Help please - heat/UV and enclosure

[Ruth86]

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

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Ruth, and welcome!

We have a very good Hermanns care sheet. You can read it here:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/sticky-hermanns-tortoise-care-sheet-updated.101410/

 

[enzot91]

Hi Ruth, read that care sheet, you'll find a lot of great info there.

The first thing which you probably don't want to hear but needs to be said is that it's really not a good idea to keep two tortoises together. It inevitably leads to one animal becoming dominant, and the other animal getting sick or worse. I own two Hermann's tortoises too, and they're very much separated.

Humidity is definitely important at that age, especially at night I believe. If you can find a way to cover their enclosure that would certainly help, but so would a substrate such as coco coir or a mixture of coco coir and topsoil. It should be kept nice and damp (not wet!) underneath.

24 degrees is fine for the cool side of your enclosure, don't worry, they're definitely not going to overheat in that. Hermann's really benefit from a night time temperature drop, so going down to 21-22 degrees then would probably be beneficial.

Would you be able to post some pictures of the animals and their enclosure?

 

[Souptugo]

Hi Ruth. Welcome to the forum. You will find very good information to help you with their care.

I have a Hermann as well but just one. They can do well with 17 degrees at night so I don't think you will need a heater as long as it doesn't dip below that.

Would be good to separate them for the reasons mentioned and also to prevent one from giving the other an Respiratory Infection etc... Looking forward to seeing photos of your new enclosures and your little guys/gals.