Newbie needs some advice please.

[TessaRuth]

We took on a twelve year old Horsefield tortoise last week from someone who needed to rehome. He lives in a vivarium with the appropriate heat and UV lamps. He has bright eyes, is alert and seems to be in generally good condition. He used to have wood shavings as a substrate but I've now substituted this for a loam/sand mixture. He now spends an hour or so outdoors on our secure patio and is very active, walking up and down. As I've not had a tort before I'm worried about the following and would be so grateful for advice.
1. His lamp is on for twelve hours a day but he seems to sleep for an hour or two a couple of times a day. Is this normal?
2. He doesn't seem to eat a lot and I'm not sure he eats every day. I provide weeds/greens/carrot/broccoli etc but he's not interested. He only eats about twenty tortoise pellets (Komodo) every day or so. Is this enough? It doesn't seem very much but I just don't know. How much should he eat?
3. In an attempt to figure out whether he's starving to death, I found the Donohue method for establishing whether he is the right weight or not. Is this good for Horesefields? It says you need to measure the carapace length in cms and then cube it and then multiply by 0.191 and this should give the target weight in gs. His carapace is 14.5 cm and this gives an ideal weight, using the above formula, of 582g. However, he weighs 820g. Is he obese or is the formula inappropriate for Horsefields?

So grateful for any help as I want to make his life the best possible I can.

 

[TechnoCheese]

Welcome to the forum! There are a few things that need to be changed.

-assuming this tortoise is an adult, it requires a minimum enclosure size of 8x4 feet. You can achieve this by building a table.

-sand should never be used in any amount for a tortoise’s substrate. It needs to be changed to fine grade orchid bark, cypress mulch, coco coir, or peat moss.


1. Sounds pretty normal.

2. Do not feed carrots or broccoli often. Carrots are too high in sugar and should only be fed as a treat once a month or less, and broccoli is high in oxalates that bind calcium. Weeds and greens are good, though.

He’s likely just not eating because he’s new, but you might try taking whatever the previous owner fed, and chopping it up finely and mixing it with his current food.

3. I’m not sure about that, but it could be pretty inaccurate.

Please give these a read and come back with questions

Russian Tortoise Care Sheet https://tortoiseforum.org/index.php?threads/Russian-Tortoise-Care-Sheet.80698/

Beginner Mistakes https://tortoiseforum.org/index.php?threads/Beginner-Mistakes.45180/

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome! Is there any chance you can set him up permanently outside? They just do so much better living outside. In case your answer is no, I'll go ahead and help with your questions:

We took on a twelve year old Horsefield tortoise last week from someone who needed to rehome. He lives in a vivarium with the appropriate heat and UV lamps. He has bright eyes, is alert and seems to be in generally good condition. He used to have wood shavings as a substrate but I've now substituted this for a loam/sand mixture. He now spends an hour or so outdoors on our secure patio and is very active, walking up and down. As I've not had a tort before I'm worried about the following and would be so grateful for advice.
1. His lamp is on for twelve hours a day but he seems to sleep for an hour or two a couple of times a day. Is this normal?

Tortoises really aren't interactive pets. They wander, eat, poop and hide/sleep. If there's nothing for him to do in his enclosure (wander around things, searching for food, digging up things), then he's just going to go into his hide or dig down and sleep/hide.

2. He doesn't seem to eat a lot and I'm not sure he eats every day. I provide weeds/greens/carrot/broccoli etc but he's not interested. He only eats about twenty tortoise pellets (Komodo) every day or so. Is this enough? It doesn't seem very much but I just don't know. How much should he eat?

Russian tortoises are hard wired to wander great distances looking for food. Most all of what they do when they're awake is eat, because in the wild (and because they're hard wired to do so) their time awake is short and they have to make the best of it in order to get ready for hibernation.

3. In an attempt to figure out whether he's starving to death, I found the Donohue method for establishing whether he is the right weight or not. Is this good for Horesefields? It says you need to measure the carapace length in cms and then cube it and then multiply by 0.191 and this should give the target weight in gs. His carapace is 14.5 cm and this gives an ideal weight, using the above formula, of 582g. However, he weighs 820g. Is he obese or is the formula inappropriate for Horsefields?

So grateful for any help as I want to make his life the best possible I can.

I'm not familiar with the Donohue method. My "method" is to heft the animal. If he feels like a rock of the same size, he's fine. If he feels like a shell full of air, he's too light.

What foods was the previous owner feeding. You may need to go back and feed him THAT way until you have him eating more. Then you can slowly wean him off that food and onto what you want to feed him. We have a good selection of foods listed in our Russian tortoise care sheet.

 

[TessaRuth]

Hi, and welcome! Is there any chance you can set him up permanently outside? They just do so much better living outside. In case your answer is no, I'll go ahead and help with your questions:


Tortoises really aren't interactive pets. They wander, eat, poop and hide/sleep. If there's nothing for him to do in his enclosure (wander around things, searching for food, digging up things), then he's just going to go into his hide or dig down and sleep/hide.


Russian tortoises are hard wired to wander great distances looking for food. Most all of what they do when they're awake is eat, because in the wild (and because they're hard wired to do so) their time awake is short and they have to make the best of it in order to get ready for hibernation.



I'm not familiar with the Donohue method. My "method" is to heft the animal. If he feels like a rock of the same size, he's fine. If he feels like a shell full of air, he's too light.

What foods was the previous owner feeding. You may need to go back and feed him THAT way until you have him eating more. Then you can slowly wean him off that food and onto what you want to feed him. We have a good selection of foods listed in our Russian tortoise care sheet.

 

[TessaRuth]

Thank you so much for taking the time to provide this useful information. I'm already making the changes you've recommended where I can. He has a very large, tort proof, patio to wander about in and he seems to enjoy this. One thing further I'd like to ask. I live in southern England and currently the outdoor temperature is about 21C. Is this warm enough for him to be outside for an hour or two? What is the lowest temperature that would be safe for him?

I'm still worrying as he doesn't seem to be eating much. However, is he very active and his legs are very strong when he tries to push away from my hand when I pick him up. Do you think I'm just panicking? It's now nine days since we got him so I'm thinking that if he was not eating enough he'd be pretty weak by now. What do you think? If it were a dog or cat, I'd feel much more confident but torts are new to me.

Again, thank you so much for your time and advice.
Tessa