Tortie Esi(o)

Post your pictures and any questions here of European tortoises e.g. Ibera Spur Thigh, Ibera Graeca, Marginated, Hermanns, Kleinmanni and we include the Horsfield tortoise. Also, do add pictures of Mediterranean tortoises you have seen in the wild.
Post Reply
Minno
Posts: 4
Joined: 21 Jun 2021, 16:47

Tortie Esi(o)

Post by Minno » 21 Jun 2021, 17:53

Hi everyone,my name is Minno. I have had a lot of time until I made my mind to ask for help. I once asked some questions on a Facebook page for tortoises and I kinda felt judged on not knowing certain things so I stopped asking for help. I am here today as I need to know what I am doing is right.My baby Esi is around 1 year and 4 months or so I calculated since the centre I took him/her from did not tell me the right age and I had to find out from somebody who is experienced.He has clear black eyes, dry nose and his shell looks normal but it has very fine lines on scutes like of pyramidal and I really am afraid of not raising him the right way.He lives indoors since last year with outdoor time when is hot outside.His bedding has a 20cm deepness of small woodchips with a feeding plate ,a log like hide , a calcium block with dry flowers inside and a water shallow vase. I am feeding him with mix of letuces(apart of iceberg) from supermarket, rose petals or leaves ,spider plant and dandelion.Sometimes I add carrot peelings to his food and I am preparing the mix in a plastic box sprinkled with calcium powder and I keep it in the fridge.His light is a combined a uvb and heat bulb.He is active sometimes but sometimes he just sleep all day.I am open to any suggestions and I am also wondering what is the size of the table as enclosure and can I know his age based on his measurements? Can someone help me with a vet number and give me an idea about how much would cost a consultation only? Hope I did not make it too long and you can help me.Many thanks 😊

User avatar
lin
Posts: 1031
Joined: 16 Mar 2017, 11:27

Re: Tortie Esi(o)

Post by lin » 21 Jun 2021, 21:41

Hi Minno.
Can I say that you can ask anything you like on here and will never ever be judged. It’s always better to check even if you do know the answer.
Now, would you be able to send in a photo of Esi’o setup and the temperature at both the hot and cool ends of the table with a thermometer probe the same height as the top of Esio’s shell.
And then if you don’t mind we can see if there are any tweaks we can suggest to make sure Esi’o is on the right road.
I am sure there isn’t much wrong that can’t easily be put right.
Are you in England Minno, and if so what part of the country and we will find a good vet in your area, you never know, you might not need one.
Look forward to your photo and one of Esi’o.

Lin

User avatar
Nina
Posts: 1993
Joined: 16 Mar 2017, 11:22

Re: Tortie Esi(o)

Post by Nina » 22 Jun 2021, 09:46

Hi Minno,

Oh dear -- I wrote you a long post last night and for some reason forgot to submit it and lost it, so here goes again.
I agree absolutely with what Lin said -- one of the reasons we started this website, forum and Facebook page is to support people and not criticise them, because we are aware that there is a lot of unpleasantness and bullying that goes on over the internet. So you will always be welcome here and feel free to ask any questions.

In your other post you said the date of birth on the certificate you got was June 2020, and I don't see any reason not to believe that. This would make Esio one year old, and his weight of 112g is fine for that age -- and in fact is a bit more than you would expect, so do take care to ensure that he doesn't grow too quickly. Horsfields are very greedy eaters and can easily grow too fast and then they can get deformed shells, so try to aim for an average growth of between 1g - 3g per month (that is just an average and some months he will grow more and some months less).

It sounds to me like you have made him a good environment, and the more you can get him outside the better, because the UVB from the sun is a much better quality than that provided by our lamps. But do be sure that his enclosure outdoors is escape proof, as they are great escape artists, and you only have to look away for a couple of seconds before he disappears!

You could try to increase the number of different plants that you give him. Check that any plants are safe to feed on our website database, but at his time of year there are lots of nice weeds around, like sowthistle, plantain, etc. plus garden flowers like campanula and many others.

From your description your set-up sounds good, but it would help to see a photo and if you can't reduce your photos in size then just send a couple to me and I will reduce them and post them here for you. I think the only thing I would consider changing at the moment is the wood chips. They aren't terrible, but they aren't natural for a tortoise -- especially ones like Horsfields that like to burrow into the ground. In the wild they live on as sandy soil, so what most of us use is a combination of ordinary sterilised topsoil and children's play sand, and you can buy bags of these at most garden centres or places like Homebase, etc. And then you mix it 50/50 (or I prefer a higher quantity of topsoil to play sand) and you spray it lightly every couple of days to ensre that it doesn't get too dusty. And make it as deep as you can so that Esio can completely bury himself if he wants to. It is also very easy to spot clean wee and poo from that substrate.

Regarding vets. I don't know how much they will charge you, but you can ring them and see. We have a list of vets recommended by tortoise keepers on our website here: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/tor ... NGgbkzTXwo and if you scroll down to Leicestershire you will see that there are three vets there. If none of them are near enough to you then let us know and we will see if there are any others. It is important that you see a vet who has expertise in treating reptiles, so if you do phone one of those practices make sure that they still have a vet working for them who treats reptiles (they sometimes call it 'exotics').

You mention a calcium block, but many tortoises find those too hard and won't eat them, so you should get a calcium powder to sprinkle on his food (if you wet the leaves the powder will stick better). You can buy pure food-grade calcium carbonate on the internet, or in the form of 'limestone flour'. You should also give a calcium supplement with vitamin D3 (Nutrobal is the one most people choose) on the days that you don't give the other calcium powder. And you can buy a cuttlefish bone (the things they sell for budgies and other birds) and just leave that in his enclosure for him to nibble -- or you can even scrape some of it onto his food with your fingernail. Tortoises have a lot of bone and shell and they need a lot of calcium to support that.

Temperature is very important for tortoises, and you need to be able to raise or lower his light to increase or decrease the temperature on cool or hot days. You should aim for a temperature of around 30C directly under the light and at the height of his shell, and 20C at the cool end. A thermometer directly under the light is necessary, as a thermometer mounted on a nearby wall will not give you an accurate temperature (and it will differ greatly depending on whether it is a hot or a cool day). You can get thermometers that aren't very expensive, and I can explain about them and give you links if you are interested, but this post is getting very long now! Ha, ha -- you aren't the only one who writes long posts

I hope that helps.

Nina

Minno
Posts: 4
Joined: 21 Jun 2021, 16:47

Re: Tortie Esi(o)

Post by Minno » 22 Jun 2021, 11:02

I will send the photos to you via email, also could you give me some tips or links for some appropriate thermometers I could use.Thank you all for support in this.It feels very good to be educated in this manner.

User avatar
Nina
Posts: 1993
Joined: 16 Mar 2017, 11:22

Re: Tortie Esi(o)

Post by Nina » 22 Jun 2021, 12:16

It's great to have you here, Minno. The sort of thermometer that is good to use is one of those digital fridge/freezer thermometers, with a display unit that sits outside the enclosure and then a probe on the end of a long wire that you can hang down into the enclosure so that it is below the lamp at the height of the tortoise's shell. There are lots of them if you look, but here is a link to one (and it's good to get one with a Max/Min facility, so you can see how hot or how cold it got since you last re-set the function):
https://www.gompels.co.uk/digital-fridg ... 78EALw_wcB
I'm not necessarily recommending this one, but if you google digital fridge freezer thermometers you will see lots of them -- just make sure it is one with a probe on the end of a wire and has a Max/Min facility.

Nina

User avatar
Nina
Posts: 1993
Joined: 16 Mar 2017, 11:22

Re: Tortie Esi(o)

Post by Nina » 22 Jun 2021, 14:53

Here are some photos of Minno's lovely little tortoise called Esio, in his enclosure.

Nina
[attachment=0]m_Minno's Esio.jpg[/attachment][attachment=1]m_Minno's Esio 2.jpg[/attachment]
Attachments
m_Minno's Esio.jpg
m_Minno's Esio 2.jpg

daynatowns
Posts: 1
Joined: 30 Jun 2021, 05:44

Re: Tortie Esi(o)

Post by daynatowns » 30 Jun 2021, 08:13

So adorable. Thanks for sharing.
slope game exciting endless running game

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests