Questions, Questions, and more Questions

[SassyKelz]

Hello, I recently debated whether to give away my Hermann's toroise named Dash (I felt like I wasn't giving him the great care he deserves). I decided to keep him so now I have a billion questions I want answered.

1. What substrate is best for a Hermann's Tortoise? I have a coconut coir, and cypress mulch mix (I found that cypress much on its own was really hard for my baby tortoise to get around (He is 1 years old)

2. What heat should my tortoise be kept under? I currently have him at about 85 degrees, the place I got him from said 90 degrees but he seems to hide away from the heat when its 90 degrees or maybe I am mistaken.

3. Are coil UVB bulbs REALLY BAD? I have one and people say it can blind your tortoise but I don't have money for another fixture right now.

4. What size enclosure (gallons) should a 1 year old Hermann's tortoise that is almost 2 inches be in?

5. Can I buy fake plants from Dollarama like are they any different from the plants at a pet store? I just wanna know if they have any chemicals that I should stay away from since they are so cheap.

6. What greens can a tortoise eat that they would sell at my local grocery store? (Canada is too cold for a lot of the year for him to eat stuff from the outdoors)

7. The local grocery store and green house sells different plants (succulents is what I am most curious about). I was wondering which are safe for a tortoise to eat? That I could grow in his enclosure and preferably are easy to keep alive.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Tom]

I'll give this a go since no one else is answering. I don't have any hermanni right now, but I intend to start a herd really soon and so I research them and read about them here constantly. Here is what I've learned:
1. Both of those are good. If you use the coir hand pack it down to make it less messy. If the cypress is hard to walk on, you might ned a finer grade.
2. There are four temps to be concerned with and what they ought to be: Warm side 80ish, cool side 70ish, basking spot 95ish, and night 60ish.
3. Not all of them cause blindness. Is yours a safe one? No way to tell. Chuck it. Not worth the risk. You don't need a new fixture, you need a bulb that will give off heat. Simple solution in a normal home is to put a mercury vapor bulb over one end on a 12 hour timer and be done with it. Unless your house gets really cold at night, you shouldn't need any night heat. If you don't like MVBs, then you can use a regular incandescent bulb for heat and get a tube style florescent bulb and fixture for UV. These are the best two options for the frozen north, in my opinion.
4. I would suggest a 40 gallon as a minimum. That's 36x18". Larger would be better.
5. Fake plants should work, but some torts will eat them. Be careful.
6. Endive, escarole, mustard greens, collard greens, cilantro, watercress, parsley, bok choy, all the lettuces, carrot tops, chards, radiccio, etc... Home grow weeds are best. You can get seed mixes and grow them indoors in flats. Your old coil bulb would work great for this as long as the tortoise isn't under it.
7. I've got no experience growing succulents indoors. Seems to me like you'd need some substantial lighting to keep them alive for very long. Jade, ice plant, aloe, and red apple are all safe to eat.

Hope this helps.

 

[Minority1]

Tom's got it down already. I'm just gonna add a bit here and there.

1. Coconut coir is a fine grade version of coconut peat. If you want finer grade then that's good substrate to consider.
4. Why not buy a big enough enclosure that the tortoise can grow into? Wouldn't that be more cost effective?

 

[Newo13]

Tom did a great job! I'll also add a little

1. I like to use a mixture of coconut coir and organic topsoil. If you pat it down some it's study enough for them to walk and easy for them, and it's also easy for them to burrow which my little one likes to do.
7. Greens should be about 80% of their diet here's a list of grocery greens I go by: Escarole, endive, chicory, dandelion, romaine, some green and red leaf lettuce, mustard, collard & beet greens, carrot tops, kale, Swiss chard, turnip greens
They can also have some vegetable such as squashes, pumpkin, bell pepper and carrots
The search bar on this site: http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/tortoise_home_1.asp has helped me a lot with what I should and shouldn't feed my tort.

 

[SassyKelz]

I'll give this a go since no one else is answering. I don't have any hermanni right now, but I intend to start a herd really soon and so I research them and read about them here constantly. Here is what I've learned:
1. Both of those are good. If you use the coir hand pack it down to make it less messy. If the cypress is hard to walk on, you might ned a finer grade.
2. There are four temps to be concerned with and what they ought to be: Warm side 80ish, cool side 70ish, basking spot 95ish, and night 60ish.
3. Not all of them cause blindness. Is yours a safe one? No way to tell. Chuck it. Not worth the risk. You don't need a new fixture, you need a bulb that will give off heat. Simple solution in a normal home is to put a mercury vapor bulb over one end on a 12 hour timer and be done with it. Unless your house gets really cold at night, you shouldn't need any night heat. If you don't like MVBs, then you can use a regular incandescent bulb for heat and get a tube style florescent bulb and fixture for UV. These are the best two options for the frozen north, in my opinion.
4. I would suggest a 40 gallon as a minimum. That's 36x18". Larger would be better.
5. Fake plants should work, but some torts will eat them. Be careful.
6. Endive, escarole, mustard greens, collard greens, cilantro, watercress, parsley, bok choy, all the lettuces, carrot tops, chards, radiccio, etc... Home grow weeds are best. You can get seed mixes and grow them indoors in flats. Your old coil bulb would work great for this as long as the tortoise isn't under it.
7. I've got no experience growing succulents indoors. Seems to me like you'd need some substantial lighting to keep them alive for very long. Jade, ice plant, aloe, and red apple are all safe to eat.

Hope this helps.

Very helpful Tom! Thank you so much for all your help I will look into growing my own weeds. All the info was great!

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Tom's got it down already. I'm just gonna add a bit here and there.

1. Coconut coir is a fine grade version of coconut peat. If you want finer grade then that's good substrate to consider.
4. Why not buy a big enough enclosure that the tortoise can grow into? Wouldn't that be more cost effective?

Thank you! The enclosure I have now is approx 40 gallons (maybe bigger) but I sectioned it off to 20 gallons because the place that I got him from said that he should be in a smaller enclosure until he is big and fits into a bigger enclosure. But I guess they were wrong with that! I will open it up and add more substrate to the other side.

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Tom did a great job! I'll also add a little

1. I like to use a mixture of coconut coir and organic topsoil. If you pat it down some it's study enough for them to walk and easy for them, and it's also easy for them to burrow which my little one likes to do.
7. Greens should be about 80% of their diet here's a list of grocery greens I go by: Escarole, endive, chicory, dandelion, romaine, some green and red leaf lettuce, mustard, collard & beet greens, carrot tops, kale, Swiss chard, turnip greens
They can also have some vegetable such as squashes, pumpkin, bell pepper and carrots
The search bar on this site: http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/tortoise_home_1.asp has helped me a lot with what I should and shouldn't feed my tort.

I have a topsoil question, do you just get this from a local greenhouse? Is there anything to consider while putting in topsoil like brands? Any pesticides? Also does soil ever go bad? If I was to keep it at my house (I live in Ontario, Canada) in my basement for 8 months basically, would it still be fine? Since our winters are cold, they don't sell topsoil all year around and I'd be willing to buy it in bulk and keep it for the months it isn't sold.

 

[Newo13]

I have a topsoil question, do you just get this from a local greenhouse? Is there anything to consider while putting in topsoil like brands? Any pesticides? Also does soil ever go bad? If I was to keep it at my house (I live in Ontario, Canada) in my basement for 8 months basically, would it still be fine? Since our winters are cold, they don't sell topsoil all year around and I'd be willing to buy it in bulk and keep it for the months it isn't sold.

I just got mine from Home Depot, I don't have a certain brand. I just make sure it doesn't have any fertilizer in it, such as those little white balls. If it says it's organic they won't have any fertilizer in it. I've also used a bag from Lowe's that was $2 a bag of topsoil. Usually super cheap ones won't have fertilizer. You don't want most miracle-gro because they have those little white balls. Since I mix soil with coconut coir I would suggest changing it all maybe once a year. I've had mine for about 8 months and it is still good.

 

[Andrea M]

I live in the uk and its too cold here at the moment for outside plants too, I bought several packs of tortoise mix weed seeds from eBay and I grow them on the windowsills. I was using bags of salad but they are expensive and I found they wilted really quickly when I put them on his slate. Now Hokie wanders round his table and has the choice of what to eat and when, he has lots of clumps of weeds and radicchio, campanula plant etc to eat and they're all fresh all the time, it's much more natural for him and great to watch.

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I also use coco coir, I started with topsoil but it gets a bit heavy when its damp, the coir seems a bit 'fluffier'. Hokie is only 6 months old and has no problems getting around on it, it's also easier for him to bury himself down in which he loves doing.

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[SassyKelz]

I live in the uk and its too cold here at the moment for outside plants too, I bought several packs of tortoise mix weed seeds from eBay and I grow them on the windowsills. I was using bags of salad but they are expensive and I found they wilted really quickly when I put them on his slate. Now Hokie wanders round his table and has the choice of what to eat and when, he has lots of clumps of weeds and radicchio, campanula plant etc to eat and they're all fresh all the time, it's much more natural for him and great to watch.

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I also use coco coir, I started with topsoil but it gets a bit heavy when its damp, the coir seems a bit 'fluffier'. Hokie is only 6 months old and has no problems getting around on it, it's also easier for him to bury himself down in which he loves doing.

Did you grow them on a window sill and then add them to the enclosure? I really wanna grow some in the enclosure for him but will it grow?

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[Newo13]

I think a lot of people have multiple trays growing on a window sill and put one in the tort's enclosure and rotate them out as he starts eating them down. It's hard to grow from seeds in their enclosure because as soon as they see a little sprout of greens they'll eat it before it gets a chance to grow.

 

[Andrea M]

Hi yes, I use any old plastic container or cup then transfer them to the table, I tried to grow them in the table too but they've got no chance, they're either eaten or flat within days!

 

[SassyKelz]

Hi yes, I use any old plastic container or cup then transfer them to the table, I tried to grow them in the table too but they've got no chance, they're either eaten or flat within days!

Can you grow them in topsoil though? They all say use potting soil
I bought some forget-me-nots because they say easy to grow on the package and I've never been very successful with growing plants

 

[Beeliz]

My 1 year old hermann is on compressed grasses that I got at the pet store...I also have a few flat rocks for him to climb for his nails,and to bask under his basking light. He loves the grass,and eats some of it as well.he also burrows under it and makes tunnels for night! I soak him every 3rd day...and he's thriving