- Joined
- Nov 20, 2009
- Messages
- 1
Hi,
I am a new Tortoise owner, by accident. 2 tortoises were given to me to babysit in the summer (great! all the weed disappeared! and all was fine and well, as temp was great. My "friend" then left the country and left the 2 poor souls with me, and I never had reptiles as pets. Living in UK, temp are falling now, at night below 10 degrees celcius. I took them inside now and try to find a suitable "box" "vivarium" for them to live. However, after all that space they had in my garden, in nature, i find it hard to house them properly. also they are slowing down, so i assume they feel teh change in temp as well. i also dont know even their species or their age, so i dont know whether they will be fit and willing to hybernate. I tried calling several vets near me, only 1 reptile specialist, who does not bother to respond to my messages.
after hours of research on internet i still have the following questions please:
- how do i work out their age
- hwo do i work out their species? from the looks, i would say herman or ibera. I only know that this "friend" said they came from north africa.
- is it true i need to bath them everyday for 20 minutes? i was told they would take in their water from the washed lettuce etc..
- is it ok for them to go off food at this time of year?
- is it the right decision to bring them inside when temp are around 4-7 degrees at night
- is it normal/OK for a few scales to disappear? one of them has a tiny spot on her head where she seems to be missing a few scales. I dont know whether she has scratched herself somewhere, or whether something happened, or if it just normal to "change" her scale at some point. it does not look infected or anything, so i dont think it is serious..
all the above an probably more questions have developed once they were left with me. I do want to keep them, as they are lovely and keep the patio clean in the summer. However, i do not want to be responsible for somthing i can avoid, although I have been trapped into this. Hope you guys can help
many thanks
fad.
I am a new Tortoise owner, by accident. 2 tortoises were given to me to babysit in the summer (great! all the weed disappeared! and all was fine and well, as temp was great. My "friend" then left the country and left the 2 poor souls with me, and I never had reptiles as pets. Living in UK, temp are falling now, at night below 10 degrees celcius. I took them inside now and try to find a suitable "box" "vivarium" for them to live. However, after all that space they had in my garden, in nature, i find it hard to house them properly. also they are slowing down, so i assume they feel teh change in temp as well. i also dont know even their species or their age, so i dont know whether they will be fit and willing to hybernate. I tried calling several vets near me, only 1 reptile specialist, who does not bother to respond to my messages.
after hours of research on internet i still have the following questions please:
- how do i work out their age
- hwo do i work out their species? from the looks, i would say herman or ibera. I only know that this "friend" said they came from north africa.
- is it true i need to bath them everyday for 20 minutes? i was told they would take in their water from the washed lettuce etc..
- is it ok for them to go off food at this time of year?
- is it the right decision to bring them inside when temp are around 4-7 degrees at night
- is it normal/OK for a few scales to disappear? one of them has a tiny spot on her head where she seems to be missing a few scales. I dont know whether she has scratched herself somewhere, or whether something happened, or if it just normal to "change" her scale at some point. it does not look infected or anything, so i dont think it is serious..
all the above an probably more questions have developed once they were left with me. I do want to keep them, as they are lovely and keep the patio clean in the summer. However, i do not want to be responsible for somthing i can avoid, although I have been trapped into this. Hope you guys can help
many thanks
fad.