Hi, I have just acquired a tortie from my neighbour. My neighbour moved into her house in the late 70's and I am pretty sure she had the tortoise then. I have known the tortie for most of those years. Unfortunately, my neighbour is now coping with mild dementia (that does impact on her animals) and I have taken the tortie over, but I have absolutely no idea where to start.
The tortie has always roamed the garden freely over the summer months (night and day) and has been hibernated in a little hut with newspaper in, in the greenhouse over winter. When I checked on the tortoise a couple of days ago, it had woken from hibernation and was out of his hut, but of course I do not know when this happened as he had not been checked on.
At the moment I have him in my house and keeping an eye on him as I am worried it is still a little cold outside for him and I have to make the garden tortoise ready.
My neighbour always fed him cucumber and lettuce and I have offered him both, but he does not seem to be eating at the moment. There appears to be dark blobs that look like dead files, I am assuming that, that is his poo? I haven't seen a wee yet??
He never had water put out in the garden but I have already seen on this forum that they have water bowls/dishes? So I gave him one and then found his 'sat' in it. I also noticed on this forum that torties 'soak' as well, so thinking he wanted to do that I changed the bowl for a large tray but he just kept going in and out of it, I think he was looking for an escape.
I have no idea what kind of tortoise he is or even how old he is, although I will broach the age question in the next week or two.
I am feeling that it is a great responsibility at the moment.
I have always owned cats and dogs and currently have a bengal cat who seems slightly curious but not overly. I have read on this site to beware of cats, dogs and foxes which I am a little confused by. His owner always had cats and dogs (currently a dog) and they have always co-existed happily. We also have foxes on our avenue and in our gardens overnight and again, there hasn't been any problems?
Is there any advice you could give me please? Thank you.
The tortie has always roamed the garden freely over the summer months (night and day) and has been hibernated in a little hut with newspaper in, in the greenhouse over winter. When I checked on the tortoise a couple of days ago, it had woken from hibernation and was out of his hut, but of course I do not know when this happened as he had not been checked on.
At the moment I have him in my house and keeping an eye on him as I am worried it is still a little cold outside for him and I have to make the garden tortoise ready.
My neighbour always fed him cucumber and lettuce and I have offered him both, but he does not seem to be eating at the moment. There appears to be dark blobs that look like dead files, I am assuming that, that is his poo? I haven't seen a wee yet??
He never had water put out in the garden but I have already seen on this forum that they have water bowls/dishes? So I gave him one and then found his 'sat' in it. I also noticed on this forum that torties 'soak' as well, so thinking he wanted to do that I changed the bowl for a large tray but he just kept going in and out of it, I think he was looking for an escape.
I have no idea what kind of tortoise he is or even how old he is, although I will broach the age question in the next week or two.
I am feeling that it is a great responsibility at the moment.
I have always owned cats and dogs and currently have a bengal cat who seems slightly curious but not overly. I have read on this site to beware of cats, dogs and foxes which I am a little confused by. His owner always had cats and dogs (currently a dog) and they have always co-existed happily. We also have foxes on our avenue and in our gardens overnight and again, there hasn't been any problems?
Is there any advice you could give me please? Thank you.