Help Needed - Testudo Graeca

[terri_the_tortoise]

Hello everyone - I'd like to introduce Terri, who we picked up at the end of September and was hoping we could get some advice. She is a Testudo Graeca (Greek Tortoise).

She sleeps a lot (as we fully expect her to) but we are starting to think she is sleeping TOO much - as in she will sleep and sleep unless we wake her. This means she also doesn't eat or drink unless prompted and even then she only seems to want cucumber.
She has a variety of food available including fresh water, dried flowers, food pellets and a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables (such as cucumber, tomato's, peppers, spinach etc) along with some hay but doesn't seem tempted by this at all.

Her heat lamp is now a 125w basking light after we realised the one we had before was too small but hadn't realised immediately.

We have been following advice we have got from a tortoise book and online, but feel like there is a lot of conflicting advice. I've contacted the breeder for advice but this hasn't been very helpful at all.

Any advice or guidance we can get would be appreciated.

 

[TammyJ]

Welcome to the forum. That's a beautiful little tortoise. An expert will soon be along with good advice for you! @Tom @wellington

 

[Tom]

Hello everyone - I'd like to introduce Terri, who we picked up at the end of September and was hoping we could get some advice. She is a Testudo Graeca (Greek Tortoise).

She sleeps a lot (as we fully expect her to) but we are starting to think she is sleeping TOO much - as in she will sleep and sleep unless we wake her. This means she also doesn't eat or drink unless prompted and even then she only seems to want cucumber.
She has a variety of food available including fresh water, dried flowers, food pellets and a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables (such as cucumber, tomato's, peppers, spinach etc) along with some hay but doesn't seem tempted by this at all.

Her heat lamp is now a 125w basking light after we realised the one we had before was too small but hadn't realised immediately.

We have been following advice we have got from a tortoise book and online, but feel like there is a lot of conflicting advice. I've contacted the breeder for advice but this hasn't been very helpful at all.

Any advice or guidance we can get would be appreciated.

Hello and welcome. You have a temperate species and it is time to brumate. Even though the tortoise is indoors, warm and lit, it still knows what time of year it is. You have a decision to make about whether or not you want to brumate, and then you need to take action one way or the other. More on that here:

Tom's Brumation Thread

Every fall we get bombarded here on the forum with all sorts of questions and problems regarding hibernation and tortoises "slowing down" for winter. The purpose of this thread is to talk about all aspects of this subject, to dispel some of the myths and mysteries, and give a "how to" list of...

tortoiseforum.org

The tortoise books and online care advice are all wrong. Been wrong for decades and many long term "experts" don't even know it and keep teaching the same wrong info year after year. More on that here:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

Finally, here is the current and correct 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

Questions and conversation are welcome.