Salhoof
New Member
I have two male Greek tortoises, and I've had them for about 3 and a half years now ( I got the first one in October of 2020, and the second in December). They were given to me by my uncle, who found them out in the wild when they were really small ( I used to compere their size to my big toe, hehe). We live in Jordan, and there are lots of Greek tortoises here. I'm not 100% sure that they're Greek tortoises, but they seem to fit their description. Now the bigger one, Salhoof (which means Tortie in Arabic by the way) is a bit bigger than the size of the palm of my hand, and Naqoot (which means Spotty) is a bit smaller.
We live in an apartment, so we haven't got a big enough space for them. I keep them in our balcony in a wooden box (80cm × 80cm), and when it's cold or hot outside I bring them inside and put them in a small box, and when it's Winter I place their bigger wooden box in my room so that it stays warm enough. I know that (80cm × 80cm) is small, but that's the best that we can do for now... I used to let them roam free in the balcony, but they dirty up the place so much that I can't let them roam around anymore. It has only been about three months I think when I stopped letting them roam the balcony.
I don't have any UV lights up for them, because my dad says that they're too expensive and unnecessary, since they stay outside in the sun most of the time.
Their diet mainly consists of lettuce, watermelons, strawberries, cauliflower, zucchini, watercress, and sometimes figs. Here in Jordan I can't find things in stores such as kale or dandelion greens, so they mostly eat lettuce. I tried to give them other stuff like cucumber and bell peppers, but they won't try them. They go crazy for cauliflower, which I know isn't healthy for them, so I try to give it to them in moderation.
Now for the calcium part, when we first got them I didn't know where to get cuttlefish bones, so my mom (a pharmacist) gave me some calcium pills to crush up and sprinkle on their food. I wasn't sure if what I was doing was good or if it was harming them, but I had noticed that they would avoid the areas of their food that were covered in calcium, so I stopped giving it to them.
Recently they started digging in the corner of the box, and by digging I mean a lot. We have the box filled with soft sand, and I put rocks in it so that the could climb and hide, but I've never seen them dig so much before. I'm worried they might be stressed.
I seriously don't know what to do, I love these torts a lot, but I'm afraid I have been abusing them for the last three years. What do I do??
We live in an apartment, so we haven't got a big enough space for them. I keep them in our balcony in a wooden box (80cm × 80cm), and when it's cold or hot outside I bring them inside and put them in a small box, and when it's Winter I place their bigger wooden box in my room so that it stays warm enough. I know that (80cm × 80cm) is small, but that's the best that we can do for now... I used to let them roam free in the balcony, but they dirty up the place so much that I can't let them roam around anymore. It has only been about three months I think when I stopped letting them roam the balcony.
I don't have any UV lights up for them, because my dad says that they're too expensive and unnecessary, since they stay outside in the sun most of the time.
Their diet mainly consists of lettuce, watermelons, strawberries, cauliflower, zucchini, watercress, and sometimes figs. Here in Jordan I can't find things in stores such as kale or dandelion greens, so they mostly eat lettuce. I tried to give them other stuff like cucumber and bell peppers, but they won't try them. They go crazy for cauliflower, which I know isn't healthy for them, so I try to give it to them in moderation.
Now for the calcium part, when we first got them I didn't know where to get cuttlefish bones, so my mom (a pharmacist) gave me some calcium pills to crush up and sprinkle on their food. I wasn't sure if what I was doing was good or if it was harming them, but I had noticed that they would avoid the areas of their food that were covered in calcium, so I stopped giving it to them.
Recently they started digging in the corner of the box, and by digging I mean a lot. We have the box filled with soft sand, and I put rocks in it so that the could climb and hide, but I've never seen them dig so much before. I'm worried they might be stressed.
I seriously don't know what to do, I love these torts a lot, but I'm afraid I have been abusing them for the last three years. What do I do??