Hi my wife has just got a young hermanns, she has got an inside table and outside 9x3ft run with hut. With the weather being so bad, do I put her out in the run even if the soil etc is wet, or leave her with the lamp on around 28°
She is eating but very hard to tell how much. She has a bath twice a week. yesterday did a poo also the white deposit. She seems to have lots of energy but a fussy eater. she did take some lettice out my had the other day. her outside run has now been planted out with edible plants.
Not sure what to do?
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Newbie not sure what to do
Re: Newbie not sure what to do
Hi PhilBen and welcome to The Tortoise Table! Many, many apologies for not responding to your post sooner, but for some reason I didn't receive a notification of the post when it came in, and have only just seen it now.
Many congratulations on your little Hermann's tortoise, and I think you have made him/her a really nice outdoor enclosure. Is it in a position where it will get the sun (if and when the sun is shining)? We are all having problems with this dreadful weather we've been having, and my tortoises have been grumpy and a bit down as well. You are right to put her out in the run when it's not cold, and she will benefit a bit from UVB from the sun even on cloudy days. It sounds to me like you are doing a good job with her and providing her with good facilities, indoors and out.
Your indoor table sound excellent! It's really big, and where tortoises are concerned then the bigger the better. Re the temperature, you should aim for a temp of 30C at one end, measured directly under the light and at the height of her shell (not measured by a thermometer on a nearby wall), and about 20C at the other end, and that will enable her to move from warm to cool areas to thermoregulate. If you'd like to post a photo of that, we could have a look and suggest a few tweaks if necessary, but the size is great.
Bathing her twice a week is good, and presumably she also has a water bowl in her table.
Tortoises will almost always take lettuce, but it doesn't contain much nourishment. It's a sort of lazy food -- what we call 'wet' food that goes through their digestive system quickly, whereas weeds/flowers, etc. take longer to digest, and tortoises have a slow digestion system that is designed for more fibrous plants. So I would tempt her with nice edible flowers and leaves from the garden. If you do feed a lot of food like lettuce then tortoises sometimes do go off the better food, so here's a link on introducing a healthier diet to tortoises: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/tor ... -new-diet/ Are you also giving her a good calcium/vitaminD3 supplement on her food?
Regarding whether she is eating enough, a good way to monitor this is to keep a record of her weight. Tortoises should put on weight slowly, as feeding too much will mean in a rapid weight gain and can result in shell deformities as they get older (I can explain more if you are interested). So what you should aim for is a weight gain of about 1g - 3g per month on average (that's just an average, and some months she might gain more and some less, but it's a guide).
Would you like a care sheet for Hermann's? If you email me at nina@thetortoisetable.org.uk I can send you one. Again, many apologies for not seeing your post when it came in.
Nina
Many congratulations on your little Hermann's tortoise, and I think you have made him/her a really nice outdoor enclosure. Is it in a position where it will get the sun (if and when the sun is shining)? We are all having problems with this dreadful weather we've been having, and my tortoises have been grumpy and a bit down as well. You are right to put her out in the run when it's not cold, and she will benefit a bit from UVB from the sun even on cloudy days. It sounds to me like you are doing a good job with her and providing her with good facilities, indoors and out.
Your indoor table sound excellent! It's really big, and where tortoises are concerned then the bigger the better. Re the temperature, you should aim for a temp of 30C at one end, measured directly under the light and at the height of her shell (not measured by a thermometer on a nearby wall), and about 20C at the other end, and that will enable her to move from warm to cool areas to thermoregulate. If you'd like to post a photo of that, we could have a look and suggest a few tweaks if necessary, but the size is great.
Bathing her twice a week is good, and presumably she also has a water bowl in her table.
Tortoises will almost always take lettuce, but it doesn't contain much nourishment. It's a sort of lazy food -- what we call 'wet' food that goes through their digestive system quickly, whereas weeds/flowers, etc. take longer to digest, and tortoises have a slow digestion system that is designed for more fibrous plants. So I would tempt her with nice edible flowers and leaves from the garden. If you do feed a lot of food like lettuce then tortoises sometimes do go off the better food, so here's a link on introducing a healthier diet to tortoises: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/tor ... -new-diet/ Are you also giving her a good calcium/vitaminD3 supplement on her food?
Regarding whether she is eating enough, a good way to monitor this is to keep a record of her weight. Tortoises should put on weight slowly, as feeding too much will mean in a rapid weight gain and can result in shell deformities as they get older (I can explain more if you are interested). So what you should aim for is a weight gain of about 1g - 3g per month on average (that's just an average, and some months she might gain more and some less, but it's a guide).
Would you like a care sheet for Hermann's? If you email me at nina@thetortoisetable.org.uk I can send you one. Again, many apologies for not seeing your post when it came in.
Nina
Re: Newbie not sure what to do
Hi Phil,
Great, got your email and I've replied with the care sheet and a little something else.
Nina
Great, got your email and I've replied with the care sheet and a little something else.
Nina
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