New Guardian Advice

[GingerDan]

Hey there. New member and new Desert Tortoise guardian.

We are currently renovating our back yard here in Vegas in preparation of our new friend. We’ve spoken with a colleague and exotic vet and they advised us not to hibernate her this year so we can make sure she’s healthy - wouldn’t want her to go into hibernation with an illness and we wouldn’t have enough time to fully evaluate her health before she snoozes. We weren’t prepared to create an indoor habitat, so we’re trying to scramble to create an outdoor and indoor enclosed for her. Do you agree with keeping her awake this winter?

We’d love to chat with someone from Vegas. Please let me know if you’re here in Vegas and open to discussion to help us create a happy and healthy place for our tortoise - please feel free to PM me. We’re open to advice from anyone, of course.

I attached a picture of her for fun. She has a little pyramiding so we’re hoping we can get her into a healthy life.

 

[jsheffield]

Welcome!

Jamie

 

[drew54]

She is a good looking tortoise. I'm not an expert by any means, but that seems like sound logic. I think waiting a year allows you to get her comfortable with her new place and monitor her health as the very stated. I do know there is a lot involved when getting a tortoise ready to brumate such as monitoring health. But hopefully, someone with all the knowledge will answer here soon.

 

[wellington]

Yes, we always recommend not hibernating the first year of ownership for the same reasons you were given.
@Tom or @Yvonne G can help with care although they live in CA.

 

[GingerDan]

Awesome. Thanks for the responses and welcomes.

 

[Gillian M]

A very warm welcome to the forum, @GingerDan .

Sorry - cannot help. Am no expert.

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome to the Forum!

When I had to keep a desert tortoise up for the winter, I put down a sheet of plywood up against one wall of the carport, then I stacked cinder blocks around three sides of the plywood. Then I put rigid foam insulation, cut to fit, all around all four sides. In order to protect the foam from the tortoise's digging, I cut to fit another sheet of plywood and fit it inside the whole thing. I glued a sheet of rigid foam to another sheet of plywood to use as the roof. I set closet pole holders into the plywood across two sides from each other, and set a pole in them to use to hang the lights and ceramic heat emitter. There was a pig blanket at one end and a black light and a Mercury Vapor Bulb hanging from the pole. I kept a desert tortoise awake for two winters in this enclosure.

 

[GingerDan]

Thank you Yvonne. We’ve repurposed some wood and made a decent indoor habitat for her. I’d like it to be 3x the size but I think she’ll be fine for 4-5 months until we can put her outside. I’ll add some pictures when it’s done.

We plan on taking her outside during the day so we’re going to skip the UVB bulb and just go with a heat lamp. The house stays around 75°-80° during the day and down to around 70° at night. We’ve got topsoil mixed with local dirt, a couple of pot bases for food and water, and were growing some flowers/plants to give her.

I plan on growing her a grazing mix of grasses and weeds in the outdoor habitat. Our local group recommends something called MegaDiet aka Zeigler Brothers’ tortoise diet mix. Do you have any experience with that? It seems like that’s something we could feed as a main source supplemented with fresh plants as we have them.

 

[Yvonne G]

Yes, I bought it when they first starting touting it many years ago. At that time it smelled like fruit, and because desert tortoises are not supposed to eat too much fruit, I tossed it and never bought more. Maybe it's changed now - it was a very long time ago that I tried it. As far as manufactured diets go, my number one choice would be the Zoo Med Grassland Tortoise Diet. Number two would be Mazuri Tortoise Diet.

 

[GingerDan]

Yes, I bought it when they first starting touting it many years ago. At that time it smelled like fruit, and because desert tortoises are not supposed to eat too much fruit, I tossed it and never bought more. Maybe it's changed now - it was a very long time ago that I tried it. As far as manufactured diets go, my number one choice would be the Zoo Med Grassland Tortoise Diet. Number two would be Mazuri Tortoise Diet.

I found some of your replies about it after searching here. They don't sell it anymore but sell the Zoo Med Grassland now. I opted for the Mazuri 1.5lb bag since I saw more replies here indicating it's a good choice and it's cheaper. We bought a snapdragon and geranium there were on clearance today and I ordered a heat lamp and seed packet blend including dandelions. I'm hoping to have enough plants as treats/mix ins for her that I can keep growing. I also bought a tall pot to grow something in that I can keep in her enclosure so that she doesn't destroy it in one day. Kind of winging it and learning as i go. The enclosure inside has topsoil mixed with local dirt with rocks removed and then I added back a handful of larger rocks. She'll have a water bowl (pot tray) and a hide in the cool side and the heat lamp on the other. We'll probably bring her home next week.