Tortoise Care

How to Keep Your Tortoise Happy and Healthy.

To maintain your tortoise in good condition and allow him to live a long and contented life various basic requirements must be met.

The more exotic species should only be kept by knowledgeable reptile specialists who have studied their very specific needs and can cater for them adequately.

The easier species however, such as the mediterranean tortoises like Herman's Tortoise, and the Spur-Thighed Tortoise can be cared for by anyone who is willing to provide a few simple requirements.

Here are some of the main things to consider. This list is not exhaustive, and other aspects of tortoise husbandry will be added, and much more detailed recommendations given, as the site develops.

Light

All species need access to good amounts of natural light. Ideally they should be provided with a secure garden enclosure, which is open to full sun for the main part of the day. Access to shade is also important, either provided by a neighbouring building or trees, or by a varied terrain and clumps of vegetation.

A well lit indoor area is also needed for times when the weather is bad. A greenhouse or conservatory can make a very good home as long as it is not allowed to get too hot.

Feeding Tortoises

Although many species of tortoise drink very little, a safe clean source of water should always be available, and care should be taken to ensure the correct diet is being supplied for your particular species.

If possible someone should be available during the warm parts of the day when tortoises are most likely to feed. This way an eye can be kept on the tortoises feeding habits. Any that are not eating well can be encouraged, by careful hand feeding if required. Care should be taken to avoid this becoming a habit. Some tortoise become very lazy if hand fed and then refuse to browse for food themselves.

A wide range of wild plants such as dandelions, chicory, sow thistle, white clover, heartease and wild radish flowers, provide the best and most natural tortoise diet. Mallow, mulberry and hibiscus flowers, and various other shrub leaves and flowers, add variety to the diet. Pansies and many other garden flowers are also popular with our tortoises. It is cheap and easy to grow a variety of these tortoise foods from seed and I recommend http://www.plant-world-seeds.com who collect their seed fresh every year, which gives very high rates of germination.

Care must be taken to avoid poisonous species. While tortoises will generally reject foods that are harmful to them this cannot be relied on, so always check that the plants you intend to feed your tortoise are completely safe. Also ensure that any weeds or garden plants growing within your tortoise's enclosure are not poisonous to him. Remove any plants you're not sure about. We are working on a list of safe plants, as well as one covering plants poisonous to tortoises and will add these to the site soon.

Natural browsing on safe wild and garden plants should provide all your tortoises nutritional needs. You can supplement the diet with a little cucumber, tomato, lettuce and other salad vegetables. These are useful early and late in the season when there is a shortage of suitable vegetation in the garden, and when it is urgent to keep the tortoise well hydrated.

However these salad foods are very high in water and low in nutrients, so are of limited food value for tortoises. They should therefore only ever make up a small part of the tortoises diet. Lettuce, tomato and other large plant leaves and fruit should be cut into small pieces to make it easier for the tortoises to eat. 

Dog and cat foods, high protein feeds like peas and other legumes, and also tinned meats and highly processed foods should be avoided at all costs. These rich foods are not suitable for tortoises and will cause developmental problems including deformed shell growth and bone problems.

Foods high in sugars (including very ripe fruit) are unsuitable for many species too, as are certain vegetables such as cabbage and spinach. Feeding foods such as these can produce kidney failure or bladder stones, and may result eventually in the death of your tortoise.

Dietary requirements vary greatly from species to species. The recommendations above refer particularly to the mediterranean species. The individual needs of your chosen species should be researched carefully, before you buy your first tortoise if possible. This way you will be sure to choose a species that is a good match for the food plants and environment you can most easily provide.

All foods should always be fed absolutely fresh. Food should not be left lying around, especially in warm weather, or it will attract flies, and may rot. This could allow harmful bacteria to spread, which could kill your tortoise or make him very sick.

The only time you should expect your tortoise not to eat for extended periods is when he first wakes up from hibernation, or at the opposite end of the year  when he will be 'winding down' in preparation for his long winter sleep.

Tortoises are browsing animals, geared to feeding on sparse vegetation. They often live in very harsh environments where they may have many days between locating suitable food plants. They have evolved to live with this irregular food avaiability and therefore do not need to eat every day to stay healthy.

So, as long as your tortoise is a good weight, there is no need to worry if he does not eat every day. On dull, wet or cold days your tortoise may not become active enough to digest food properly, and on those days he will not eat.

However, if a normally healthy, active, tortoise suddenly stops eating, for many days at a time, it is a sign that something is wrong and should not be ignored. It may be caused by constipation.

A luke warm bath (warm to the touch but not hot) can be given to help with this. A shallow bowl makes the ideal bath, but always make sure the tortoise's nose stays well above the water surface. Never leave a tortoise unsupervised while bathing. 

Deeper water is more effective for bad cases of constipation. Here supervision is even more essential to avoid risk of drowning. A ramp made from a small wooden plank (or similar) can be used in a deeper bowl. One end of the plank is rested on the rim of the bowl and the other end rests on the bottom.

This will allow you to position the tortoise at an angle, so his body and legs are completely submerged, but with his head well clear of the water. Arrange it so it is not possible for him to accidentally fall over the edge of the ramp into the water. If you don't have a ramp then just sit and hold the tortoise gently at a 30° - 45° with the warm water lapping around his body. 

Fifteen minutes to half an hour of this treatment will often cure a sluggish bowel. Then, it is likely that your tortoise will miraculously rediscover his appetite, and eat normally.

Worming can also solve the problem, if he is not already on a regular worming program. If your tortoise continues to refuse food, then take him to the vet for further investigation.

Most healthy tortoises have very good appetites; some are positively greedy! So your problem may well be the opposite: avoiding your tortoise eating too much, or having too rich a diet. A tortoise should eat no more food in a day than would cover the area of his plastron (underside of his shell). Over-indulgence can lead to lethargic unfit tortoises, so great care should be taken to avoid this.

 

Health Care

As alluded to above, a regular program of worming and general parasite control should be undertaken from the moment you get your first tortoise. Consult your vet for further advice on this. He will provide you with a course of worming treatment that is safe and effective. Tortoises worms can not only threaten the health of tortoises, but can be passed on to humans too. Therefore it is very important that you always keep your tortoise worming program up to date.

New tortoises entering the group should always be given several weeks in quarantine. A period in isolation allows you to make sure they are not bringing in new diseases. Also this will mean that worming treatment, given when the tortoise arrives, will have the necessary time to work, avoiding any chance of worms being spread to the rest of the group.

Great care must be taken when feeding tortoises vitamins and especially calcium supplements. These may well do more harm than good. We will publish more detailed recommendations in this area in due course.

 

Tortoise Enclosure

Keeping Tortoises Indoors

A small vivarium designed for a snake or lizard is not a suitable habitat for a tortoise. Tortoises like to wander over large areas of irregular, often very dry desert, terrain searching out plants and other foods. A confined and humid tank is no substitute for this environment and will cause them much stress and eventual illness.

It is therefore wise to avoid buying one of the many advertised tortoise vivariums found online. Most are not at all suitable for any tortoise species and certainly not desert tortoises, such as the Spur-Thighed Tortoise or other mediterranean tortoises.

There are now some well designed Tortoise tables available that can provide reasonable conditions for tortoises while they are kept indoors. They give good artificial lighting to keep your tortoise healthy and the best ones give sufficient space for your tortoise to ramble about and get plenty of exercise.

Keeping Tortoise Outdoors

Nothing beats a fresh air environment out of doors, with natural light and vegetation. So unless the weather is bad, the ideal is to house your tortoises outside in a large but secure garden pen.

For tortoises living out of doors, a simple 'stockade' made by enclosing an area with a rectangle of low planks, set on edge, can make an ideal tortoise enclosure.

Within this area, they like a box to retire to at night or when the sun becomes too intense for them. This kind of arrangement can be set up in a greenhouse or conservatory too.

Make the pen as large as you have space for and plant some non poisonous grasses and plants in it. This will not only give cover from the sun but will also provide a much more stimulating environment for your pet, a little closer to his natural habitat.

Large rocks, carefully placed to form a miniature landscape of hills and valleys, can easily be added too. These will allow your tortoise to prop himself up at different angles so he can 'catch the rays' as the sun moves around throughout the day. Sunbathing is the number one favourite tortoise passtime!

Make sure your planks are wide enough so that the tortoises cannot climb over them. The dimensions will depend on the size of your chosen tortoise species, but aim at using planks that are a little taller, when stood on edge, than you think is necessary.

Tortoises are far better at climbing than you would imagine. If one tortoise is resting at the edge of the pen it is not unknown for another to use him as a stepping stone to the wider world. Whether this happens by accident or design, the end result is the same; hours of frustration and worry, as you search for your errant tortoise, and wonder if he's made it as far as the road... It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack - they are very well camoflaged!

To avoid all this stress, and the risk to your tortoise, it's best to make sure your pen is totally tortoise proof before leaving your favourite pet unattended. Test it out first on a hot day, when the tortoise is very active and let him show you what he can do. All being well you will have a tortoise-proof pen, where your tortoises will be safe and happy. Always be wary with new arrivals however. Some tortoises are more talented escape artists than others.

Be especially careful to avoid planting tall vegetation near the edges of the pen that could be used as climbing perches. Also watch out particularly at corners where an active 'sun-fuelled' tortoise can be remarkably good at levering himself out of the pen.

A Tortoise Garden

The happiest captive tortoises are those that have a large area of the garden to wander in. Designing an area of your garden especially for your tortoises is perfectly feasable and an enjoyable pursuit for the real tortoise enthusiast.

There is no need for attractive planting or good general garden design to be abandoned to achieve this goal. With a few simple provisions a garden can function, both as an attractive recreational area for people, and as a wonderful habitat for tortoises.

If your tortoises also have free access to a greenhouse or polytunnel for cold wet days they will be even more contented!

Setting up a full tortoise garden is of course more complicated than a simple pen, but more rewarding too. The whole area the tortoises are to be allowed into must be fully tortoise-proof. Ideally a solid, tall, garden wall, or fence, should make up the majority of the perimeter.

Tortoise access to gateways or other entrances to the garden should be blocked. This can be achieved by simply creating a step, too high for the tortoise to negotiate, leading up out of the garden. Alternatively a very low fence or wall can be built to block potential escape routes. 

If you give them a wooden box in a favoured sunny corner of the garden, most species of tortoise will return to it at night. Or at least this is our experience with the main mediterranean tortoise species. This means they can generally be easily located in the late afternoon, tucked up in the dry grass in their box. And so the 'needle in a haystack' search routine can be avoided.

Later in the year, but long before any danger of frost, it is best to confine these 'free range' tortoises to a smaller penned area within the wider garden. This way there is no danger of not being able to find them if the weather should suddenly turn wintery.

Tortoise Hibernation

As the summer draws to a close and the days shorten, here in our British climate tortoises gradually become more lethargic and eat gradually less and less.

This is a natural slowing down which prepares them for the winter months when the tortoise's body will shut down almost completely. His metabolism slows to the point where his heart is hardly beating and all of his bodily functions work at a level that keeps him alive, but no more.

Preparing for hibernation is always tricky and so particular care is required at the beginning and end of the season. We plan on introducing a whole section on how best to care for your tortoise as he goes to sleep in the autumn and how to safely get him back into action in the spring.

Watch this space for this and much more to follow on keeping tortoises.

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