Reintroducing myself!

Kimmers000

Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2014
Messages
45
Location (City and/or State)
Tacoma, WA
Hiya all!

We live in Western Washington and I first joined a couple of years ago when we got our hatchling Dalmatian tortoise - we loved him so much! Sadly, he passed away suddenly earlier this year. We were heartbroken.

Just recently, we had been thinking about adding another tort to the household and two days ago, a woman in a Facebook group I belong to posted the need to find a home for her tortoise. So! We brought her home yesterday. She's supposed to be a "Golden Greek" and I'm told that that translates in actuality to a Mesopotamian Greek. She is thought to be at least "3 or 4 years old" and from the looks of her shell, she's had a bit of a rough start. But! She has laid an egg before so she's definitely a she and she seems relatively healthy right now.

For now, she's living in the set up she was in at her previous owners' house. We plan on building a sturdier table in the near future. (My husband just said "yeah... we don't have a spare room any more, we have a tortoise room...")

I'm just so happy to have a tort again!!!! Looking forward to being back here and getting advice for her ideal set up.

For now, here she is in all of her cuteness:
IMG_4097.JPG IMG_4098.JPG IMG_4100.JPG

:)
 

Linhdan Nguyen

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 29, 2016
Messages
1,790
Location (City and/or State)
Maryland
Welcome back :)
Whats your new love’s name?
I can start by saying she needs different substrate. Straw is super drying & molds when it gets wet. I prefer soil or coco coir. Holds moisture well & easy to work with. Its also cheap :)
 

Kimmers000

Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2014
Messages
45
Location (City and/or State)
Tacoma, WA
Thanks! Yes, I plan on changing that - but she's pretty stressed and hiding a lot, so one thing at a time. First thing I did was throw away the coil style uv bulb and replace it with my HO 10.0. Then got her to eat mixed greens and some weeds (she was eating primarily carrots and kale, gah!). Next up is substrate but I'm a trying to decide what to use - I've been told (by Chris from Hermannihaven) that she is an arid subspecies and she'll need to be considerably dryer than other testudo. I need to figure out how to hydrate coco coir and then dry it out a little or how to dry out top soil (as all of our garden centers like to keep it outside in our rainy climate) or something. Open to suggestions!
 

Taylor T.

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5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
589
Location (City and/or State)
New England
Yes, you definitely need to switch that straw out for something more appropriate. Coco coir or fine grade orchid bark are your two best choices. Also, he needs more to his diet than just types of lettuce. Here is a list too get you started:

Mulberry leaves
Grape vine leaves
Hibiscus leaves
African hibiscus leaves
Blue hibiscus leaves
Rose of Sharon leaves
Rose leaves
Geraniums
Gazanias
Lavatera
Pansies
Petunias
Hostas
Honeysuckle
Cape honeysuckle
Leaves and blooms from any squash plant, like pumpkin, cucumber, summer squash, etc...
Young spineless opuntia cactus pads

Weeds:
There are soooooooo many...
Dandelion
Mallow
Filaree
Smooth Sow thistle
Prickly Sow thistle
Milk thistle
Goat head weed
Cats ear
Nettles
Trefoil
Wild onion
Wild mustard
Wild Garlic
Clovers
Broadleaf plantain
Narrow leaf plantain
Chick weed
Hawksbit
Hensbit
Hawksbeard

Other good stuff:
"Testudo Seed Mix" from http://www.tortoisesupply.com/SeedMixes
Pasture mixes or other seeds from http://www.groworganic.com/seeds.html
Homegrown alfalfa
Mazuri Tortoise Chow
ZooMed Grassland Tortoise Food

If you have a weed in your yard, and are not sure whether or not it is edible, look it up on this website:
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/
 

Taylor T.

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
589
Location (City and/or State)
New England
Oops, I didn't see your post about you starting to feed him weeds... Still, it might be a helpful list.
 
N

no one

Guest
Welcome, sorry to hear about your loss. But happy to read you gave this girl a new home!!
 

Tidgy's Dad

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2015
Messages
48,236
Location (City and/or State)
Fes, Morocco
My condolences on your loss but welcome back.
The coir should not be too wet, but nice and moist.
You should still soak the tortoise a couple of times a week.
Though it is a semi-arid type of Greek, they still spend a lot of time in humid burrows.
Straw may cause respiratory problems and should be removed.
 

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