Hi, i recently became the mum of a little cutie horsefield tortoise named Eric. I am in the UK and did what i thought was decent research and sort what i thought was decent advice about the care of him. Since finding this site i have realised that most of that research and advice i could pretty much throw out of the window.
I have since made some changes with still more planned (once finances allow) and was wondering whether you would advise anymore
He lives in a table (pictures below) and during the summer i intend on having an outdoor area for him.
I was using prorep soil/sand subsrate but he now has coco coir which i keep slightly damp.
I use a MVB but will be changing to a arcadia pro UVB kit and an Arcadia solar floodlamp for his basking area. I have already suffered due to how temperamental MVBs are so this is definitely going.
He currently eats whatever weeds i can get as well as salad greens. I have recently discovered he LOVES sowthistle so shall be hunting for this i dust this every other day.
i bathe him everynight where possible but no less than every other.
He is quite active and loves to climb so i tried to make a ramp over his hide as wherever i put it he tried to climb on and would struggle and sometimes end up on his shell so i just made it easier for him and that seems to have done the trick. Should i make him a humid hide? I try and keep the substrate loose in his hide and he does tend to burrow when in there.
I don’t have additional overnight heat as my house is quite warm and it so far has never gone below 18. Is this ok?
some pics of his table
I have since made some changes with still more planned (once finances allow) and was wondering whether you would advise anymore
He lives in a table (pictures below) and during the summer i intend on having an outdoor area for him.
I was using prorep soil/sand subsrate but he now has coco coir which i keep slightly damp.
I use a MVB but will be changing to a arcadia pro UVB kit and an Arcadia solar floodlamp for his basking area. I have already suffered due to how temperamental MVBs are so this is definitely going.
He currently eats whatever weeds i can get as well as salad greens. I have recently discovered he LOVES sowthistle so shall be hunting for this i dust this every other day.
i bathe him everynight where possible but no less than every other.
He is quite active and loves to climb so i tried to make a ramp over his hide as wherever i put it he tried to climb on and would struggle and sometimes end up on his shell so i just made it easier for him and that seems to have done the trick. Should i make him a humid hide? I try and keep the substrate loose in his hide and he does tend to burrow when in there.
I don’t have additional overnight heat as my house is quite warm and it so far has never gone below 18. Is this ok?
some pics of his table