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Absolutely not true. I raise my hatchlings in an open top terrarium for the first six months, then they hibernate (yes, even the very young ones), and then they're moved to the garden enclosure. They turn out fine. And I don't even soak them, I just make sure that the substrate doesn't dry too...

Thanks! No, the first photo is a one- or two-year-old. These are the parents.

Yes, I did. People who've done excursions into the habitat of Greek and Hermann's tortoises have found cuttlebone there (source: this book, for example). Not just on beaches, but also further inland, probably carried there by birds. Wild tortoises get most of their calcium from their food and...

Not that I know of. Kidney stones are mainly calcium oxalate, not calcium carbonate. Which is one reason why it's said that you shouldn't feed oxalate-rich plants like spinach to tortoises.

I did. I debunked your ridiculous story about "torts fishing for cuttlebone" which you brought up as an argument for eggshell being "more natural". It isn't.

@Grandpa Turtle 144 My pleasure.

@Grandpa Turtle 144 You didn't address a single point that the linked article brings up, instead you try to discredit it with the silly argument that you can find anything on the internet. Great job, proud of you.

Your line of reasoning there doesn't make a lot of sense. I could easily reply "I have never seen a tort picking up chicken eggshells, boiling/cleaning them, and then running them through a coffee grinder until they're powder" (that's assuming of course that you're using boiled/cleaned chicken...

There already is a clear plastron photo in the album linked in the first post. It's easily recognizable as a spur-thighed / "Greek" tortoise, because of the spurs on the thighs. ;) (and of course the undivided scute above the tail, plastron markings, etc.) Looks like a female.

@saginawhxc Very cute! I forgot the tortoise tax, but I've been saving up. Some new photos here.

A sand lizard, Lacerta agilis, I believe. Quite a nice surprise, I haven't seen one in ages. Looks like it had to sacrifice its tail in the past. A few more photos here.

@GingerLove That doesn't look bad! If you want color, you can just tint the image. The pseudo-colors that my NIR camera produces depend on the filter and the white balance (WB) setting - unfortunately, it can't shoot RAW, so I have to pick one WB preset. Here's a comparison I made (large...

Yes, Eastern Hermann's tortoises, female and male on the last two photos.

You can easily tell if a photo is near-infrared or not by looking at grass and other foliage. As it reflects NIR, it should turn white, as can be seen on your previous shots of the dunes, for example. Here's another one by me: And this is what it looked like out of the camera, before...

@GingerLove Sorry, I don't know much about Nikon cameras, I'm a Canon user. Maybe you can change the focus area/spot on your camera, or even switch to manual focus?