Whenever the opportunity, get tortoise outside in the real sun. Make sure there is somewhere for it to shelter. Man, no matter how hard he/she tries, cannot better nature.
Cindy, thank you for your insights and thoughts. These creatures are so alien to us that although we try our best, there is always doubt that we do the right thing. But surely, when we have owned theses creatures for decades, and they are in good health, we must be doing something right...
I will take Boris for a check up with a herpetologist. I meant to last year, when I noticed that Boris' nails on his front legs were wearing unevenly, and wondered if he is favouring one leg. But herpetologists are a rare breed. The only one I have come across when searching the web is in...
Boris is a Testudo Graeca Graeca. County of Buckinghamshire UK.
Boris does not hibernate loose on the floor. He hibernates in a cardboard box with newspaper in the cold attic room and is checked almost daily, until he wakes up.
So you agree with me and my main point of the post, which was...
PS My one line comment which says (Yep, Boris is nearly 70 years old and he is outside) was sent by mistake, I was trying to edit it and was deleting part of it and I must have pressed a wrong key and it got sent. It should have read (Yep, Boris is nearly 70 years old and he is indoors waiting...
Yep. Boris is nearly 70 years old and he is outside
Tom, thank you for your interest.
I think you might like to re-read my post. Boris hibernates but always wakes up before spring has really got going.
Once a Boris wakes after hibernation, he cannot be ignored, his year has started, so he...
I inherited an elderly tortoise called Boris.
I look after Boris in mostly the same way his owner did.
Boris hibernates when he is ready and wakes up when he is ready, and in the latter case far too early for me, about January time. He then roams around the house doing his own thing waiting for...
Boris hibernates indoors in the coolest part of the house. I check on him often during hibernation. When he wakes up, I encourage him to eat straight away by keeping him warm and I give him warm baths. He stays indoors until the weather warms.
I would say no oils or grease, purely because it would not happen in the wild. Get him outside. Think of him like a mini horse. He needs the sun and rain on his back. Artificial lighting is only secondary to the real thing. Get to know wild plants. Violets, hawkweed, hawk-bit, plantain...
Tortoises are wild animals, if possible, better to use nature than resort to vitamins. There will be some plants that they like. Offer them flowers. My tortoise loves flowers and petals, violets, rose petals, honeysuckle, the very softest parts of bears breeches, hawkweed, hawk-bit, knapweed...
I am a lot older than 7, sixty-years older in fact, and for the last few years I have looked after a tortoise. His name is Boris and he is about the same age as me. He belonged to my brother. My brother kept Boris in tip top condition by natural methods. At first I listened to and read...
I'm in the UK and have a Greek Tortoise so this maybe irrelevant to you. Last week my tortoise woke from hibernation. Very cold outside so he walked around my kitchen hardly eating, even though I waved all his fav food under his nose, and I put electric fires on and rigged up a special light...
My tortoise is over 60 years old and I inherited from my brother.
I live in Buckinghamshire and tortoise woke from hibernation a week ago, immediately, I offered thin slices of cucumber. The skin has fibre but more importantly, cucumber is mostly liquid.
Plantains (not the vegetable) are tough...
Boris is hibernating at the moment. But when he is awake he spends his time trying to escape. If there is someone to watch him, he has free run for an hour or more most days of an enormous garden. I put him in a penned area for the rest of the time but I have had to make it bigger and bigger...