Easy in the UK

[yoda3106]

As the majority of you know, I live in Cyprus and I'm here for another 2yrs yet so at the moment, I have it easy with the torts because it's obviously there natural environment but when I return to the uk in 2014 I think I might have to learn from the start again!! Lol because I obviously can't just leave them outside!!

Is it just as easy to keep care of them back there?? And will they struggle having lived in "paradise" for a few years??

 

[JoesMum]

Don't worry... they and you will be fine. There are many, many Greeks kept in the UK

All of you will find it a bit cold to start. They'll be indoors for more of the year than they are now... you may even decide to hibernate them. You'll end up investing in a cold frame to give them a small greenhouse for basking and may end up going for the dog kennel with a lamp in it as I did

The advantage is that the broad leaf weeds are plentiful and grow well. We don't get the plants dying off in the summer months!

Joe's kennel:

 

[yoda3106]

Don't worry... they and you will be fine. There are many, many Greeks kept in the UK

All of you will find it a bit cold to start. They'll be indoors for more of the year than they are now... you may even decide to hibernate them. You'll end up investing in a cold frame to give them a small greenhouse for basking and may end up going for the dog kennel with a lamp in it as I did

The advantage is that the broad leaf weeds are plentiful and grow well. We don't get the plants dying off in the summer months!

Joe's kennel:

how many months of the year do you have joe in?? And where do you keep him when ya have him in?? I like the kennel idea, very cool!! I was thinking of sorting out a green house for the garden, rigging it all out with lamps etc having it up on bricks so it's of the ground a little, leaving a little entrance so they can get in and out into the garden when they want!! But I'm liking the Kennan idea more and more

 

[JoesMum]

Joe usually hibernates. He'll go down mid-late October and will be up again in March depending on the weather. I double-box him. The outer box is the size of a tea chest and is filled with shredded paper (the secretary at the school where I work gives me a couple of sacks of it!) and in the middle of that is an archive box filled with straw.

This goes in our garage which is a steady temperature through the winter and doesn't go below freezing. It also doesn't get direct sun, so it doesn't warm up in there... it's too small for our Volvo so the door isn't opened often which keeps the temperature stable.

Joe was up last winter because he hadn't gained enough weight to hibernate. It was a difficult winter; he hated it indoors! He went outside for an hour or so on pretty much every day it wasn't freezing!

The kennel is a new development. Previously I've had a lamp in the conservatory for the cold start English mornings. It's been very successful. The roof lifts, so it's easy to clean out when he pees all over it like this morning!

Joe has long had a cold frame with a hole in the side for basking. Equally, you could put one on bricks to make an entrance. Quite a number of people I know use a greenhouse.

The cold frame:

 

[yoda3106]

Joe usually hibernates. He'll go down mid-late October and will be up again in March depending on the weather. I double-box him. The outer box is the size of a tea chest and is filled with shredded paper (the secretary at the school where I work gives me a couple of sacks of it!) and in the middle of that is an archive box filled with straw.

This goes in our garage which is a steady temperature through the winter and doesn't go below freezing. It also doesn't get direct sun, so it doesn't warm up in there... it's too small for our Volvo so the door isn't opened often which keeps the temperature stable.

Joe was up last winter because he hadn't gained enough weight to hibernate. It was a difficult winter; he hated it indoors! He went outside for an hour or so on pretty much every day it wasn't freezing!

The kennel is a new development. Previously I've had a lamp in the conservatory for the cold start English mornings. It's been very successful. The roof lifts, so it's easy to clean out when he pees all over it like this morning!

Joe has long had a cold frame with a hole in the side for basking. Equally, you could put one on bricks to make an entrance. Quite a number of people I know use a greenhouse.

The cold frame:

I tell ya what, I know who I'm coming to when we move back lol you won't get rid of me until I'm sorted haha you wana hope I don't get posted to where ever you live lol

 

[JoesMum]

Are you RAF or Army? My uncle was stationed in Cyprus many years ago - he was on the helicopters with the RAF.

Round here it's Army!

 

[yoda3106]

Are you RAF or Army? My uncle was stationed in Cyprus many years ago - he was on the helicopters with the RAF.

Round here it's Army!

Yea, I'm in the RAF I'm in the regiment!! Which I was on the helicopters thou lol you up near London then?

 

[JoesMum]

I'm in West Kent about 40 minutes from london by train.

 

[yoda3106]

Don't really know where Kent Is lol I'm from the west country haha don't really know anywhere past Bristol lol well, I spent a year in Peterborough lol

---

I'm in West Kent about 40 minutes from london by train.

Towards Brighton way?