Hyperactive Hermann

tmwm

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Jul 17, 2023
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Bordeaux
Hello,
I live in the south of France with my three Hermanns who will all turn two this summer. They have both indoor and outdoor enclosures with lots of space and natural sunlight and UV-lamp if needed. They eat well and seem happy and healthy.
However, one of them is very different from the other two. He's from a different breeder than the other two and is also a lot bigger than the other two (picture of size for comparison). I think he grew up maybe overeating because I saw how much the breeder fed her babies. But he seems happy and healthy, is curious, never aggressive, and eats. My only concern about him is that he has like 20 times the energy of the other two. The others slowly stroll around, sniffing everything and curiously checking out everything, chilling and resting. But he's everywhere all the time. He never stops walking and he walks extremely fast. Nothing can really catch his attention and he just keeps moving and moving and moving. He's not doing crazy things like climbing and falling down. But he just never stops to catch his breath. So I bought him a hamster wheel and he absolutely loves it. He walks somewhere between 4 to 7 hours a day in that wheel. I mean, it's great that he loves it so much but his hyperactivity worries me a little bit because the other two are not like this at all.

So my question is: Is there something wrong with him? Maybe because of the way he was bred? Or is this just his personality?348366190_577780594461540_483146318351322797_n.jpgScreenshot 2023-07-17 at 16.21.29.png
 

wellington

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Hard to say. It may be the size of the enclosure, if it's too small and stressful Three should have a big enclosure. May be he's looking for food, they should have food available all day, so his breeder was feeding him right it sounds like.
Maybe temps or humidity is not correct, specially humidity as he is quite pyramided and the smaller ones are starting.
Could be he wants out to be in the outside enclosure.
Double check your temps, get humidity up, and the lights and heat you are using with our care sheet and make any corrections.
Give a run down of the size of enclosure, diet, equipment, temps, basking, all over and night. What is the humidity?
Remove the wheel, it's for hamsters not tortoises. Tortoises so called love certain foods over others, they don't love toys. If he likes to walk, he should be allowed to roam the enclosure that should be an appropriate size.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
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Southern California
Hello,
I live in the south of France with my three Hermanns who will all turn two this summer. They have both indoor and outdoor enclosures with lots of space and natural sunlight and UV-lamp if needed. They eat well and seem happy and healthy.
However, one of them is very different from the other two. He's from a different breeder than the other two and is also a lot bigger than the other two (picture of size for comparison). I think he grew up maybe overeating because I saw how much the breeder fed her babies. But he seems happy and healthy, is curious, never aggressive, and eats. My only concern about him is that he has like 20 times the energy of the other two. The others slowly stroll around, sniffing everything and curiously checking out everything, chilling and resting. But he's everywhere all the time. He never stops walking and he walks extremely fast. Nothing can really catch his attention and he just keeps moving and moving and moving. He's not doing crazy things like climbing and falling down. But he just never stops to catch his breath. So I bought him a hamster wheel and he absolutely loves it. He walks somewhere between 4 to 7 hours a day in that wheel. I mean, it's great that he loves it so much but his hyperactivity worries me a little bit because the other two are not like this at all.

So my question is: Is there something wrong with him? Maybe because of the way he was bred? Or is this just his personality?View attachment 359101View attachment 359102
Could be that the larger one is a male, and the other two female.

All tortoises should be free fed, the right foods, all day every day from the day they hatch. Withholding food to make them grow slower is ol wrong information. Its common old wrong information that you will hear or read all over the internet, in books, and from "experts" that have been keeping tortoises a long time, but its still old and wrong. They just don't know better.

Check this out, and look for the temperate species care sheet near the bottom:
 

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