Piers Cresswell
New Member
Hello everyone,
I'm Piers, I live in Cornwall near St Austell on the south coast of England. I am the proud new owner of Sancho who is a four month old Hermann tortoise.
Unfortunately Sancho is not my first hermann. He is the successor to Hector who was 1 old. Hector died suddenly within a few months of owning him of what appeared to be a respiratory infection. We had noticed a slight change in his behaviour but nothing very significant and the one evening he went downhill very suddenly and died during the night.
We had done lost of research prior to getting Hector so I feel his death was a mixture of bad luck and ignorance but it has meant I am taking even more precautions with Sancho.
Sancho is a grumpy little feller with a downturned mouth. I am trying to handle him as little as possible to keep him comfortable. We are bathing him daily. He lives in a tortoise table under a MVB which is on for 12 hours a day. The temperature under his light is between 25 - 30 C, the background temp can go down to 15 C at time's so I am looking to get another heater to keep this up. I feed him on a mixture of plantain (he doesn't care for this much), sows thistle, dandelion and cats ear. I am trying to increase my knowledge of wild weeds but am finding them tricky to identify. I sprinkle his food either with calcium powder or nutribal. He lives on a substrate of top soil. I weigh him weekly and think he is a bit overweight st the moment.
I am finding caring for a tortoise a mixture of joy and terror as I find his behaviour can change from day to day and I am not sure of the significance. He has periods where he will walk around all day trampling everything and turning his waterfowl into swamps (usually when we are home all day), and other days where he moves very little and doesn't touch his waterbowl. He is still eating regularly which has kept from taking him to the vet so far.
I thought I would sign up as I want to give Sancho the best I can. We know other people who have tortoises and seem to do everything wrong but they still survive!
Let me know if you have any questions about me or Sancho. Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Here are some photos of the little fella and his home;
I'm Piers, I live in Cornwall near St Austell on the south coast of England. I am the proud new owner of Sancho who is a four month old Hermann tortoise.
Unfortunately Sancho is not my first hermann. He is the successor to Hector who was 1 old. Hector died suddenly within a few months of owning him of what appeared to be a respiratory infection. We had noticed a slight change in his behaviour but nothing very significant and the one evening he went downhill very suddenly and died during the night.
We had done lost of research prior to getting Hector so I feel his death was a mixture of bad luck and ignorance but it has meant I am taking even more precautions with Sancho.
Sancho is a grumpy little feller with a downturned mouth. I am trying to handle him as little as possible to keep him comfortable. We are bathing him daily. He lives in a tortoise table under a MVB which is on for 12 hours a day. The temperature under his light is between 25 - 30 C, the background temp can go down to 15 C at time's so I am looking to get another heater to keep this up. I feed him on a mixture of plantain (he doesn't care for this much), sows thistle, dandelion and cats ear. I am trying to increase my knowledge of wild weeds but am finding them tricky to identify. I sprinkle his food either with calcium powder or nutribal. He lives on a substrate of top soil. I weigh him weekly and think he is a bit overweight st the moment.
I am finding caring for a tortoise a mixture of joy and terror as I find his behaviour can change from day to day and I am not sure of the significance. He has periods where he will walk around all day trampling everything and turning his waterfowl into swamps (usually when we are home all day), and other days where he moves very little and doesn't touch his waterbowl. He is still eating regularly which has kept from taking him to the vet so far.
I thought I would sign up as I want to give Sancho the best I can. We know other people who have tortoises and seem to do everything wrong but they still survive!
Let me know if you have any questions about me or Sancho. Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Here are some photos of the little fella and his home;
