late last year I introduced my self, a 12 year tortoise owner of two female Greeks living in Cyprus. We had another tortoise given to us last spring and the result was 10 babies born in September.
For this year we have added an extra two pens. The girls are in there original one, the babies are in there smaller wired enclosure, in a larger pen for when they grow next to that, and the male has been moved to the end one. To do this I have given up my vegetable garden. So three pens now in all. Will send photos later.
They have all been overwintered outside, with there own bed boxes containing soil so they can burrow down as they want. The babies I kept well soaked before hibernation and sprayed there soil to keep it moist during there sleep. We are only about 110 km from mainland turkey where I have seen wild tortoise, they are not native to Cyprus. And we are warmer here. So decided to go for the same approach with the babies as my females, and presumably how they would overwinter in the wild.
The weather has now warmed up over the last month, with the odd wet day and everybody is up and about and eating. I weighed the babies for the first time today since last month, and they are putting on weight. Interestingly I weighed them during there hibernation and they either lost no weight or at most 2 gram.
Nobody is more suprised than me at there survival, I expected to lose at least half of them.
Sorry for the long post, will post photos later .
For this year we have added an extra two pens. The girls are in there original one, the babies are in there smaller wired enclosure, in a larger pen for when they grow next to that, and the male has been moved to the end one. To do this I have given up my vegetable garden. So three pens now in all. Will send photos later.
They have all been overwintered outside, with there own bed boxes containing soil so they can burrow down as they want. The babies I kept well soaked before hibernation and sprayed there soil to keep it moist during there sleep. We are only about 110 km from mainland turkey where I have seen wild tortoise, they are not native to Cyprus. And we are warmer here. So decided to go for the same approach with the babies as my females, and presumably how they would overwinter in the wild.
The weather has now warmed up over the last month, with the odd wet day and everybody is up and about and eating. I weighed the babies for the first time today since last month, and they are putting on weight. Interestingly I weighed them during there hibernation and they either lost no weight or at most 2 gram.
Nobody is more suprised than me at there survival, I expected to lose at least half of them.
Sorry for the long post, will post photos later .
