Hello Everyone,
I joined the forum a while back but this is my first time posting.
This will be a long and detailed post, hope you can bear with me!
I got a Greek tortoise from a pet shop back in January, I called her Nina. I don’t know how old she is, because pet shops here in Saudi Arabia aren’t exactly a great source of information. In any case, currently her length is around 6 inches, and she weighs around 620-630 grams.
I used to house Nina in a smaller enclosure but I realized that the space wasn’t enough for her so I moved her to a bigger indoor enclosure a few months ago (can’t do outdoor since I live in an apartment building). The issue that I am writing about is that Nina gets up in the morning, at around 8 am, she looks for food, I usually put the food for her before leaving for work. She eats then immediately goes back into her hide (the little castle in the corner of the enclosure) for the rest of the day until the next morning. This keeps on happening everyday, so in total she will spend around 20-30 minutes max outside of her hide to eat then goes back in.
The only time she will go out multiple times is if I don’t put food for that day, then she will go out 2 or 3 times, look for food for around 15-20 minutes each time, then go back to her hide once she realizes there is no food. So in other words, she doesn’t do much walking around or exploring in general if she finds food the first time, otherwise she will go out 2 or 3 different times for a bit then goes back to her hide.
Here is some info about her enclosure:
-it is 5.7 by 3.4 feet (so total of 19.6 square feet), the height is 13.7 inches (1.14 feet)
-The substrate is a mix of fir bark (zoo med repti bark) and coconut coir
-UVB Mercury bulb (Trixie ProSun Mixed D3 Tungsten Lamp 70W), I also have some regular light bulbs installed to increase lighting in the enclosure during the day, all of them turn on early morning then shut off after a while due to a timer(UVB shuts off at 1 pm, while the other lights remain on until 4 pm)
-Temps under the UVB mercury is around 36 C, then it decreases to around 30 C on the other end of the enclosure, and at night it drops down to 27C
-I added in a humidifier since the weather is very dry in the city I live in, so the humidity with the humidifier ranges at 58%-60%
-There is a little mini hide castle in the corner of the enclosure where she goes to sleep, there is also a fake plant and a small box, all of which she can use as hiding areas.
-I have a ceramic saucer that I use as a water dish for her, which she comfortably drinks from and goes into regularly.
-I also have another ceramic saucer which I put the food in, I put it under the UVB bulb since I was trying to get Nina to spend more time outside of her hide.
-I give her a soak on a weekly basis where I put her in a small tub filled with water, then put the tub with her in it in an area where some sun rays can enter (I make sure to open the window and remove the window screens so that the rays come in), the water doesn’t get warmer than 32-33C during the soak.
-For her diet, I feed her a variety of chopped veggie greens, I chop and mix 3-4 of the following each day: Kale, arugula/rocket leaves, plucked mallow leaves, Dill, white turnip leaves (the leaves only), coriander/cilantro and lettuce. I feed her 5-6 times a week. I don’t have access to other garden weeds here in Saudi which is why I rely on those veggies.
-I also add in some calcium powder (Trixie Calcium Finely Ground) once or twice a week, and reptile vitamin powder (Trixie Vitamin / Mineral Compound for Herbivorous Reptiles) once a week onto her food.
-She poops and pees regularly.
I added a photo of the enclosure, in photo does not show the second ceramic saucer (I had removed it to clean it). I also added a photo of Nina
So based on all of the above, what could be the reason for why she isn’t that active? Or is it normal behavior for a tortoise to be out and about for 20 minutes to eat then go back in?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I joined the forum a while back but this is my first time posting.
This will be a long and detailed post, hope you can bear with me!
I got a Greek tortoise from a pet shop back in January, I called her Nina. I don’t know how old she is, because pet shops here in Saudi Arabia aren’t exactly a great source of information. In any case, currently her length is around 6 inches, and she weighs around 620-630 grams.
I used to house Nina in a smaller enclosure but I realized that the space wasn’t enough for her so I moved her to a bigger indoor enclosure a few months ago (can’t do outdoor since I live in an apartment building). The issue that I am writing about is that Nina gets up in the morning, at around 8 am, she looks for food, I usually put the food for her before leaving for work. She eats then immediately goes back into her hide (the little castle in the corner of the enclosure) for the rest of the day until the next morning. This keeps on happening everyday, so in total she will spend around 20-30 minutes max outside of her hide to eat then goes back in.
The only time she will go out multiple times is if I don’t put food for that day, then she will go out 2 or 3 times, look for food for around 15-20 minutes each time, then go back to her hide once she realizes there is no food. So in other words, she doesn’t do much walking around or exploring in general if she finds food the first time, otherwise she will go out 2 or 3 different times for a bit then goes back to her hide.
Here is some info about her enclosure:
-it is 5.7 by 3.4 feet (so total of 19.6 square feet), the height is 13.7 inches (1.14 feet)
-The substrate is a mix of fir bark (zoo med repti bark) and coconut coir
-UVB Mercury bulb (Trixie ProSun Mixed D3 Tungsten Lamp 70W), I also have some regular light bulbs installed to increase lighting in the enclosure during the day, all of them turn on early morning then shut off after a while due to a timer(UVB shuts off at 1 pm, while the other lights remain on until 4 pm)
-Temps under the UVB mercury is around 36 C, then it decreases to around 30 C on the other end of the enclosure, and at night it drops down to 27C
-I added in a humidifier since the weather is very dry in the city I live in, so the humidity with the humidifier ranges at 58%-60%
-There is a little mini hide castle in the corner of the enclosure where she goes to sleep, there is also a fake plant and a small box, all of which she can use as hiding areas.
-I have a ceramic saucer that I use as a water dish for her, which she comfortably drinks from and goes into regularly.
-I also have another ceramic saucer which I put the food in, I put it under the UVB bulb since I was trying to get Nina to spend more time outside of her hide.
-I give her a soak on a weekly basis where I put her in a small tub filled with water, then put the tub with her in it in an area where some sun rays can enter (I make sure to open the window and remove the window screens so that the rays come in), the water doesn’t get warmer than 32-33C during the soak.
-For her diet, I feed her a variety of chopped veggie greens, I chop and mix 3-4 of the following each day: Kale, arugula/rocket leaves, plucked mallow leaves, Dill, white turnip leaves (the leaves only), coriander/cilantro and lettuce. I feed her 5-6 times a week. I don’t have access to other garden weeds here in Saudi which is why I rely on those veggies.
-I also add in some calcium powder (Trixie Calcium Finely Ground) once or twice a week, and reptile vitamin powder (Trixie Vitamin / Mineral Compound for Herbivorous Reptiles) once a week onto her food.
-She poops and pees regularly.
I added a photo of the enclosure, in photo does not show the second ceramic saucer (I had removed it to clean it). I also added a photo of Nina
So based on all of the above, what could be the reason for why she isn’t that active? Or is it normal behavior for a tortoise to be out and about for 20 minutes to eat then go back in?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
