Tortoise Care

The Tortoises

Everybody who keeps tortoises has different ideas on the 'correct' treatment they require. Having read lots of books by different, very experienced keepers, I hope I am close to providing ideal conditions. I do not say the way I keep my tortoises is necessarily the text book way, but my tortoises seem contented and healthy and are breeding, so I must be doing o.k. !

All groups are treated in a similar manner. I wake them from hibernation on the 1st March by turning on the heaters in their boxes and turning on UVB and infa-red lights just outside their boxes. Within a few hours they are beginning to stir. Once they are awake, they are bathed in warm water and again every day for a few weeks to encourage them to urinate and drink. They start to feed almost immediately they have warmed up sufficiently. Any that are not seen feeding are monitored closely.

On warm days, which we often get in mid-March, they are put out into the greenhouses with UVB and infa-red lights. If hot enough, the tortoises are given access to their outside enclosures. Tortoises are taken back to their inside pens at night and are kept there if the days are cold or wet.

As summer approaches, and days and nights are warm, they are left out in their summer quarters. At this stage I only bathe them once a week. When the days start getting shorter and colder, they revert back to spring procedure, and start going back inside at night and on wet and cold days. By mid -October they are usually back inside full time. At this stage all tortoises are weighed and checked against Jackson's ratio graph to see if they are in good enough condition to hibernate. I stop feeding them on 31st October in preparation for hibernation, but temperatures are kept up to aid them digesting any food they have inside them.

By mid- November I start shortening their days on the time switches, and by the end of the month all heating is turned off. Within a few days most of them have settled down in their boxes and are quiet. The boxes are filled with shredded paper under and above the tortoises, the lid put on and a duvet wrapped around the box.

The temperature remains fairly static in the boxes, provided we do not get too long a warm spell. The building has convector heaters around the walls controlled by a thermostat to stop the temperature dropping down to freezing, stats are set at 3C but I try to keep the room temperature between 5°C and 8°C. If the weather is too warm (above 10°C) I transfer them to shoe boxes filled with shredded paper and place them in chiller fridges set at 5°C and they stay there for the rest of the winter.

Babies and juveniles are not hibernated, but I do reduce the day length during winter.

Feeding

I try and feed my tortoises as varied a diet as possible. My morning routine is to go off on the quad bike ( four wheel drive all terrain vehicle) to check on the sheep as soon as it gets light. A morning diversion to my neighbours usually supplies me with a large bag of wild food. My neighbouring farmers, Alan and Malcolm have lots of poly tunnels in which they grow strawberries and a lovely bi-product of dandelions, sowthistles, nipplewort and red deadnettle which they kindly let me rummage through and pick. The tortoises have the added treat of Malcolm's rejected strawberries - a true delicacy. I have also planted large areas of dandelions at home from seed gathered on my travels. I grow a selection of green vegetables for the tortoises including spring cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, summer cabbage, kale, salad lettuce and french beans. Tomatoes are grown in the greenhouse especially for them. Clover is abundant in the outside enclosures for them to eat.

The tortoises get a mixture of at least three of the above greens every day depending on the season with as much wild food as possible. Tomatoes, strawberries, cucumber, melon, apricots, pears and apples ( de-pipped ) are given as treats. They probably get far too many strawberries from July to September but they do adore them! Young tortoises are fed mainly dandelions, nipplewort, sowthistle, clover and lettuce.

Calcium is put on the food regularly for the adults, but calcium + vitamin D3 is put on all the hatchling and juveniles food every day.

Housing

Both main groups of tortoises have similar accommodation. their summer pens comprise of a large enclosure made up of 12" concrete gravel boards dug a few inches into the ground with 3' wooden panels above, ( see photo's ), all pens have access to a greenhouse. Each greenhouse and pen is split so males can be separated off from the females if they become too aggressive. The greenhouses have both UVB and infa-red lights wired to a thermostat set at 30C, and timer set to come on at 8am and off at 8pm. There is a mixture of soil, peat and sand, kept slightly damp and heaped into a mound under the lights. This is for the females to lay eggs into. Tomatoes are grown for the tortoises treats above them in the north and east sides. The pens have a shallow concrete bowl in them 11/2" -2" deep for the tortoises to bathe in and a variety of logs and rocks for them to hide under and behind. Plants for food and shade are also provided with dandelions and clover growing in abundance.

Inside accommodation is in a brick building ( formally calf pens ) where we have two large pens 8'x16' and four 8'x8'. Males can be separated off into these smaller pens when required and isolation pens are available if needed for any requiring special treatment. All these pens have UVB and infra-red lights which are on timers. In addition each pen has a wooden box 4' X 2' with a 2' 80w tubular heater regulated by a thermostat set at 15°C inside. These boxes have shredded paper in them. I have tried bark chippings on the floor of the pens as a substrate but I find Irish moss peat as good as anything and it can be used on your flower borders afterwards. Water is always provided in shallow plant saucers.

Incubation

I incubate the tortoise eggs in home made incubators which can be constructed for under £60 each. A box measuring L60cm x W50cm x H50cm is constructed out of chipboard, and an 80w tubular heater is screwed diagonally on the inside base. A very sensitive, Habistat, 'pulse proportional stat' controls the heater. A slatted shelf is fitted 20cm above the base to place the trays of eggs on, and a piece of baton is screw all the way round 5cm from the top and a perspex viewing lid is laid onto this. A chipboard lid is fitted on the top with a doweling peg in each corner to keep it secure. The eggs are placed on a 3-4cm deep, soil/peat mixed bed, inside ice cream containers. Two ice cream containers are filled with water and kept topped up during incubation to maintain humidity at between 65%-80%. Temperature inside the incubator is maintained at 31.5°C - 32°C, hatching starts occurring at about 55 days.

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