Shirley's Den

[Shirley the tortoise]

Couple of pictures of Shirley's indoor pad. She has pansies, salad cress and pot marigolds growing but hasn't actually shown any sign of eating any of them (she's not a particularly big eater). Loves being buried though - I'm not sure she would bother getting up if I didn't dig her up.

Her outside enclosure is built, but needs to be landscaped. Will put pictures up when I have a few plants established.

 

[Shirley the tortoise]

Shirley is an eighteen month old Hermann.

 

[lismar79]

Nice job!

 

[Jacqui]

Does she like climbing on her hide? Look forward to seeing the outside one, too.

 

[Shirley the tortoise]

Actually, she never bothers climbing on her hide. Will sometimes try to climb out out of the sides though.

She just really loves digging, and spends at least 95% of her time buried (presumably asleep).

 

[leigti]

Maybe she is hiding because she feels very vulnerable. Can you put in more plants or hides and site barriers so that she can feel more hidden? It is a pretty enclosure.

 

[ascott]

Couple of pictures of Shirley's indoor pad. She has pansies, salad cress and pot marigolds growing but hasn't actually shown any sign of eating any of them (she's not a particularly big eater). Loves being buried though - I'm not sure she would bother getting up if I didn't dig her up.View attachment 123082View attachment 123083

Her outside enclosure is built, but needs to be landscaped. Will put pictures up when I have a few plants established.

What are the temps in the enclosure? Temps have a huge part in the activity and appetite of a tortoise...especially one kept indoors....the natural sunlight is the absolute best, like a tortoise outdoors can generally use up a total of a couple of hours of actual sunlight in comparison to a captive tortoise indoors would require at least 8-10 hours of the artificial uv rays to somewhat get the same benefit....somewhat. There is no comparison to natural outdoor environment...especially, in my observation, a tortoise that has brumation as a natural part of their life cycle.

I would be curious what the temps are in the enclosure....if you cover part of the top, like 3/4 of the top that will help to regulate temps a bit better as an overall....you can also offer a warm humid hide that is that way day and night in the even the tort wants to juicy up a bit....

 

[Shirley the tortoise]

After a bit of trial and error with the lamp height, it's a temperature of around 33 Celsius at shell height in her basking spot. This drops to mid twenties for most of the rest of the table and low twenties at the coolest point (measured with a digital baby bath thermometer - I have another thermometer on order). Temps drop during the night.

I don't have a humidifier but empty her water dish in the soil under her light everyday when I change it, which must do the same job.

In terms of plants, this is an ongoing project. I don't want to put plants in there from the garden centre (pesticides), and not much else has started growing yet as it's still early spring (hence why I'm delaying posting pictures of her outside enclosure, want to show it in it's full glory!). The plants in there at the moment have been grown from seed. I've found the plant database on the tortoise table website invaluable with this.

I'm considering taking some of the substrate out and replacing with broken slate or similar from a garden centre (both for variety and prevention of burial!).

I'm not sure I understand the point about covering the table - presumably you mean with a transparent material (glass/Perspex) which would get far to hot with the lamp? I might have got the wrong end of the stick with that one.

She gets a warm bath three or four times a week for twenty minutes or so. This really perks her up.