have is that soon they will stop living happily with each other and just attack each other. They will also need at least 4ft x...

The temperature gun is very useful. I used it daily when mine were babies. They are older juveniles no, so I don't need it as much.

Looking at Tom's habitat advice is a good idea. He's in California so his advice will probably transfer well to Oklahoma. My habitat walls go down 12 inches and then the ground is pretty much hardcore, but I'm in the UK where the worst the habitat will get is a nosey cat or fox.

Also - if you have a high sided soak tub as Tom suggests they may start picking fights and climbing on each other when they inevitably get bored after 2 minutes and start trying to find a way out.

No, not in that much detail. There's a useful PDF here:- https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CDP-2022-0024/CDP-2022-0024.pdf The EU Legislation is here https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:309:0001:0050:EN:PDF Important to note that the Government...

No idea I'm afraid. Their website says this:- So they don't exactly say that they don't use neonicotinoid pesticides, but it seems likely that they don't as they were banned by the UK and EU in 2018.

Sadly it's the same in the UK, although there is real pressure for change. Squires, one of our largest garden centre chains has a chemical free range of plants now. Other garden centres are following suit. B&Q banned plants grown with neonicotinoid pesticides back in 2017.

For ours we just made them a rockery on the orchid bark substrate along with a little wood bridge to hide under and a sunken terracotta dish for drinking water. I didn't start with plants until they were about 3 and getting too big for the Tortoise Table. At that stage I built a much larger...

Really? Vet says 15 to 30c (60 to 85f). The basking spot is providing the 85f+ and the area around will get steadily cooler from there, no? https://lafeber.com/vet/basic-information-sheet-hermanns-tortoise/#:~:text=Daytime temperatures should range from,75°F) at night.&text=Artificial UVB...

Surely unless you are keeping his enclosure in a fridge it's only the basking spot that needs to be heated. Everywhere else can be room temperature. I always think of it as a charging spot for Tortoises. Once they have charged themselves up with heat, they will wander off to do what they want...

FWIW I built a little pond in my tortoise enclosure which is fed by a little waterfall and drains into the main pond. I have two spur thighs. They walk around the pond, they drink from the pond but show no interest in going into it, walking across it or pooping in it. Any poo is going to...

Don't know if it helps, but I used a 2ft x 3ft cold frame and hung a ceramic heater in the middle which is plugged into an INKBird ITC 306T bluetooth thermostat. It means I can check the temperature in the cold frame and also set the heat lamp to come on when temperatures drop below a certain...

Quite often TEFAL resources are American in origin and many people who speak English as a second or more language do so with an American accent - hence American terminology. In British English chelonians fall into three categories:- Turtle is the salt water swimmer Terrapin is a fresh water...

You might need an electrician to wire you up a dedicated outdoor main and power socket. I use a cold frame with a ceramic heater - that way they get the natural cycle of day and night plus a bit more UV from the sun. The heater is plugged into an Inkbird digital thermostat so it can come on...

There are a couple of really useful apps:- Tortoise table PlantNet Plantnet will tell you what a plant is by taking a picture. You can then look up the plant in Tortoise table and it will tell you if it is tortoise friendly.