Hermanns Tortoise Advice

[Chaz101]

Hi All!

Just came onto the forums for a bit of advice. I bought my little tortoise friend 'Bruce' about a year ago and now he is a year and a half old. I got him from a registered captive tortoise breeder here in Birmingham and hace the appropriate certificate and he has been microchipped.

He has never been the most active little guy and I do worry about him sometimes. So I would like to get some expert opinions I have attached a picture with his enclosure in and wanted to make sure that I am giving the little fella all he needs.

A few weeks ago I switched from one large UV heating lamp to the strip you can see in the picture, as was advised this would give more coverage. Bruce also has a 100W basking lamp which overhangs one side of the enclosure. I rarely, if ever, see him sitting underneath this lamp (it is about 35 degrees under there). The rest of the tortoise table never drops below 20 degrees at night and stays at about 25 degrees the whole day. Is this too low? If so can anyone recommend any equipment to boost the temps? The table is in the living room.

Bruce eats off a paving slab and gets weeds mixed with store bought greens each day with a sprinkling of vitamin powder.

He has two places to hide, in two corners of the table and a water bowl, but I give him a warm bath each morning for about 10 mins. He also has two cuttlefish bones that he sometimes chews on.

So that's about it. Main problem is how lethargic he is. Sometimes he will not get up all day and will go straight back to bed after his bath in the morning. He also has started digging down into the substrate in the corner a lot more than he used too.

Any comments or suggestions are much appreciated

Chaz

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't keep Hermanni, and can't say I know much about their care, however, we have a real good care sheet that was written by one of our members, and is a well-known Hermanni tortoise person.

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

If you're ever looking for it, it is pinned at the top of our Hermanns section.

I'm going to take a stab at saying he's probably not warm enough. Your tortoise table is wide open, and is probably the same temperature as your house. We have automatic heat in our bodies that keep us at 98.6F degrees, so a room temperature of 78F or so is comfortable for us. But a tortoise needs an external heat source to be able to warm up his inner core to at least 80-85F degrees. I don't think your one little light is doing the job.

 

[WithLisa]

The temperatures may be a bit low in the daytime (and high at night), but the enclosure is also way too empty.
In the wild, young Hermanns live between plants, they always have to hide from predators and the desiccating sun. Your basking spot is completely in the open without aything to make him feel secure.
He's probably also bored, he can see from one end of the enclosue straight to the other. Without any sight barriers there is no reason for him to walk around and explore.
It also looks quite dark on the picture.

I would add lots of weeds and maybe more lights. You could also cover parts of the enclosure to raise the temperature.

 

[Chaz101]

So have made a few adjustments, thanks for your help. Little guy doesn't seem to be too impressed though!

Any other suggestions?

 

[JoesMum]

You've changed it. Of course he's not impressed. Torts don't 'do' change. He will exercise his right to sulk!

What are those lights? Have you double checked the temperatures?

 

[Chaz101]

The strip of lights at the back is a UV strip recommended by the pet shop. The overhanging light is the old UV bulb that the pet shop owner said had probably lost its UV (it's a year old) but can be used for heat / light. The black bulb closest to the camera is a heat bulb, thought it might be useful to help get the temps up a bit.

Currently the temps are 30 Celsius under the two bulbs and around 22 on either side of the table

 

[JoesMum]

If the overhanging bulb is a compact coil type (looks like a low energy light bulb) please remove it. There won't be much heat from it anyway.

 

[Kori5]

I think 30 C is too low under the bulb. I like to have it 33. Also, maybe your problem is due to low humidity. I find that when humidity in my torts table drops, he is less active. I like to keep it at 70 %. He likes it too. Maybe you should partially cover one side? And another thing, they are just like us, sometimes they have a few days off.

 

[JoesMum]

Basking 33-35 is better in my opinion