The Tortoise Table

That's a relief. I think I know what you are asking about then, and I can answer here or we can chat on the phone. I haven't had your email yet.

Nina

Hi Sarah, Thanks for sending the photos. I can't quite tell, but it looks like a reddish flush underneath several of those scutes -- is that right? If that has suddenly appeared then you need to contact a vet immediately. Do you have a good reptile vet (it must be a vet who is qualified to treat rep...

Hi Flora -- great to hear from you again, and also to hear that your little Horsfield is doing well. She sounds absolutely fine to me, and I'm sure her extra activity is due to the nice warm temperatures and bright sunlight that we've had for the last couple of weeks. Bright light and temperature ha...

Yes, I agree that a sheet of lino or vinyl would be better than tiles as they will leak, but it might be hard to bend up the corners. You do need a waterproof liner, though and it has the added advantage of making it much easier to clean. One of the easiest things to use is heavy plastic sheeting or...

Hi Nic, Wise words from Kimberley. She has given her little Timmie a great home. You could have a look at her original thread and scroll down to see the great tortoise table that she made for Timmie -- it's briliant https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/siteassets/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1908 and might ...

Hi Lily, Thanks for your email with the address and the booklet will go out to you tomorrow. I think Tort is a perfectly good name and, as you say, it's not gender specific. The barrier should help a lot -- just a 1" x 6" board or something that he can't see over should do it -- he'll be h...

Hi Jack and welcome to The Tortoise Table. I've had a look at your photo, but it's really hard to tell from that one, as the tail is sort of tucked in plus there is some grass covering his cloaca. I think the tortoise is almost certainly female from the size of the tail, but I can't really see it cl...

I hope he calms down outdoors and starts eating again -- please let us know, as there are some tips for tricking him into eating if he goes for too long without. My Doris is the tortoise formerly known as Boris, for the same reasons that your Barbara became Nigel :D When he is outdoors you might not...

Hi Tim, I'm afraid that is pretty standard male behaviour, but it can also be typical female behaviour if they are about to lay eggs (and females don't need a male to produce eggs). All tortoises for some reason like bare feet -- and they go mad if you have red nail varnish on your toenails, so beca...

I'm not really sure. I have had topsoil from Homebase in the past and it was all right but did sometimes have little bits of stuff in it, and I've also bought some from garden centres. i think someone said that topsoil from Wicks was a bit betterthan Homebase, but that's a while ago. The thing about...

Hi Nic, and welcome to The Tortoise Table! First of all, well done for doing your research before you get your tortoise -- so many people don't and they then run into big problems. It's also great that you are getting your tortoise from a breeder -- you should get good after-sale advice, and you mig...

Thanks so much for the update, Lucre, and we are hoping with you that Jeff will turn up. They are incredible escape artists though, so do remind your neighbours to keep an eye out for him. I agree that he will no doubt turn up at some point, and he will be so happy to see you again!

Nina

That's great that he is eating the cuttlefish -- give him a little tickle under the chin from me for doing so well. With any soil/sand based substrate (like Tortoise Life or any that you will mix up, it does get dusty, so you need to either give it a light spray every day or two, just to keep the su...

Hi and great to hear from you. I think this thread is pretty well finished, but if you could look at other threads here, or try posting on our Facebook page -- that gets more attention than the forum. https://www.facebook.com/pg/TheTortoise ... e_internal

Nina

Hi Lily, I'm so glad that you are making some changes to his home (what's his name by the way?), and it's really obvious that you want the best for him. No need to worry about that temperatrue drop at night in the winter -- in their native habitat the temperature drops at night too. 17C or 18C is ab...

Hi Lily, Thanks so much for sending the photo. You've put some nice things in that vivarium (rocks and other things to walk round and climb over), so that will provide him with interest. But there are a couple of things I would change. First of all,and sadly, vivariums are not good environments for ...

I'm so sorry that I missed this post of yours on 10th May! For some reason we haven't been notified of all new posts -- just some of them, and it's driving us crazy -- so I sat down today and looked at all the posts on the forum and have found quite a few that I hadn't seen before. Your plant looks ...

Hi Kimberley, I'm so sorry but I have only just seen this post from 13 May! For some reason I've not been receiving notifications of many (but not all) new posts, and it's driving me crazy. So I sat down today to look at all of the posts on the Forum and am finding quite a few that I have missed. Yo...

Hi Lily and welcome to The Tortoise Table! Those marks look like keratin stress marks to me, and in general they are nothing to worry about, but they do indicate that a tortoise is growing too quickly (it also sometimes is seen in tortoises in the wild if there is a glut of food and they eat too muc...

Oops, I take back what I said about cuttlefish bone because I think i can see one in your photo! Tortoises sometimes won't touch cuttlefish until it's been sitting outside in the rain and elements and is getting to look all manky and horrible -- and then they devour it for some reason. If he isn't e...

That looks like Tortoise Life substrate, and it's perfectly fine. Tortoises will sometimes eat a bit of new substrate to test it. Tortoise Life has bits of calcium in it (the tiny white bits) and I wonder if he is going for those? Does he have another good source of calcium (cuttlefish bone, limesto...

Hi Lucre,
I hope you are having drier, warmer weather now -- any sign of him yet?

Nina

Yes, well said, Kimberley! A Hermanns tortoise's digestive system doesn't cope well with the natural sugars in fruit (and tomatoes count as a fruit too). In the wild they do occasionally encounter fallen fruit on the ground, and they will certainly eat it, but as Kimberley said it's a bit like feedi...

Perfect!

Cheers,
Nina

That sounds good for heat and light,and I've used that one in the past too. But what will you be using for UVB (as far as I know it only gives off UVA, not UVB)?


Nina xx