Hi from the UK!

Hello!

I've often stumbled upon this place whilst googling tortoise related things and so I thought I'd actually make an effort to join instead of hovering around!

I live in the UK, the North East to be precise, and I have a roughly 2 year old Horsfield tortoise called Nozzy. We were told he was male, but after naming him and all that jazz, I've since learned they're pretty hard to sex until they're a few years old. So who knows!

Nozzy was bought from the Tortoise Shop in Hull last February (2014), he was a valentines day present and has taken over my entire life, I would never have thought it was possible to get so attached to a tortoise. I live just outside of hull so the shop wasn't too far away, and they told us he was a year old. When I took him to the vets for a general check up they said given his size and weight they would have put him around the 6 months marker, but couldn't be too sure.

He also had the start of pyramiding when we first got him, but after months of careful diet and living monitoring, his shell is looking so much better. He lives in a tort table, 50/50 playsand and topsoil mix.

Aside from that, he's a little monkey and loves to climb. He's currently loving the sunshine and I've never seen him this active! Although on the days it's too cold for him to be outside he sulks terribly (like today!).

Alice and Nozzy x

Welcome to the Forum, Alice!

Welcome! We have several fine members from the U'K!
I also have a tortoise that was named before sex was determined and now have an adult female Redfoot named JULIO......
I also found this site quite by accident and it is THE BEST!
You'll find that shell pyramidding will stop if you get your humidity high enough. It's not about the diet.

Thanks guys!

Haha, Julio! I figure if it turns out he's a she, then I'll just imagine her to be a tomboy! I suppose it's a good thing I didn't go with Dave!

I have read about the humidity and pyramiding so that's quite interesting! I started to spray the substrate ever so many days to stop it from drying out too much as this was irritating Nozzy and I think he was finding it difficult to dig to his satisfaction. I will definitely keep an eye on that for future reference!

It will be helpful if you "tweak" what you are using for substrate. The sand should go. It's both dangerous to ingest and doesn't hold humidity.
I use Orchid bark under potting soil.. If you pour water into the corners, the bark will soak up the water and leave the top layer of soil (not sand) nice and dry.
You'd have a huge increase in humidity right away and this is VERY easy to do and maintain.
If you use this in conjunction with, say, a mercury vapor light, you'd have your heat, your UVB and your humidity all in one. (With part off the top closed off for humidity retention.)
Another bonus is that you can sprout plants in the soil that your guy or girl can eat as a treat.

Oh no! I had no idea, everywhere I've read seemed to point to the sand and substrate. Oops! I've always mixed in more soil than sand, so a 60/40 or 70/30 ratio more than 50/50. He's due for a clean out in a week anyway, so I'll get some ordered and see how that goes! Thanks for the tip!

I've never heard of orchard bark, he did have some kind of bark chippings once but I read about impact risk and stopped using them! I think I used coir substrate too at one point, when we got him he came with coir and soil in his tub... and I carried on using it as he seemed to prefer sleeping under that.

As for planting things for a treat, He has a potted spider plant and we did have a couple of small pots of weeds in there and he just can't resist them. It took him 48 hours to demolish the spider plant, and smaller weed pots didn't stand a chance! They were quite good as I could swap the pots over every so often to give them chance to recover and put something new in, but nope... Nozzy ate them.

However since he devoured the spider plant he hasn't touched one since. I put a large on in last time I cleaned him out, perfect for shading him near the lamps, he will sit under the leaves, but he has yet to eat it! I think he learnt his lesson.

Many members use the COIR and it will work fine.

I like a coir and compost mixture.

I said hello on another thread, but didn't get your name.
So hi, Alice.

So no sand at all??

Some members here use sand, or a percentage of, but many are against it.
As Zeropilot said, it doesn't help with humidity and sometimes, if swallowed can cause impaction, which can cause blockages and even death.
I wouldn't use any myself.

tinyherms said:

So no sand at all??

Click to expand...

soil,yes. Sand no. I also like the compost idea because where soil has very little sand, compost has none at all.

Hi Alice I am in the UK too, and this week has not been great for tort basking outside has it?
I have a tortoise called Lola because the vet said my tort was a she, but having posted pics of the tail most members think she is a he ,and I haven't got around to changing his name yet so it's a bit like the Kinks song. Not that he answers to anything at all!
This is a great place to learn with caresheets for each species, threads for enclosure ideas and one called Beginners Mistakes which I have found useful to help right my wrongs.
Anyway welcome to you and Nozzy and I look forward to hearing more about him/her

Welcome!

Welcome