Advice on newly accquired 5 yr old Male Horsefield's

[turtleboyleo]

Hello All.

Some advice would be welcome in trying to understand the behaviour of our newly accquired Horesefield's.

He is housed indoors in a 6 foot x 3 foot tortiose table with its own little seperate sleeping area. When we got him approx 2 months ago, his substrate was mostly topsoil with some coco coir remnants. I have recently changed this out for orchid bark as the topsoil was so dusty and hard to keep a humid environment for him. I have just replaced his small water tray with a bigger 17" teracotta dish.

I have a 125W mercury vapour buld giving a shell height temp of approx 95 degrees and a UV strip light. His tortoise table is also positionerd next to a window to give natural light. Although we live in Northern Scotland and sun has been absent so far this summer. We also get him out in the garden when it's sunny, when we can.

He eats a fairly varied diet of lamb's lettuce, kale, mallow, clover, dandelion and other weeds. We use tortoise table app to find safe foods for him.

He is soaked in a warm bath approx twice a week and usually produces lots of nice poops and urates (like toothpaste, not gritty).

Recently though, after a bath, he will just disappear and burrow away and stay sleeping for days. He has definitely slowed down with eating aswell.

I am worried he is wanting to hibernate (brumate) and we do not want him to do this during summer. Previous owner said she has never allowed him to brumate in 5 years. I am fully prepared to allow him to do this over winter but not right now.

Any advice on what to do? Do I need to heat his sleeping area with a heat mat or something?

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

What age is your tortoise? When did you get him?

I would switch the mercury vapor bulb to separate heat and UVB lights. Some mercury vapor bulbs are known to cause hot spots and your tortoise might be trying to hide from them.

This article has tips on keeping your tortoise up and preventing brumation: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/tortoise-care/overwintering-your-tortoise/

Basically you have to get him convinced that it is still summer. To keep him up provide ambient lighting with some LEDs in the 5000-6500K color range. Set your heat and ambient lighting on a 12 hour on and off schedule with a timer. Keep the day time ambient in the high 70's or 80s and the basking area around 95-100 directly under the bulb. Don't let the night time temp drop below 65. You can use ceramic heat emitters on a thermostat to do that.

You can dig him up every morning to get his day going until he gets adjusted to the timer.

 

[turtleboyleo]

Thanks for this. Tortoise is 5 years old and we have had him for approx 2 months.

His lighting/heating is on a 12/12 timer just now, maybe we can change it to 13/11.

Good to know there's no issue with digging him up and getting him moving.

I will look into better temperature management overall. I'm not sure what his nighttime temp is, so it may well be too cold.

 

[turtleboyleo]

For info, here's a pic of his habitat just now (his sleeping bit is though that archway).

Apologies for the angle but is from a webcam I've set up to keep an eye on him whilst I'm working away.

Any advice/criticism greatfully accepted.

 

[turtleboyleo]

Here he is😍