Hi Guys. We have two Greek Tortoises Anastasia (Banana) and Tallulah (Poo or Tu-poo).
They are 2 and 3 years old and doing great. We have had plenty of good advice from the forum but from our experiences we have plenty to share. I'll be posting some stories from time to time and i'm sure i'll be commenting on some posts here and there.
They have just come out of Hibernation. We did not use a fridge but we did use a large insulated wooden box positioned in a very cold room on the North side of our house Temps ranged between 3C and 9C at the end but mostly around 5C-7C. I wanted to say that humidity is very important. We used some soil and coconut shell
chippings for them to burrow in. I feel the chippings were a bit too damp and i'm glad i got them out when i did as the box could have done with some more aeration. It had some holes but even though we don't have mice in the house my girlfriend was worried about mice getting in the box. Next time we will add some steel gauze over some holes but i could have left the lid open from time to time. We had a thermometer sensor buried in the soil but could have done with a humidity sensor too. We live at 1000M above seal level in the French Alps so i would not recommend this form of hibernation unless you can keep a steady temp and never let the box get too close to freezing as your torts could go blind!
Actually i joined because i wanted to reply to a thread about heat lamps but the thread is closed to further discussion so i will try to find another place to post what i wanted to say which is basically, that if you are using any incandescent bulbs (100W for example) to provide some heat for your tortoises then you should make sure they are the old fashioned filament type as there are some similar looking halogen type that have a bulb inside a bulb. Never use these as they create hot spots!
Obviously a special heat bulb(s) can be better and combining them with a heat mat might be a good option but don't put the heat mat under the sleeping section, your tortoises need a place they can go to cool down too!
We have also run into some respiratory problems when our tortoises got a cold and we had to medicate with an atomiser spray. Luckily they are both well and happy now and they get a huge area in the garden as soon as it becomes warm enough they an also spend the nights outside with plenty of hiding spots. I am a bit worried about predators as we have eagles, buzzards, foxes, and pine martins. The mice and ants don't seem to bother them and i have not seen any rats but i have heard stories about rodents and red ants potentially harming tortoises, i have seen the ants here work on some dead mice! Not sure weather or not the ants killed the mice. I might be moving our enclosure at some point but for the moment it's doing a great job and they have many hiding places and 2 little house like structures that they can go inside.
Happy Easter everyone.
James and Kate
They are 2 and 3 years old and doing great. We have had plenty of good advice from the forum but from our experiences we have plenty to share. I'll be posting some stories from time to time and i'm sure i'll be commenting on some posts here and there.
They have just come out of Hibernation. We did not use a fridge but we did use a large insulated wooden box positioned in a very cold room on the North side of our house Temps ranged between 3C and 9C at the end but mostly around 5C-7C. I wanted to say that humidity is very important. We used some soil and coconut shell
chippings for them to burrow in. I feel the chippings were a bit too damp and i'm glad i got them out when i did as the box could have done with some more aeration. It had some holes but even though we don't have mice in the house my girlfriend was worried about mice getting in the box. Next time we will add some steel gauze over some holes but i could have left the lid open from time to time. We had a thermometer sensor buried in the soil but could have done with a humidity sensor too. We live at 1000M above seal level in the French Alps so i would not recommend this form of hibernation unless you can keep a steady temp and never let the box get too close to freezing as your torts could go blind!
Actually i joined because i wanted to reply to a thread about heat lamps but the thread is closed to further discussion so i will try to find another place to post what i wanted to say which is basically, that if you are using any incandescent bulbs (100W for example) to provide some heat for your tortoises then you should make sure they are the old fashioned filament type as there are some similar looking halogen type that have a bulb inside a bulb. Never use these as they create hot spots!
Obviously a special heat bulb(s) can be better and combining them with a heat mat might be a good option but don't put the heat mat under the sleeping section, your tortoises need a place they can go to cool down too!
We have also run into some respiratory problems when our tortoises got a cold and we had to medicate with an atomiser spray. Luckily they are both well and happy now and they get a huge area in the garden as soon as it becomes warm enough they an also spend the nights outside with plenty of hiding spots. I am a bit worried about predators as we have eagles, buzzards, foxes, and pine martins. The mice and ants don't seem to bother them and i have not seen any rats but i have heard stories about rodents and red ants potentially harming tortoises, i have seen the ants here work on some dead mice! Not sure weather or not the ants killed the mice. I might be moving our enclosure at some point but for the moment it's doing a great job and they have many hiding places and 2 little house like structures that they can go inside.
Happy Easter everyone.
James and Kate
