help

Hello! I am new here but have been using this forum as a heavy mentor for my leopard tortoises care. I got a young leopard tortoise on February 27th 2026. At the time, they said she/he( i call her petunia rose, i assume female until i find out otherwise, she had the shortest tail of her...

We have a 2 year-old Horsfield tortoise named Koopa. She lives indoors in a well-sized tortoise table. The basking area of her enclosure is 35°C, and the cool end is 20°C. She has access to hides, and a shaded segment at the end of her enclosure which is a little colder and darker than the rest...

How can I get my tortoise to use his other hide more? He refuses to use any of the hides I provide except for the wooden bridge hide he has had since forever, right now he has a big apple crate on the cool side (27-28⁰) and he still chooses the bridge hide. At first I just thought he might only...

I accidentally added succulent potting mix with perlite in it to our outdoor tortoise enclosure! Our juvenile Russian tortoise (less than 2yo) ate 3-4 pieces before I realized what was happening and quickly scooped out all the added mix and got his substrate back to normal. He has been eating...

I dropped my tortoise from a height... So, I picked him up and my tortoise is strong asf so he kinda pushed my fingers off but like launching himself, I kinda broke his fall like near the floor by catching but also not bc he also fell OUT of my hand and then landed on the top of his shell. NOW...

hey everyone, this is my first time posting here, so please bear with me! i have some pretty specific questions about caring for my juvenile russian tortoise, and i've spent hours reading threads on here, from the pinned care sheets to hyper-specific situational questions, yet i'm still a bit...

Long time lurker, first time poster. I got my adult Russian Tortoise a week ago and he has yet to take a bite of food. Could he still be settling in? He mostly spends his days buried or basking or just chilling somewhere in between — but mostly will be buried. I have been soaking him every other...

Hi everyone, I have a ~13 year old painted turtle rescue that I’ve had around 8 years now. He is a male Easter painted. For the past few nights I have noticed that he will spend several hours at the surface making a gulping gesture, but only at night once the lights are off. During the day...

I’m upgrading my box turtle to a 5x2x2. Reptifiles says to have a proper gradient, you need to have a t5 HO 5.0 that is around half the enclosure in length. Franklins current uvb is 22” long, is that close enough for about half the enclosure being 6in off, or should I get another foot long bulb...

My 8 month old redfoot has some growth or something coming out of each eye at the tear ducks. I thought it might be goop but it seems attached. I only tried wiping it slightly one time and have not tried again since it could be part of the tortoise? The tortoise seems to be eating, behaving the...

help… My baby tortoise is 1 year old and its a Indian star tortoise since they are tiny babies we keep them inside the house but yesterday the baby’s shell was eaten by a mouse the baby is in tremendous pain and hasn’t eaten since than . The baby seemed as it was in hibernation period i m...

Hello, I'm just in a low spot at the moment with how the economy is and in-between jobs. I came across this beautiful baby tortoise and his neck is swollen and nose is runny. I've called every vet around me and only one place can take him, and it's hundreds of dollars. I don't want him to die...

My 6-years-old redfoot tortoise has just eaten a rock, a little big one, that is as large as her mouth. The rock was sharp and tough enough to give me some worries. If you have ever experienced similar situations or have medical expertise on this, Please give me some help. Thank you in advance.

Hi people! Before my 5 days at work I wet up Herman’s vivarium and went away, my parents fed him etc but I didn’t interact at all for 5 days. During coming back his vivarium oddly stinks, it’s not super strong but when I opened up it and then got close u can smell it, it kinda smells like an...

Hi again guys! I posted in here a few weeks ago when we first brought home our Russian tort (Myasa), but I'm still worried about the fact that he has not eaten anything. I tried to compile a list of all the questions I've been asked about him to see if someone can help me troubleshoot and...

Hi everyone, can someone please help me to insure my baby a decent place to live 😆😳 He has everything but we suck at lighting. I have this lamp but I was told that it's harmful for tortoises so I need something else. As you can see the space above my torto is limited. Terrarium has dimensions...

My brother admitted to neglecting his Tort so I started taking care of him and I've noticed a gap between the scutes is this normal the last one in the middle. I've read a lot about it but I can't find a similar example. I started misting water on his shell cause he was living in way too dry...

Hello again, I will get straight to the point since the matter is urgent. Some people have planted 11 tortoise eggs in our construction for whatever superstitious reasons. One of them fell as we were collecting them and it slightly cracked. There was no leakage but the inner shell soft layer is...

Hey guys, So my hermann tortoises diet doesn’t have lots of variety if I’m completely honest. And I’m well aware there is a food chart and it’s much better for weeds but right now, my current situation, that won’t work. I’m wondering if people could list a lot of foods I can buy for my...

Hello! I have a greek male tortoise, Bully, who's going feral and crazy, he runs nonstop as if he's frustrated and is searching for something, a little bit of background: I've had him for ten years, three years in i got another smaller golden greek tortoise, Bibiya , thinking he was a female...