New Herman mom!

[Newyorkjets718]

Hey! New Herman tortoise mom! I’ve only had him a few days. He loves his romaine lettuce and cucumbers. He hasn’t touched his pellets. He actual scraped them out of his mouth when I hand fed him . I’m seeing that they love weeds and there are sooo many weed names. Where do you guys buy the weeds from and is there a specific brand that’s better over others? Also that they love Timothy hay? I feed that to my Chinchillas is it safe for the tortoise as well? Thanks guys!

 

[wellington]

Most get weeds from around their own yard. You can buy seeds and additional food toppers from tortoisesupply.com or @KapidoloFarms.com both are members here
Babies don't usually eat hay. If you do feed it, it should be orchard grass hay, chopped up fine and soaked. Timothy hay is fine to feed chopped up but it's very woody and best if orchard is used instead
Lettuce, cucumber and hay is not enough of a diet. The lettuce and cucumber is mostly water.
Cactus, mulberry leaf, rose of Sharon, hibiscus, weeds, grocery greens like riddichio, arugula, escarole, endive.

 

[Newyorkjets718]

Most get weeds from around their own yard. You can buy seeds and additional food toppers from tortoisesupply.com or @KapidoloFarms.com both are members here
Babies don't usually eat hay. If you do feed it, it should be orchard grass hay, chopped up fine and soaked. Timothy hay is fine to feed chopped up but it's very woody and best if orchard is used instead
Lettuce, cucumber and hay is not enough of a diet. The lettuce and cucumber is mostly water.
Cactus, mulberry leaf, rose of Sharon, hibiscus, weeds, grocery greens like riddichio, arugula, escarole, endive.

Oh I will def check those sites out. Thanks so much. I have arugula I’ll throw some in for it! I was wondering if I could just pick some weeds from the yard I just didn’t know what the weeds were called and if they were safe. Thanks so much for the info. I can use all the help!!!

 

[wellington]

As long as your yard as now weed or bug killers on it.
Check this website out. It might help with weed ID.

The Tortoise Table - Home

The Tortoise Table plant database and resource site for Tortoise owners

www.thetortoisetable.org.uk

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello and welcome!

Aw how exciting to have a new baby! Hopefully wellingtons replies have helped

I don’t suppose you’d mind trying to answer these questions? Don’t worry if you can answer all of them, it’s just nice to check in with new members in case there’s adjustments needed to help your baby thrive!

What are your temperatures like? Ie basking spot(directly under the bulb) overall day and night temps?
What kind of lighting&heating are you using specifically? Packaging pics are good if you have any!
Do you use indoor uv? If so what kind are you using?
How’s your humidity reading? What do you use for substrate?
Are you doing daily soaks?

Any answers to those would be great along with a photo of your full set up and baby if you didn’t mind

 

[Tom]

Hey! New Herman tortoise mom! I’ve only had him a few days. He loves his romaine lettuce and cucumbers. He hasn’t touched his pellets. He actual scraped them out of his mouth when I hand fed him . I’m seeing that they love weeds and there are sooo many weed names. Where do you guys buy the weeds from and is there a specific brand that’s better over others? Also that they love Timothy hay? I feed that to my Chinchillas is it safe for the tortoise as well? Thanks guys!

Grass hay is only suitable for adults of grass eating species, like sulcatas, for example. Hermanni are not a grass eating species, so I wouldn't feed them grass or grass hay. Having said that, it's okay to mix in chopped grass, or soaked grass hay pellets into their food to add fiber to grocery store greens. I will sometimes chop orchid grass hay into small pieces, soak it to rehydrate it, and mix a little bit of that in with whatever greens I am feeding.

Now that you have a tortoise to feed, you will need to spend some time learning to ID your local weeds and find safe areas to source them from. Nobody buys weeds. We scrounge them from safe places, or grow them ourselves. We will help you ID them if you post pics. Alternatively, you can buy dehydrated weeds and leaves to mix in tot he grocery greens too, from the sources that Wellington mentioned.

There is a lot of bad care info offered out in the world. Please read through each of these threads to make sure you are up to speed on the correct care info.

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Newyorkjets718]

Hello and welcome!

Aw how exciting to have a new baby! Hopefully wellingtons replies have helped

I don’t suppose you’d mind trying to answer these questions? Don’t worry if you can answer all of them, it’s just nice to check in with new members in case there’s adjustments needed to help your baby thrive!

What are your temperatures like? Ie basking spot(directly under the bulb) overall day and night temps?
What kind of lighting&heating are you using specifically? Packaging pics are good if you have any!
Do you use indoor uv? If so what kind are you using?
How’s your humidity reading? What do you use for substrate?
Are you doing daily soaks?

Any answers to those would be great along with a photo of your full set up and baby if you didn’t mind

Hey! Ok so my basking area right now is reading 85 with 67% humidity the cooler end is 74 70% himidity
The bulbs are on a lamp stand I’ll attach a photo of the box
My substrate is coconut fiber mat with some reptile bark for digging in. Is that good?
I soaked him once I was going to do it again today. I just got him. They think he was about 7 months. Do I soak everyday? I’m reading so many mixed things. Also attached are some weeds I found in my yard. Are they safe

 

[Newyorkjets718]

Hello and welcome!

Aw how exciting to have a new baby! Hopefully wellingtons replies have helped

I don’t suppose you’d mind trying to answer these questions? Don’t worry if you can answer all of them, it’s just nice to check in with new members in case there’s adjustments needed to help your baby thrive!

What are your temperatures like? Ie basking spot(directly under the bulb) overall day and night temps?
What kind of lighting&heating are you using specifically? Packaging pics are good if you have any!
Do you use indoor uv? If so what kind are you using?
How’s your humidity reading? What do you use for substrate?
Are you doing daily soaks?

Any answers to those would be great along with a photo of your full set up and baby if you didn’t mind

 

[Newyorkjets718]

I know I just read that this water dish isn’t good so I ordered a different one along with some greenery and a basking rock that has a hiding spot underneath

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hey! Ok so my basking area right now is reading 85 with 67% humidity the cooler end is 74 70% himidity
The bulbs are on a lamp stand I’ll attach a photo of the box
My substrate is coconut fiber mat with some reptile bark for digging in. Is that good?
I soaked him once I was going to do it again today. I just got him. They think he was about 7 months. Do I soak everyday? I’m reading so many mixed things. Also attached are some weeds I found in my yard. Are they safe

I am afraid to say you’ve been sold the wrong set upthis unfortunately happens quite often, the good thing is you’ve found the forum!!

First up, basking spot needs to be reading 95-100f, the rest of the enclosure ranging 75-80, 70 is a fine night temp.

Those bulbs you’re using are neither safe or appropriate I’m afraid.

A coco fiber mat isn’t appropriate as substrate, you need to be using entirely the reptibark(orchid bark) or coco coir.

He looks older to me in the photos, but either way a soak every other day should be ok for the age he’s looking(I’d estimate at least over a year)

You’ll find so so much misinformation out there! This is honestly the only up to date source of care advice! Some of the members on this forum have been a part of this community over 15 years, been raising all sorts of species for decades, age through trial and error have found the safest, most effective ways to raise healthy smooth tortoises long term

I think you’ll find this thread below a useful read, I cover correct equipment, levels, appropriately maintaining humidity, there’s lots of visual examples for everything and a good diet list to check out

Housing young Russian/Herman

Hello there! In this thread, I’m going to include some information on an effective way to tackle a starter set up/a way you can build a bigger size once your baby is an adult. I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to break down any information...

tortoiseforum.org

This one is also good to get familiar with, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

I know I just read that this water dish isn’t good so I ordered a different one along with some greenery and a basking rock that has a hiding spot underneath

You are right about that dish too, a shallow terracotta is considered the safest option

Please feel free to ask further questions!

 

[Newyorkjets718]

Ughhhh I had the bark only and he was pushing it all out of the way and sliding in the glass bottom of the tank. He wasn’t able to get his footing good so someone suggested this mat. Ok so your saying just the bark and what bulbs would you suggest

 

[Tortellini0000]

Ughhhh I had the bark only and he was pushing it all out of the way and sliding in the glass bottom of the tank. He wasn’t able to get his footing good so someone suggested this mat. Ok so your saying just the bark and what bulbs would you suggest

Iv read from a lot of these great experts that you can do a layer of coco coir firmly packed on the bottom with a layer or orchid bark on top. By poring warm water into the corners it can help with humidity

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Ughhhh I had the bark only and he was pushing it all out of the way and sliding in the glass bottom of the tank. He wasn’t able to get his footing good so someone suggested this mat. Ok so your saying just the bark and what bulbs would you suggest

It needs to be quite a decent layer to stop him pushing it all to the side and reaching the bottom, for bulbs you want an incandescent floodlight for the basking, for uv a t5 tube fluorescent bulb, the recommended brands are Arcadia prot5 kit 12%(which is good cause it comes with the reflector fitting, needs mounting 18-20 inches from top of the tortoises shell) or zoomed reptisun t5 10.0, but you’ll need to buy the fitting separate. Then for ambient lighting regular leds in the 5500-6500k colour range work fine

I cover everything with photo examples in that thread I linked, so definitely suggest giving it a lookyou can always feel free to double check items here before you buy!

Iv read from a lot of these great experts that you can do a layer of coco coir firmly packed on the bottom with a layer or orchid bark on top. By poring warm water into the corners it can help with humidity

As mentioned here too, perhaps a firmly packed coir base will help him from reaching the glass and sliding around

 

[CJNoble]

Hey! New Herman tortoise mom! I’ve only had him a few days. He loves his romaine lettuce and cucumbers. He hasn’t touched his pellets. He actual scraped them out of his mouth when I hand fed him . I’m seeing that they love weeds and there are sooo many weed names. Where do you guys buy the weeds from and is there a specific brand that’s better over others? Also that they love Timothy hay? I feed that to my Chinchillas is it safe for the tortoise as well? Thanks guys!

Best app to download that helps you start with all that info is “the tortoise forum

Hey! New Herman tortoise mom! I’ve only had him a few days. He loves his romaine lettuce and cucumbers. He hasn’t touched his pellets. He actual scraped them out of his mouth when I hand fed him . I’m seeing that they love weeds and there are sooo many weed names. Where do you guys buy the weeds from and is there a specific brand that’s better over others? Also that they love Timothy hay? I feed that to my Chinchillas is it safe for the tortoise as well? Thanks guys!

one app to download I found very helpful i

Hey! New Herman tortoise mom! I’ve only had him a few days. He loves his romaine lettuce and cucumbers. He hasn’t touched his pellets. He actual scraped them out of his mouth when I hand fed him . I’m seeing that they love weeds and there are sooo many weed names. Where do you guys buy the weeds from and is there a specific brand that’s better over others? Also that they love Timothy hay? I feed that to my Chinchillas is it safe for the tortoise as well? Thanks guys!

download the app called “The Tortoise Table”. It helped me out a lot. I have mine outside in an enclosure, and my home supplies maybe 60% of his diet just in natural weeds that grow here in Ohio. I also use the google app too to take photos of ones I don’t know what they are and do research from there. Both are very helpful and give you more knowledge and understanding to what your tort can have and can’t have. Hope that helps.