I'm new to owning a tortoise! She/ he is 6 months old and just beautiful but just transported home today and spending a lot of time under the heat lamp! is this normal? And it hasnt used its cave yet! I have so much to learn about owning a tortoise(Greek) in Ireland with bad weather so it's unfortately in vivarium! Any advice will be so appreciated!
Please help! So new to this! (not moving much)
- Thread starter Gráinne
- Start date
Hi
You have to measure Your temperatures in the whole range of her habitat. Maybe they are too low and that is why your tort spends lot of time under heat lamp (It's the only spot where she's warm enough).
Check out this thread
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/greek-tortoise-testudo-graeca-care-sheet-overview.87146/
and Your temps of course with a temperature gun if you have one (if not normal accurate thermometer will do)
Good luck
You have to measure Your temperatures in the whole range of her habitat. Maybe they are too low and that is why your tort spends lot of time under heat lamp (It's the only spot where she's warm enough).
Check out this thread
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/greek-tortoise-testudo-graeca-care-sheet-overview.87146/
and Your temps of course with a temperature gun if you have one (if not normal accurate thermometer will do)
Good luck
Hello and welcome from the UK
You have come to the right place. We have some excellent species experts on here who are working hard to correct the misinformation on the wider internet and sadly from some breeders and pet shops too.
The best way for us to help you is if you post photos of your tort and its enclosure so we can recommend adjustments.
Please read the following which have everything you need in them
Beginner Mistakes http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
Greek Care Sheet http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/greek-tortoise-testudo-graeca-care-sheet-overview.87146/
A new tort is frequently shy. They are slow to adapt to change. I recommend establishing a routine so he learns that you are not scary.
Put the lights on timers so they come on and go off at the same time each day.
Start the day before he's warmed up properly, with a soak in warm water in a high sided bowl for a good 20 minutes.
While he's soaking tidy up the enclosure and put food in.
Pop your tort back and walk away, leaving him to be brave and explore without being watched.
He'll soon get the idea that you're the bringer of yummy food
You have come to the right place. We have some excellent species experts on here who are working hard to correct the misinformation on the wider internet and sadly from some breeders and pet shops too.
The best way for us to help you is if you post photos of your tort and its enclosure so we can recommend adjustments.
Please read the following which have everything you need in them
Beginner Mistakes http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
Greek Care Sheet http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/greek-tortoise-testudo-graeca-care-sheet-overview.87146/
A new tort is frequently shy. They are slow to adapt to change. I recommend establishing a routine so he learns that you are not scary.
Put the lights on timers so they come on and go off at the same time each day.
Start the day before he's warmed up properly, with a soak in warm water in a high sided bowl for a good 20 minutes.
While he's soaking tidy up the enclosure and put food in.
Pop your tort back and walk away, leaving him to be brave and explore without being watched.
He'll soon get the idea that you're the bringer of yummy food
Diet should be a mix of leafy greens by the way. Your tort can't digest sugars properly so fruit, carrot and pepper should be fed only very occasionally.
Weeds like dandelion, plantain, sow thistle are best.
Look up the plants that grow around you and those you can buy in the supermarket in The Tortoise Table Plant Database
http://thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plant_database_14.asp
There's also a handy pdf reference booklet on that site
http://thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plant_booklet_8595_40.asp
And they have an Android App too!
Weeds like dandelion, plantain, sow thistle are best.
Look up the plants that grow around you and those you can buy in the supermarket in The Tortoise Table Plant Database
http://thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plant_database_14.asp
There's also a handy pdf reference booklet on that site
http://thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plant_booklet_8595_40.asp
And they have an Android App too!
Thank you all so much! His enclosure is quite bare at the minute but actually just accepted food from my hand! Over the next few days I'll establish my routine with it! Do I remove its bowl as soon as he's finished eating or should I give an hour or so to go back?
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Serve a pile of greens roughly the size of his shell and leave him to it. Torts will eat greens even when they're a bit wilted. If they're gone you can clear up, but there's no need to hurry
File above is before anything was introduced! There's literally just the cave which I'll be replacing tomorrow and food and water dish and the substrate! Heat lamp end left, uv lamp middle and a heat pad far right which I have makeshift cave over! What do you all use for entertainment and stimulation for them! Thank you so much for all your time!!
Take the heatpad out. They're not safe with torts.
The substrate should be warm and damp to raise humidity. Tip water in and give it a good mix with your hands - not too much you want damp, not wet.
Torts like to dig into the substrate and that on a heat mat combined with the damp could result in you or your tort being electrocuted!
The substrate should be warm and damp to raise humidity. Tip water in and give it a good mix with your hands - not too much you want damp, not wet.
Torts like to dig into the substrate and that on a heat mat combined with the damp could result in you or your tort being electrocuted!
For stimulation you can e.g. place food dish daily in different places of it's habitat, put some plants/obstacles/hiding spots in his enclosure so your tortie can explore/eat them on site. When it gets warm enough take your lil friend for a walk and dinner out
or even you can create a safe area for it to roam outside. There are many ways to keep them stimulated. Even a plastic box with a cut out hole will be loads of healthy fun
@Kasia your recommendation to take a tort out is again not good.For stimulation you can e.g. place food dish daily in different places of it's habitat, put some plants/obstacles/hiding spots in his enclosure so your tortie can explore/eat them on site. When it gets warm enough take your lil friend for a walk and dinner out
1. Torts do not handle change well. They don't travel well either.
2. Torts have a bad habit of eating things they shouldn't especially if they are brightly coloured.
3. Torts are surprisingly fast when warmed up and it only takes a moment's lapse of concentration to lose them
4. Outdoors, on public land, it is very easy for torts to pick up parasitic worms which male the tort sick.
Indoors your tort should stay in its enclosure - if it's not big enough then get a bigger one.
Outdoors, identify a safe area of your own back yard and make a safe enclosure there Don't just let it wander without secure boundaries and don't feel tempted to take it to the park or to someone else's house.
Hi JoesMum, Gráinne
1) I was talking about putting food bowl in different corners of enclosure - I noticed that when I put it every day somewhere else (I do even split the food in piles) torts do many more rounds to get it - more move, more exercises I don't see nothing wrong with that.
2) I have two torts, a garden and a patch of grass near by (200 meters from my home). In the garden I have a medium size enclosed space in witch I let them roam but still I take them out and carry them to the near by grass patch to let them explore and eat as much as they like. I do understand the dangers but I see no harm in it. I recently moved from a block of flats were I had only a 2 x 4 meters balcony ( both of my torts had their space on it). Every sunny day routine was an hour walk on the grass with one of torties. I do understand that Vet bills in UK or US are much higher then in Poland. For a fecal test I do pay 2-3$ and I do prefer to give my torts an hour of walk daily (even in the public space e.g. a park) and do a fecal examine more often then keep them whole year round under the lamps. That is my opinion. Of course I agree You have to watch them carefully.
I did not have any bad experience, no worms attracted form outside (my other tort had flagellate from the day one that I got him and is medicated for them more or less twice a year) maybe I am just lucky but I see no harm in supervised outside time.
I tend to feel this same way. I maybe reading more human thoughts/emotions into my little reptiles but it always made me feel bad for them to be locked up in the box , so I too have had a outdoor exercise routine for them since the beginning. My babies are used to being taken in and out of their vivarium. They associate it with fun and good food they love to hunt snails in my garden. But yes, there's always a danger of elopement (I already had one missing for 4 weeks!) as well as eating something that's not good for them. If I know I can't keep my eyes on them at all times, they miss their excercise day. As for "bigger indoor enclosure", not all of us are able to do that. The reality in pet keeping is that we all want them to be part of our daily live. Not all of us have the space/money/skills to build perfect enclosure but we can still provide pretty darn good loving homes for our pets. We all do the best that we can for our tortoises. This forum is such great place to help us arm ourselves with the information we need to make the best choices.
It is important than new keepers are made well aware if the risks of taking their torts out of a secure enclosure.
A four week loss, as in the previous post, is not good. A permanent loss is worse. This forum recommends best practice to new keepers and not practices that put a tort at risk.
I won't discuss this further as this risks taking the thread further off topic. If you wish to debate it, please start a new thread and I'll join the discussion.
A four week loss, as in the previous post, is not good. A permanent loss is worse. This forum recommends best practice to new keepers and not practices that put a tort at risk.
I won't discuss this further as this risks taking the thread further off topic. If you wish to debate it, please start a new thread and I'll join the discussion.
Do not worry: we all had to begin at "zero." You'll get the help you need here. And please keep in mind that torts need time-a lot of time to adapt.
Good luck and a very warm welcome to the forum!
Good luck and a very warm welcome to the forum!
