jennhas3boys
New Member
Hello! I am strongly considering adding a tortoise to our family. We currently have 2 dogs and a PacMan frog, but previously had bearded dragons and an Eastern Box Turtle that lived in our yard until we moved. I love Sulcatta's but I would be very concerned about giving them a good outdoor home, I would worry about them escaping when they are too big to really live inside. We do have a winter here, so then there is also the brumating issue. I started looking at Hermann's as they are smaller and could indeed be an "indoor" tortoise. I am finding mixed information on diet, I'm accustomed to the frog or lizards that required live feeders, and I know Hermann's eat green broadleaf plants but do they really not eat any sort of protein source ie worms or cricket? Even when they are small? Also, with our bearded dragons, we used to take them outside on a leash and I was always careful not to let them eat anything outside for fear they could pick up a parasite, yet clearly, tortoises, especially larger ones, live outside. Are they just more resistant to parasites? And lastly, we keep our PacMan in a bioactive tank, but I am not seeing a huge amount of information on keeping a tortoise in a bioactive enclosure. Is this a bad idea?