Please help my little Charlie!

[CherryBlossom]

I am the very proud owner of two beautiful Mediterranean Spur-thighed tortoises who are 4 years old. Myself and the breeder were under the impression it was two girls who I named Cherry and Blossom! However my wee Cherry is now my little Charlie after proudly showing me his 'manhood' in the bath. Ever since then he has been showing it off very proudly, but he is in a 50/50 Soil and Sand mix substrate enclosure, which is causes him to get dirty winky! I don't want to change the substrate because they both love it and it is best for them but surely it cannot be good for his manhood? Also at what age will I have to separate them, they are brother and sister and as much as I would love lots of ickle babies they will be inbreed!

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

 

[ascott]

If they are in an indoor enclosure I would decrease the ratio of sand down to like 25 percent (well, "I" personally would not have any sand) at most....and eventually he will not care if the partner in the enclosure is his clutch mate or not...

Also, a pair is hard to house with any sense of harmony, one will always always have to submit---and even that sometimes does not offer relief....if you don't want babies and you don't want fighting and you don't want one tort stressing the other one---then I would separate them now....just my feelings on the subject.

 

[Yvonne G]

If they are from the same clutch, chances are pretty good that they are both boys...which means that when Blossom becomes sexually mature, they will probably fight.

 

[janed100]

If they are in an indoor enclosure I would decrease the ratio of sand down to like 25 percent (well, "I" personally would not have any sand) at most....

Angela - I keep my Greek tortoises outdoors in the summer and in winter in a tortoise table using newspaper as a substrate. I've done this for 13 years. I hibernate them for about 8 weeks in a chiller cabinet so they're in the table through October, November then February to April - depending on outside temps.

I've been reading a lot about humidity and I do soak my tortoises, but not every day. I'm now worried that I haven't been keeping them humid enough but thought that, as they were desert animals (T. graeca graeca), their natural habitat was dry.

Also, in the desert, they would be walking over dry, sandy, gritty earth. So what is your reason for not using sand? I was about to change their substrate from newspaper to a mix od soil and sand and have today bought my first supplies, together with a tray to put it in........Help/advice please. Many thanks

 

[ILoveTortoises2]

Yeah I would get rid of the sand. That is the problem plus I heard a lot of bad things about sand. So I would never use it. Just a thought

 

[Jlant85]

The reason i don't use sand is because sometimes they would accidentally consume it. It would cause impact in their stomach that you really don't want. Why not try a mixture of soil and coconut husk?! thats what i use on my Ibera Greeks... soft enough to dig in, safe to consume and maintain humidity quite well =) Just a though. post pictures of your lil' ones =)