They become less active in cold weather. Tortoises like roaming about, so if possible make the garden completely escape proof. Walled gardens are ideal but if you have to pen your tortoise in, allow at least 10 square metres per tortoise and make sure that the animal can neither climb over nor burrow under the surround.
Pens with solid walls should be at least 50cm high, buried to a depth of 10cm, with wooden stakes as support. Garden ponds should be adequately covered to prevent risk of drowning. A well ventilated greenhouse with access to a lawn and a paved sunbathing area is ideal for tortoises, as in both spring and autumn the animals will be able to heat up sufficiently to feed well, thereby extending their summer and shortening their hibernation period.
A lower pane of glass can be replaced with a panel of wood with an entrance hole or cat flap in it, thus ensuring that the tortoises can escape from overheating on the hottest summer days. It should be remembered that glass filters out all of the sun's ultra violet rays. Never attempt tethering a tortoise by string round the leg, which will cut off blood circulation and may result in gangrene, or by boring holes through the shell, which will cut through live tissue and cause pain or infection.
Never attempt to oil your tortoise's shell. A waterproof house in a sunny position is essential to protect the tortoise from extremes of cold, wet and heat. It can be of a wooden construction, preferably covered with roofing felt and be slightly raised to prevent the floor from becoming damp.
It can be lined with thick newspaper or dried leaves. The house need not be very high as the tortoise will feel safer in an enclosed space. If you have several tortoises keep them in single species in groups of no more than five to reduce disease risk. It is advisable to separate the males and females as the males often engage in female shell butting and leg biting as part of their courtship.
Females constantly exposed to this treatment, and unable to escape, will feed less, produce eggs less frequently and will eventually suffer from extensive shell and leg damage with an increased likelihood of infections. Many commonly kept tortoises are basking species. These naturally use ultraviolet light from the sun's radiation to produce vitamin D. During the summer months exposure to unfiltered sunlight is ideal. At other times of the year supplemental lighting will be required.
Artificial sources produced for reptiles should be used. UV light is split into a number of fractions and it is the UV-b which is required for vitamin D production. Many lamps marketed may be full spectrum or UV producing, but it is important to ensure that the lamp is producing UV-b.
This should be on every day mimicking the natural daylength. Many lamps need to be close to the tortoises and need to be replaced frequently, even if they appear to be working as the UV light production falls over time and distance from the source. Natural and Artificial Lighting for Chelonia. Contrary to belief tortoises do drink, especially on waking from hibernation. A shallow dish about 10cm deep should be sunk into the ground. Tortoises placed in the bath should be supervised to prevent drowning.
Tortoises need a diet which is high in fibre, vitamins and minerals, but low in fat and proteins, and they feed mainly on green leaves. If your tortoise has the run of a garden it will forage quite successfully for itself on charlock, chickweed, clover, dandelion, groundsel, plantains, sow thistle and vetches, often complete with flowers, and the leaves of plants and bushes like buddleia, ice plant, lilac, rose and bramble. Make sure you have a tortoise friendly garden containing no poisonous plants.
Propagate your own weeds if you can. Seeds are obtainable from various seed merchants. Beware of weed killers and slug pellets especially if foods are gathered away from your own premises.
Always wash wild foods thoroughly before feeding. At times of year when suitable weeds are hard to find a wide variety of greens and salad must be offered. The diet should be guided by the situation in the wild. Fruit is sometimes eaten but it should only form a minor part of the diet. Vegetables should be fed raw and in moderation. Your vet will be able to tell from the shape of the ova which type of worm your tortoise is suffering from ascarids or oxyurids.
Use a pony wormer such as fenbendazole Panacur, Intervet or a sheep wormer such as oxfendazole Systamex, Schering-Plough , but be sure to avoid wormers containing piperazine salts, which are harmful to tortoises. Any tortoise that is not up to weight, or has an ailment such as worms, infections or wounds which have not yet healed, or is egg-bound, should be over-wintered.
This is achieved with the help of conservatories, heated greenhouses, and thermostatically controlled environments using heat lamps and vivaria. Be careful with heat lamps: if using newspaper as a substrate, secure it. Fires start easily and tortoises can be badly burned. Healthy animals can safely be allowed to hibernate.
Their metabolism slows down, and their physiological functions go into a state of suspended animation. The kidneys normally filter waste out of the blood, but during hibernation the process is almost shut down.
At 4 degrees Celsius the respiratory movements are negligible. Energy stores are used up very, very slowly, resulting in slight weight loss. A drastic weight loss indicates that something is wrong: take the animal out of hibernation and warm it gently. This is where we can go seriously wrong in the UK. We should not give every tortoise the same treatment and expect them all to cope with a month period of hibernation.
The closer the animals are to the Sahara, the shorter the hibernation. Their state of hibernation is also much lighter. The basic method if hibernating is well documented: an inner box with a substrate of shredded paper or vermiculite - no hay or straw, to avoid the fungal disease aspergillosis, which can come from mouldy hay; then an outer box which is well insulated, with air holes covered in wire to make it rodent-proof.
The site must be frost-proof and waterproof with a temperature range of degrees Celsius. In areas with the right conditions, animals may be hibernated outside.
My own area consists of heavy and easily waterlogged clay, but there are people with light sandy soil and south facing gardens where tortoises have hibernated themselves successfully for years.
Some people hibernate their animals in cooling cabinets where the temperature can be completely controlled. This has been the case in Scandinavia, for instance: the houses are so well heated and insulated there is nowhere suitably cool to hibernate tortoises, and cooling cabinets are a solution. I once tried a small cabinet for four tortoises. Although the temperature was easily controlled, the airflow was not ideal, nor was the humidity.
One tortoise developed a growth of algae on the shell so I abandoned the idea. The general advice is to check and weigh your tortoises during hibernation. As soon as they are taken out of their box and put on the scales, one eye opens. When they are put back, two eyes are open.
They are pumping up their lungs, and the next morning they are still moving around in their boxes. If you have characters like this, my advice is to weigh on a gloomy day. Some animals are very sensitive to movement around them, so alternatively you can weigh the inner and outer boxes together, and check by just touching the leg.
Whatever your arrangements, use your own judgement and knowledge of the animal, and keep records. Record the results of a long hibernation, a short hibernation, or a particularly cold hibernation, so that you can develop your own strategy. It had been cold — in fact there had been snow in the nearby mimosa forest the previous week — but our visit coincided with lovely warm weather, and in the hatchling pens there was movement everywhere. Hundreds of tiny hatchlings, with earth still stuck to their backs, were emerging out of hibernation.
Again, the time you hibernate your own hatchlings depends on the regions from which the animals originated, and you should also remember that the climate in the UK does not provide natural circumstances for them.
Babies born in this country do not have the advantage of a mild sunny autumn, and in consequence do not have the same reserves as their counterparts in the wild. Hatchlings that have been kept permanently outdoors during the summer which is not recommended for the more northerly parts of the UK will follow the pattern of their elders. Tap water can be used in their dish and should be changed daily as they will often use this for bathing as well as drinking.
You can also offer your tortoise a bath every now and then for an extra bathing opportunity, shedding aid and re-hydration. Ensure water used for bathing is warm but not too hot. As the water cools your tortoise will lose heat. You will be feeding your tortoise solely on vegetation, incorporating a good mix of leafy greens and garden weeds as well as some vegetables and fruit as an occasional treat. This kind of diet tends to be nutritionally richer and more natural to your tortoise than commercially available tortoise pellet.
Guides are readily available online and in books for tortoise safe vegetables, garden greens and fruit and should be researched thoroughly before anything is provided as there are a few items that could be detrimental to your tortoises health. You will also need to supplement the diet of your tortoise with calcium and multivitamin which come in the form of powders to be dusted on top of any food provided. The Calcium will be provided 5 days in a week with the multi vitamin being provided 2 days.
Both are essential in keeping your tortoise healthy. Although they cannot climb too high, they will benefit from tunnels, hills, foliage, rocks and bark pieces in terms of mental stimulation and exercise.
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