barely any posts

Kaliman1962

Active Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2016
Messages
193
I love this Tortoise site, check it all the time. How come the greek section has barely any action?
sulcata forum & redfoot always hopping. do not that many people have greeks?
just thought i'd ask
 

JoesMum

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
21,606
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, South East England
I love this Tortoise site, check it all the time. How come the greek section has barely any action?
sulcata forum & redfoot always hopping. do not that many people have greeks?
just thought i'd ask
Because we Greek keepers are better organised :D (Only joking)

Seriously though, Greeks seem to be less common as pets and are more straightforward in their care.

Redfoots and Sulcatas are uncommon in Europe as pets, but very common in the US where the majority of TFO members reside.

In Europe, Greeks probably come third to Hermann's and Russians for availability and popularity. Fifty years ago, in the UK at least, Greeks were probably the most common. Trends change.
 

Torts&Turts

New Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2016
Messages
13
Location (City and/or State)
Columbia, SC
My Greek is pretty laid back. I just think I'm missing stuff to keep her warm. I only have a clamped lamp that keeps an area to 80 in heat. FYI this isn't supposed to be my tortoise, it's supposed to be my sons. Somehow I got stuck with her and she grew on me and now I just love her. I just need tips on how to keep her enclosure the way she needs it to be.
 

Kaliman1962

Active Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2016
Messages
193
I use top soil for substrate, I use a reptifogger that keeps humidity 60-80%, I use a couple heat bulbs & uvb as well, basking spot close to 90, cool end 80, at night goes down to 69,
Feed greens, dandolien, mustard, collard, cactus pads, zucchini, yellow squash,
So far my little guy is doing great
 

Torts&Turts

New Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2016
Messages
13
Location (City and/or State)
Columbia, SC
Thanks for the tips. Except I don't think I can use a repti fogger because her enclosure is like an open box 42"x22" open area wooden box I made.
 

dmmj

The member formerly known as captain awesome
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
19,695
Location (City and/or State)
CA
there's less Greek owners than the others which is a shame because the Greek is a very pretty tortoise
 

JoesMum

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
21,606
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, South East England
My Greek is pretty laid back. I just think I'm missing stuff to keep her warm. I only have a clamped lamp that keeps an area to 80 in heat. FYI this isn't supposed to be my tortoise, it's supposed to be my sons. Somehow I got stuck with her and she grew on me and now I just love her. I just need tips on how to keep her enclosure the way she needs it to be.
I use top soil for substrate, I use a reptifogger that keeps humidity 60-80%, I use a couple heat bulbs & uvb as well, basking spot close to 90, cool end 80, at night goes down to 69,
Feed greens, dandolien, mustard, collard, cactus pads, zucchini, yellow squash,
So far my little guy is doing great
Greeks, just like Hermann's and Russians, must have 35C/95-100F directly under the basking lamp in order to bask, be able to digest food properly and to be properly active. They can tolerate lower temperature s, but that basking is vital.
 

Aretino

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2012
Messages
24
I have a Greek tortoise, found on a city street. The roof of her hide is a slab of local red sandstone about 1 1/2" thick. A large aluminum reflector intended for chicken brooders sits upside down directly on the roof. Inside the reflector is a ceramic heat bulb. This keeps the sandstone about 80° and through radiation, about 70° inside the hide. If the ambient room temperature is warm, Dinette sometimes seems to find the hide too warm and will go sleep in the cooler end of the enclosure. The cool end has staggered rows of strips of cloth hanging down, so it becomes more secluded toward the back. There is a basking lamp up front near her hide and a UV lamp. The basking lamp creates a spot 100° + which she seems to enjoy when she is warming up in the morning. However, at times, she seems to find this lamp too intense and will get rather frantic. I have put it on a dimmer, so I can dial it down a bit and this seems to result in a calmer turtle. Every day, I fill a large plant saucer with warm water, and she bathes in this as she chooses. If she befouls it, as is often the case, I replace it with fresh, warm. Some days she has no interest in a bath, other days she will go back two or three times. Turtle poop is promptly removed, since even turtles don't particularly want to be around turtle poop. I thought about collecting it and selling it to orchid growers as Turtlizer®, but have not done so. I always keep pieces of cuttlebone in her enclosure, which she chews on. I've tried dusting food with supplements, but she tends to shun food so treated. In time, she can neatly remove all the soft part of the cuttlebone, leaving only the "rind." Not many of the weeds in my yard, like vinca and sunflowers, are suitable, so she dines on store greens, with her favorite varying through time. Mainstays are lettuce endive, curly mustard greens, and lettuces as treats. She doesn't seem to care much for, but will eat, turnip greens, and spinach and kale are offered only rarely because of oxalates. She has a terrible sweet tooth (or beak), and will eat all the green beans and fruit (in her outdoor enclosure, she loves to hunt down grapes tossed in), I would give her, but I limit these. The substrate is some kind of non-aromatic landscaping bark deep enough for her to partially dig into. Humidity is a problem since the ambient air is very dry, but I am working on this. The enclosure is 2 feet by six.

Hope this is helpful, comments welcome.
 

Grandpa Turtle 144

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2013
Messages
10,878
They are more expensive then a sucalta!
I have Greeks but I've done my home work before getting my Greeks . But when you go to trade shows and see sucaltas for $29 or $39 people buy them before they know anything and have to ask for a lot of info.
 

JoesMum

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
21,606
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, South East England
Hello and welcome. Pictures save a thousand words and in this case a few photos would help us check over the enclosure and lighting if you want us to.

Greeks should only eat fruit, tomato , carrot and bell pepper very sparingly and very occasionally as they cannot digest sugars properly - they cause digestive and kidney problems.

Green beans are high in protein and again should only be fed very sparingly and very occasionally.

Have you read our care sheets for Greeks? They're written by species experts working hard to correct the outdated information widely available on the internet and from pet stores and, sadly, from some breeders and vets too.

Beginner Mistakes
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/

Greek Tortoise Care
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/greek-tortoise-testudo-graeca-care-sheet-overview.87146/
 

New Posts

Top