The Tortoise Table

Hi TP In this second set of photos the first one is definitely a dandelion, the second one might also be a dandelion, but I can't really see enough of it, so maybe wait until it grow a bit bigger, and yes, the last one looks like Cat's Ear. Your ID skills are coming on a treat! Nina TortyPerson wrot...

Hi TP, I think the first photo with the yellow flower is a dandelion rather than a Hawkbit. There are 240 species of dandelion in the UK, and many of them have no serrations -- and some plants have serrated leaves and leaves with no serrations on the same plant). The reason I think it's a dandelion ...

Hi TP, That's no problem at all. I have two Horsfields, and according to most guides they don't eat grass, and they never did fancy grass until about three years ago when they suddenly developed a taste for it, and they will happily eat grass for hours now. There is no lawn grass in their outdoor en...

Lovely photos! And so glad that the tortoises were treated to a feast -- they do lead a charmed life, don't they? I hope they expressed their gratitude for all of your efforts.

Nina

Ha, ha -- so true!
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Hope you like the Mabey book, and thanks so much for the recommendation of the other two books. I'll definitely look into those!

Nina

All you need is the tiniest of lips projecting inwards from the ledge -- even just a quarter or half an inch -- and that will stop him climbing out. Not sure if I'm explaining it well, but i have a couple of pictures from when my table was being built, and I think you can see the rim of the walls th...

That is so true! There is a wonderful book by Richard Mabey called "Weeds: A Cultural History" (How Vagabond Plants Gatecrashed Civilization and Changed the Way We Think About Nature). I think the USA edition might be called "Weeds: The Story of Outlaw Plants". It's a wonderful b...

Yes, it's always good to check first -- and you can either ask us or type the name of the plant into the search box that is on every page of our website here: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/ and when the results come up you need to click on Read More to see the full entry. Happy plant hunting! ...

Hi Terrysmum,

I'm afraid it's not a good feed. Here is the entry for it on our website: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/pla ... hvCOZanw2E

Nina

Hi Laura, I'm so sorry I missed your last post (our notification system seems to have gone to pot)! What a lovely little tortoise he is, and I'm so glad that he is eating well now. Do keep up the attempts to make the majority (at least 70% and hopefully more) of his diet grass, as that is the best d...

They are a really interesting species, and we don't often see them in the UK. Here is a link to a care sheet for Manouria. It's sort of aimed at people who are keeping them here in the UK, but the general principles of diet, husbandry should be the same for anywhere. https://www.tortoise-protection-...

Hi JCB and many thanks for the photos. He looks like a lovely Sulcata (beautiful colouring). At first I thought he had the beginnings of some pyramiding of scutes, but I've just read Lin's post below, and she is a far greater authority on Sulcatas than I am, so I would follow her advice. Here's a li...

Hi Amber, Don't panic -- it's probably something that can be fixed with a little tweaking. First a few questions: Is he eating at all? How long has it been since he last ate? What kinds of food are you offering him? Is he waking himself up in the morning and moving around and exploring, or does he w...

They are super fussy and very stubborn, so keep trying, as you're doing a great job! Mortar and pestle is a very good idea. Just start with a tiny bit, and you can make it into a sandwich (sprinkle the grass on and then fold the leaf over so he can't see it), and try hand feeding at first. Here's a ...

Yes, it's definitely getting better, so well done! The shape is much better, but it still looks very soft, so just keep him on a good diet. It's really important that he eventually gets to a diet of over 70% grasses, and dried grass is fine, so do keep encouraging him to eat the ReadiGrass (did you ...

Oh no! I'm so sorry, but when I was adding photos to my post above, I somehow managed to delete your post, and now I don't know how to get it back! I'm obviously having a terrible day (technologically speaking). For anyone else who is reading this, Damo's tortoise visited the vet and was pronounced ...

Just to let everyone know, the company who offer us a discount on tests for parasites have extended their discount of 10% for another six months and have provided us with a new code. They provide an excellent service and make it really easy to have a test done to determine if your tortoise has worms...

Hi Damo, We are so very sorry to have missed your posts! Over the last few weeks something has gone wrong with our notification system, whereby we are supposed to be notified each time something new is posted -- sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, and we have been finding posts that we were...

That sounds fine, and should work well. If it were me, I think I would set it to stay between 4C and 7C (or even between 3C and 8C). 5C is the ideal temperature, but we usually say that the range of temps should be from about 3C to 8C. I think that 4C - 7C is fine though, but maybe the minimum could...

Hi Laura, Often with the little ones, dried grasses (which are good for them) is an acquired taste, so keep an eye out and see if he eats it. If not, then it's a good idea to cut a little bit of the Readigrass up into teeny tiny pieces and sprinkle a bit of that on some of the leaves that you have w...

Laura0310 wrote:
> Hi Nina and as always thank you for your reassuring advice, Certainly is a
> steep learning curve with these tiny people. The Readigrass has arrived and
> I have put a mound of it in his home so hopefully that will add some
> additional fibre to his diet.

Thanks for clarifyng, Laura. The poo was probably from something he ate a week or two ago (tortoise digestive systems are slow). As you bought him on 23 January, it could well be from something he ate before you got him. It sounds to me like his diet now is fine (just not a high enough percentge of ...

Hi Laura and thanks for the photo. He really is a beautifully marked Leopard! With the husbandry you are giving, I don't think you need to worry at all about dehydration, and his eyes look fine to me. Regarding the poo, my colleague Lin and I have looked at the photo, and the poo definitely isn't ri...

Thanks so much! We've received your email with links to the photos and I've sent you an email in response. As to whether these are Taro -- we'll get working on that too. Because it isn't a plant that grows outdoors in the UK, we're not as familiar with it and will just need to do some research and c...