Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Raina]

I bath the tortoise's every other day, so i thought i'd take some pics

 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045633&id=1152268122&l=5c677d77e9

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Here's some pictures of where they live

 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046176&id=1152268122&l=12f6efe759

 

Looks a bit bare but their wood/bricks & squirts food dish are in a bath full of hot water

Edited December 6, 2009 by Guest

[Redwing]

They have beautifully marked shells Raina

 

Why do you have to bathe them?

[Raina]

Thanks

 

and it's to keep them hydrated, it also helps them to poo

[Couperwife]

wow, arent they lovely

 

are they easy to keep? how long do they live for? (arent tortoises really expensive to buy , but last for about 60+ years) what do you keep them in? what do they eat?

 

sorry for the millions (ok, 5 ) questions, im just interested

 

cathy

x

[Redwing]

I'd love a tortoise, they are so funny

[Guest]

.....

 

are they easy to keep? ....

 

if you have to bath them every other day I'd consider them high maintenance!

[Jules.]

I think I've bathed my tortoise about 3 times in 27 years

 

She's asleep now for the winter in my parent's shed.

[Raina]

lol

 

Ishi (Hermann's) is really easy to keep i've had him since May 2006 he was about 2 - 3 inches long then he cost £125

 

He live's in a blue rabbit/ferret cage (i have another one that i'm going to use as a brooder)

 

I don't hibernate him (in the wild he would have to hibernate but he gets fed everyday so we don't bother)

 

We feed him pretty much anything, on the net it says not to feed them Fruit & veg but i do, i also feed him Boiled eggs (his fave) and he also eats the garden weeds (and sometimes small slugs )

 

I'd say the most expensive this is the Heatlamps (£7.99 every couple of weeks) & UV lights (£15 + every 3 - 6 months)

 

Now where do i start with Squirt we've had him since i think September last year he only cost £175. We thought he would be able to be kept the same was as Ishi, but boy was i wrong (we talked to a woman i think from the tortoise sanctuary,she said we were really lucky to of kept him alive this long )

 

He needs to be kept really Warm 24/7 or he'll get really ill, we've had lots of problems with him,and he's always going to the vets (that costs a fortune, we have to pay £30+ each week)

 

Leopards don't need hibernating but they need to be kept hydrated, the woman from the tortoise sanctuary said Leopards dehydrate when they wee.

 

He now live's in one of those small Rabbit cages (i think some people use them as brooders too) but in a couple of years we'll have to get him something much, much bigger cuz they grow massive

 

Squirt eats pretty much the same stuff as Ishi, but he loves Pumpkin

 

I bath Squirt twice a day (he loves it) and i only bath Ishi every other day

 

http://www.tortoisetrust.org/

 

That link might help you if you want to start keeping them

 

 

I'm going to clean them out later (i use newspaper and clean them out when it looks a little dirty) so i'll take some pics of their setups and post them

 

Sorry if i've gone on a bit lol

[Lavenders_Blue]

That's interesting how you keep your tortoises - will you always keep them inside or will you put them in the garden when they get bigger?

 

We have a family tortoise who has been part of the family longer than me! About 30 years we have had him. We have no idea how old he is, as he was bought in the days when it was still legal to import tortoises and he was definitely fully grown even then, so he's likely to be fairly old.

 

He lives completely free range in the garden and has never become even remotely tame, well he doesn't hiss quite so much when you approach him now, so I suppose that's progress of sorts in 30 years!

 

Every winter he digs himself down into my parents' grass cuttings heap. We mark where he is with a small stick, cover him over with loads more cuttings and shredded paper to keep him insulated then cover the whole heap with plastic sheeting to stop it getting wet. Every year he seems to hibernate for longer and longer and we always worry that he won't wake up in the spring, but thankfully he always has done so far.

 

Ideally, we would bring him inside to try and keep him going a bit longer and feed him up as much as possible for winter before hibernating, but he is so wild he just barges himself against the door and refuses to eat when he is inside, so we take the view it's better to let him hibernate and stop using energy than to waste energy trying to get outside and not eating.

 

They are fascinating pets though. You wouldn't believe how entertaining a stone on legs could be

[Raina]

I'm not sure what we're going to do with Squirt when he get's bigger.

 

I would love to keep them outdoors in the summer but our dogs want to eat them lol

 

 

When i first got Ishi i was surprised at how fast they move

[Lavenders_Blue]

When i first got Ishi i was surprised at how fast they move

 

Ah yes that is the only thing you do have to be careful of if you keep them outside. Our garden is like guantanamo bay, it's completely impenetrable... except to tortoises it would seem I think every year without fail our tortoise has escaped and disappeared off up the road. We have dug wire into the ground and everything to stop him escaping, but he still manages it somehow We have to have his address painted on the shell or we would probably lose him for good. Over the past 30 years he has been brought back in the basket of a bicycle, in an AA van and even found in (IN!!) the pub up the road!

[Raina]

lol, could he be climbing out of the garden?

 

Both my tortoise's are good climbers, when i lived in wales i built a small wire mesh enclosure forIshi during the day and i had to keep putting him back in cuz he would climb out

[Lavenders_Blue]

Only if he can scale a 6ft fence!!

[smudgley]

Your tortoises are lovely.

We are getting a tortoise soon, I've been trying to locate a breeder with some young hatchlings without success. If you know any nearby as I'm also from the Midlands please let me know, we want a hermanns or horsefield, possibly a spur-thigh.

[Raina]

Thanks

 

I think you might like this website,

 

http://www.thetortoiseshop.com/

 

We ended up getting both of ours from a petshop in North Wales

[Seagazer]

We've just been to our local garden center and they have some Hermans tortoises that YS has fallen in love with. He's got some of the money saved from his birthday and is thinking about getting one (they sell them with a cage and extra bits in). How easy will they be for a 12 year old to look after realistically. I've never had one, we've just started researching and I'll order a book for him on tortoise care.

 

He's got another 3 months to save up for the whole kit and caboodle so got plenty of time to get research under way.

 

Are they a good idea?

[Lavenders_Blue]

Hi Seagazer, I can't help with advice on keeping a tortoise inside (I assume that's what you are thinking of doing?) as ours is a garden tortoise and I should think the care would be very different.

However, a couple of things to bear in mind are:

 

1) Their lifespan - tortoises can live to a huge age. We have had ours around 30 years and he was fully grown when we got him, so goodness knows how old he is. He is also showing no signs of slowing down! I believe they are one of the only pets you can bequest in a will...?!

 

2) Space - I don't know if it might be different for a tortoise bred in captivity but ours lives in a fairly large garden and still spends the summer pacing the boundary trying to escape, and usually succeeding at some point So you may need to make sure you have a space where the tortoise can burn off some energy every day.

 

3) If you are planning on keeping it outside you will need to give your garden the Fort Knox treatment. In 30 years of tortoise keeping we think we've seen every trick in the book, and yet most years our tortoise still manages to escape... the little so-and-so!

 

I would say as long as you research the care thoroughly, as I am sure you will, then there's no reason not to keep a tortoise. Despite the annual heart attack when he finds his way out of the garden, it never fails to amaze me how a stone on legs can be so entertaining!

[Raina]

Hi,

 

I'd say my Hermann's is alot more work than i thought he'd be.

 

I have to keep checking on him all the time to make sure he hasn't flipped himself over (They can die if they stay on their backs for too long)

 

They can/do carry herpes & Salmonella so you have to wash your hand after handling them

 

and they can become quite aggressive, When i let Ishi on the floor he comes over and bites my toes, It really hurts so i've learned to wear shoes and he'll try and attack anything that moves

 

They do need to get bathed at least 5 times a week to keep them hydrated too

 

I've found out they are very expensive too, you need to replace their UV strip light every 3 months and then there's the price of their heat lamps and they do need a nice warm room to be kept in (I can't open my bedroom windows anymore,not even in the summer )

 

Oh and if buying a Hermann's tortoise ask to see the Certificate first, if the Country of Origin is Slovenia avoid these tortoises (They can carry all sorts of disease and become very ill)

 

and They do have a fishy smell to them,i thought it was something they ate but apparently it's normal for tortoises (and their poo smells really bad )

 

 

 

That's all i can really think of at the moment but this is a good website

 

http://www.thetortoisegarden.co.uk/MainPage.htm

 

If there is anything you need to know email the woman that owns the website, she knows everything there is to know about tortoises (she helped us when our Leopard was ill)

 

Well i hope this has helped

 

 

EDIT: They do grow big too,Ishi is 6 inches long and he can grow upto 8 inches maybe more?

[Seagazer]

Thank you thats really good information.

 

YS spent all of the rest of yesterday on the internet looking things up and I have ordered him a book which should be coming soon.

 

Our garden is fairly secure as it has concrete kickboards at the bottom of the fence so it should be safe (apart from the foxes! )

 

I've tried saying to him what are you going to do if your future wife doesn't like tortoises which extracted a and then look from him.

 

We've got underfloor heating so I'm a bit worried it would get to hot but perhaps not if they need it really hot.

 

Hmmm not sure. More reading needed.

[Lavenders_Blue]

I just found this website which looks like it has some useful information about tortoise care.

http://www.hermann-tortoise.co.uk/

I also forgot to mention hibernation which is a consideration if your tortoise is living outside. There is some good information on the website above about this.

One last thing - I guess your concrete kickboards both meet the bottom of the fence and also have some depth under the ground? Surprisingly tortoises can both climb and dig (although a 6ft fence could be a challenge )

[Seagazer]

They go slightly under the ground. I walked Cookie with a friend who has a tortoise and she was saying about the digging etc so will have to recheck the garden.

 

Thanks for the websites.