Hi everyone
Last week I was given two 1 year old Hermann tortoises and have been reading through your great posts in the hope I’ll pick up some ‘top tips’ on how to give them all the love and care they need. However, I have a few questions I thought you helpful folks might be able to help me with:
They’re currently living in a small-ish tortoise table which I’m looking to improve over the next few weeks but in the meantime:
1. They came with a heat/UV clamp lamp at one end of their enclosure and at the other end in their ‘house’ they have a heat pad on the ceiling which keeps the temperature at 22-24 degrees all the time. Is this correct? Our house is quite warm anyway (17 degrees ish) and I don’t want the little guys overheating!
2. Their substrate is currently some sort of bark chippings (they came with this) but would coco coir or top soil actually be better for them? Humidity seems to be important but I don’t know how best to regulate this.
3. I live in the UK and I’m building them an outdoor enclosure but I was wondering if a) they would be better both inside and outside during the summer or would they prefer being outdoors all the time.
4. And lastly, we’re going to build them a bigger tortoise table as they’re growing quickly but would I be able to build it on two levels (with open fronts for ventilation) to make the best use of space? Obviously with a low gradient rise to prevent falls.
Apologies I’m so full of questions – the people who passed them on were desperate to get rid of them as they had puppies on the way and I didn’t manage to get much pre-reading in!
Thanks in advance for all your help,
Ruth
Last week I was given two 1 year old Hermann tortoises and have been reading through your great posts in the hope I’ll pick up some ‘top tips’ on how to give them all the love and care they need. However, I have a few questions I thought you helpful folks might be able to help me with:
They’re currently living in a small-ish tortoise table which I’m looking to improve over the next few weeks but in the meantime:
1. They came with a heat/UV clamp lamp at one end of their enclosure and at the other end in their ‘house’ they have a heat pad on the ceiling which keeps the temperature at 22-24 degrees all the time. Is this correct? Our house is quite warm anyway (17 degrees ish) and I don’t want the little guys overheating!
2. Their substrate is currently some sort of bark chippings (they came with this) but would coco coir or top soil actually be better for them? Humidity seems to be important but I don’t know how best to regulate this.
3. I live in the UK and I’m building them an outdoor enclosure but I was wondering if a) they would be better both inside and outside during the summer or would they prefer being outdoors all the time.
4. And lastly, we’re going to build them a bigger tortoise table as they’re growing quickly but would I be able to build it on two levels (with open fronts for ventilation) to make the best use of space? Obviously with a low gradient rise to prevent falls.
Apologies I’m so full of questions – the people who passed them on were desperate to get rid of them as they had puppies on the way and I didn’t manage to get much pre-reading in!
Thanks in advance for all your help,
Ruth