I have just signed up as I was hoping that you might be able to help. The house I own comes with its own totoise who lives in the garden all year round. She has been with the house for 70/80 years and overwinters (even these last 2 winters) with no assistance from anyone. We do supplement her food, my neighbour did until he moved out and I have taken this on. Big question-what should I be giving her? Cucumber does not seem to have a great deal of nourishment in it, though she likes it, and she likes pea leaves, but other than that I could do with a few suggestions. Just FYI we are on the East coast of Scotland
Hi, a quick hello and question
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A picture will help us figure out what type of tortoise she is. They have some differences in care depending on type 
Welcome to the TFO!
Welcome to the TFO!
Hello and welcome to the forum..Jenn is right, the type of care needed will depend on the type of tortoise you have...
wrmitchell22 said:A picture will help us figure out what type of tortoise she is. They have some differences in care depending on type
I have no idea what type she is, though she does look a bit like the ones I saw living wild in albania-and is mainly brown. I will take a photo of her and post it-is there any part of her that you need to see to make a judgement-I have no idea about how you tell tortoise species apart.
dalano73 said:
Thank you. I will take a pic tomorrow-she will have burrowed down by now. She is mainly self caring to be fair, I would like to be able to help her out a bit though given the fact that we are having harsher winters
I think it is so great that you are concerned about her I am excited to see what she is. I think a shell pic and maybe face and legs would help, but I am no expert, but that seems to be all they need on here
I am excited to see what she is. I think a shell pic and maybe face and legs would help, but I am no expert, but that seems to be all they need on here wrmitchell22 said:I think it is so great that you are concerned about her
I must admit, I don't think there are many houses which come with their own tortoise, and I would hate for anything bad to happen to her after all this time. I will do my best with the pics-so long as she is in a cooperative mood!
Hi Blue2:
Welcome to the forum!!
May we know your name?
You say the tortoise lives in the garden, therefore, I'm assuming there is all kinds of things growing out there for her to eat. You probably don't need to worry about feeding her.
Do you know what kinds of plants are growing out there?
Welcome to the forum!!
May we know your name?
You say the tortoise lives in the garden, therefore, I'm assuming there is all kinds of things growing out there for her to eat. You probably don't need to worry about feeding her.
Do you know what kinds of plants are growing out there?
emysemys said:
I am afraid that the main thing that she has access to is a mown lawn area-which has a few small plants in it like any lawn-clover etc. There are a couple of plum trees and a few weeds around the edges-so not a huge amount of choice-though lots of space. My name is Sarah, sorry did not think to say.
Welcome to the forum
How awesome a house that comes with a tortoise, that is what I will be looking for when I move. If it has been living there for as long as you say it probably does not need any assistance, but there is nothing wrong with you feeding it and enjoying it. A picture will help so it can be ID and a proper diet outside of what it eats in the garden can be provided. did you know about the tortoise before you moved in? or did you discover it later?
How awesome a house that comes with a tortoise, that is what I will be looking for when I move. If it has been living there for as long as you say it probably does not need any assistance, but there is nothing wrong with you feeding it and enjoying it. A picture will help so it can be ID and a proper diet outside of what it eats in the garden can be provided. did you know about the tortoise before you moved in? or did you discover it later?
dmmj said:
I did not know about the tortoise until I had moved-and seemingly she has been out there for decades (there are enough people living round here that I have been able to find that out) I am concerned though that she is perhaps getting older and the winters have been very bad round here over the last couple of years so I would like to be able to support her as much as possible. I am happy for her to remain doing what she has always done though.
if you can catch her before it goes into hibernation there is nothing wrong with hibernating her in a shed or something. Though to be honest if she has been doing it this long she is probably a pro at it by now.
She might be eating the grass. Most of my grazing tortoises just have grass to eat. You probably have a Greek tortoise. I don't know if they eat grass or not.
There's all kinds of stuff growing in that grass for her to eat (proof is in that last picture).
It looks like she/he has endured a pretty bad lawn mower accident in the past, as evidenced by the marks at the front of her carapace.
Keep reading and learning about your tortoise. You're lucky to have moved into a house that comes with its own tortoise.
Eventually a forum member will come by and tell you what kind of tortoise it is.
It looks like she/he has endured a pretty bad lawn mower accident in the past, as evidenced by the marks at the front of her carapace.
Keep reading and learning about your tortoise. You're lucky to have moved into a house that comes with its own tortoise.
Eventually a forum member will come by and tell you what kind of tortoise it is.
Hi! Welcome to TFO! Looks like you've been given great info!
Blue2 said:
Hi welcome to the forum
There is a British Chelonia Group-there may be clubs aroud your area and if so you could perhaps show a BCG member. The club is great s each year they have a tortoise weigh in and health check before hibernation.
There is a wide variety of torts in the UK but the older ones are often Greek or Hermanns, before the bans and the tropicals being imported in.
I can try and find out what is going on in Scotland with BCG. I am a member and still am having moved to Canada. They send you a newsletter every 2 months and an annual publication called Testudo-very informative.
Also there are monthly tortoise meetings too if you were interested in meeting other tortoise folks.
This forum is priceless too but I personally miss my tortoise meetings and checks etc-it was so much fun
Louise
If you send me a private email I can forward some numbers of the Lancashire region, it looks like that's the most northerly group.Tortoise said:
I'll keep looking
Tortoise said:
Ok seeing as the numbers are on the BCG website, there is no harm in my posting them publicly here.
THE NORTH
Regional Chairman: Mr. J.Thorpe. Tel 0161 764 7078
Maybe we need a Scottish club!!
This guy may well know of people in your region as the tortoise world id a small one and there must be others closer than you think.
Good Luck
The tortoise looks beautiful, perfect shell smoothness anyway-she can teach us a few things!
Beautiful and get a load of that fantastic shell/perfectly smooth....you certainly bought into a wonderful treat...tort with a house, love it....I wonder if the tort is checking you out as you it...LOL After all, the tort has been the longest resident to the home thus far....way cool.
(I have my own belief that the act of moving in and out of an earthen burrow has a huge roll in the smoothness of the shell....since it is like our "nails" it would make perfect sense the continuous rubbing/filing against the moist burrow walls will produce a daily "manicure" so to speak...just strictly my opinion.)
After all, the tort has been the longest resident to the home thus far....way cool.(I have my own belief that the act of moving in and out of an earthen burrow has a huge roll in the smoothness of the shell....since it is like our "nails" it would make perfect sense the continuous rubbing/filing against the moist burrow walls will produce a daily "manicure" so to speak...just strictly my opinion.)
Can't wait to hear what kind of tort you are taking care of and you are so lucky to have it. Welcome to the forum Sarah (beautiful name by the way)
Hi
I am a bit confused-is she supposed to have a burrow?-she does not dig down completely-even when she goes to hibernate she just pushes her front end a short way into the ground-you can always see the rear half of her. When she is awake in the summer she just pushes a little way down into the grass and then gets going again in the mornings. She is enjoying the slight increase in temperature today.
She did lay eggs last summer and the summer before-none so far this summer-no boy tortoises around though!
Sarah
I am a bit confused-is she supposed to have a burrow?-she does not dig down completely-even when she goes to hibernate she just pushes her front end a short way into the ground-you can always see the rear half of her. When she is awake in the summer she just pushes a little way down into the grass and then gets going again in the mornings. She is enjoying the slight increase in temperature today.
She did lay eggs last summer and the summer before-none so far this summer-no boy tortoises around though!
Sarah
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