Hello from Italy!

[Muchelle]

Hello! My name's Michelle, I'm writing from Florence, Italy, and these two handsome tortoises are soon going to be the newest addition to my household.
They should be two Hermanni Hermanni, should both be around 20 years of age (we're waiting to receve a copy of their IDs to know for sure), currently living at the house of a relative of my boyfriend.
Sadly the lady passed away and the boys will have to come home with us.

We are moving to an apartment that has a very spacious wrap-around balcony kind of setup, so we're looking for an indoor-outdoor setup for the boys; we've decided to DIY two custom-sized enclosures.
So.... I guess I will be lurking plenty + asking a lot of questions Nice to meet y'all!

 

[lmichaels_22]

Welcome!!!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Hello and welcome from Florida, USA.
We have members from all over the world, but for some reason, very few from Italy.

 

[Muchelle]

Thank you for the welcome guys!

Italy's very peculiar about tortoises, I guess... here it's common to have them roam around in gardens or plots of land and just let them do their thing. I have carefully avoided the Italian community because mentioning indoor setups or balcony setups makes most folks really angry ?
We can't afford a house with a garden and we can't let the boys stay unsupervised at that place, so we're in a bit of a tight spot.

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome to the Forum!

I'm sorry to say that your wrap around balconey may not be big enough to house so many male tortoises together. You may have fighting and injury.

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome.

They should never live in pairs. Best to make two separate enclosures.

There is nothing wrong with having indoor AND outdoor enclosures, even in the native range of the species. This gives them the best of both worlds, and protects them from the cruel whims of Mother Nature.

They look gorgeous. Here is some care info:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Blackdog1714]

I will gladly take care of them all day If I can live on your balcony? Welcome and best wishes

 

[Muchelle]

Thanks again for your informations and welcomes!

From the info I've gathered these two have been living together with no incidents since 2002, when the oldest was adopted.

Right now they are (poorly) housed in a flowerbed of about 5x10 feet; as soon as I can get my hands on them I will measure/weight them and start calculating the proper dimension for their new homes... we will do our best to work something out that will be decent and better than what they have been dealing with.

Luckily we still have many months before their hybernation period (which worries me a great deal) and we should be able to rehome them in time

 

[Golden Greek Tortoise 567]

Welcome to the forum! Sad to hear you have to rehome them.

 

[Muchelle]

I will gladly take care of them all day If I can live on your balcony? Welcome and best wishes

aight, two tort and one human enclosures coming up!

Welcome to the forum! Sad to hear you have to rehome them.

Thanks! I might have picked the wrong word... they are not mine yet, waiting to be rehomed at my place. Not a native speaker, I'm sorry if sometimes I may not be clear ?

 

[Blackdog1714]

aight, two tort and one human enclosures coming up!



Thanks! I might have picked the wrong word... they are not mine yet, waiting to be rehomed at my place. Not a native speaker, I'm sorry if sometimes I may not be clear ?

For your second language it is a little better than about HALF the US- heck we have reality shows filmed in the US that have to have subtitles "Swamp People"

 

[Muchelle]

For your second language it is a little better than about HALF the US- heck we have reality shows filmed in the US that have to have subtitles "Swamp People"

I LOVE American junk tv-shows I'm mildly ashamed to admit that my heart has a special little place for that Jersey Shore season filmed in Florence. In one episode one of the dudes forgot that here we use solid stone to build homes and cracked his head open by banging it voluntarily on the wall during a fight.

 

[TortoiseWarrior]

Welcome