Hi Everyone,
we have thought about a tortoise for a long time and settled on getting a Hermann's, we did everything the pet shop told us to do but after 2 weeks the 6month old Hermann's pass away. so we have been very apprehensive that we have done something wrong.
we decided to get another one hoping Terrance just had an infection or was poorly before.
we now have Sheldon who is over 1 so a little bit bigger. I am panicking that we have done something wrong and all the websites i read say something different. Are new tortoise was raised in a vivarium and the breeder told me that his head was left on 24h a day and the uv bulb only 12h, this the opposite to all the info online. I dont want to suddely stop giving him heat if he is used to it.
does anyone have 4-5 key points that i should stick too?
advise on how long they can be out of the vivarium during the day in the house before they get too cold?
should i ween him off 24h of heat?
he is on a bed of tortoise soil, 1st breeder recommended wood chippings. is one better than the other?
temperature is 32 degrees celsius under the head and 25 in the shade.
fresh water daily( our tap water is quite hard if that's ok)
the breeder said they where feeding him on pellets so we started with that, he didn't seem to eat them changed to mixed leaves and seems to eat this better.
any key points to look out for that he is not doing too well?
sorry if this is a lot but we were devastated when Terrance died and just want to make sure we have done everything right for Sheldon.
thanks Richard
we have thought about a tortoise for a long time and settled on getting a Hermann's, we did everything the pet shop told us to do but after 2 weeks the 6month old Hermann's pass away. so we have been very apprehensive that we have done something wrong.
we decided to get another one hoping Terrance just had an infection or was poorly before.
we now have Sheldon who is over 1 so a little bit bigger. I am panicking that we have done something wrong and all the websites i read say something different. Are new tortoise was raised in a vivarium and the breeder told me that his head was left on 24h a day and the uv bulb only 12h, this the opposite to all the info online. I dont want to suddely stop giving him heat if he is used to it.
does anyone have 4-5 key points that i should stick too?
advise on how long they can be out of the vivarium during the day in the house before they get too cold?
should i ween him off 24h of heat?
he is on a bed of tortoise soil, 1st breeder recommended wood chippings. is one better than the other?
temperature is 32 degrees celsius under the head and 25 in the shade.
fresh water daily( our tap water is quite hard if that's ok)
the breeder said they where feeding him on pellets so we started with that, he didn't seem to eat them changed to mixed leaves and seems to eat this better.
any key points to look out for that he is not doing too well?
sorry if this is a lot but we were devastated when Terrance died and just want to make sure we have done everything right for Sheldon.
thanks Richard