Need some help with my Mediterranean spur thighed!

[Fueledbylatte]

I purchased a spur thighed tortoise about 3 months ago. I have set up the enclosure as told by the breeder that i got her from. But she still isn't as active as the ones at the breeders house every website has different info, I just need someone to talk to, to make sure I'm doing this right. My last tortoise, a Hermanns, died whilst hibernating and my mum was severely upset. I got her this tortoise as a gift and I don't want this one to die because of conflicting info. Someone please talk to me and make sure I'm doing this right.

 

[Jlant85]

What type if tortoise is it. Different tortoise has different husbandry. Post a picture so we can further addis you ^_^

 

[Jlant85]

There are different types species of Mediterranean. ^_^ knowing what species it is can help us tell you more on the proper care.

 

[Fueledbylatte]

See I wasn't even told that by the breeder, I was just told she was a Mediterranean spur thighed. Here's a picture of her and her current enclose setup.

 

[JoesMum]

Hello and welcome.

Let's start with a few threads that will be helpful
Beginner Mistakes
Greek tortoise care sheet

Your tort needs a diet of leafy greens to be healthy. It cannot digest sugars properly, so fruit, bell pepper, carrot and tomato should be fed sparingly and infrequently otherwise that will make your tort sick.

Please can you feel the plastron (undershell) of this tort and tell us whether it is soft or hard.

Please change the substrate. Sand impacts in the gut and can kill. Coco coir, orchid bark or cypress mulch are preferred. This enclosure is also very dry. These are grassland torts, not desert residents and need to be housed accordingly.

I cannot see what type of lamp you have. Is it a Mercury Vapour Bulb (MVB )? You need to be absolutely certain of the temperatures in your enclosure and in the basking spot. Too hot or too cold and you will have an inactive tortoise. Use a temperature gun tyoe thermometer, they are inexpensive from amazon, to check the 4 important temperatures : Directly under the basking lamp, warm end, cool end and overnight minimum.

You tort has no shelters or hideaways. Please look through our enclosures thread for ideas on how you can use plants and cover to make life less cary for this tortoise.

 

[Fueledbylatte]

Hello and welcome.

Let's start with a few threads that will be helpful
Beginner Mistakes
Greek tortoise care sheet

Your tort needs a diet of leafy greens to be healthy. It cannot digest sugars properly, so fruit, bell pepper, carrot and tomato should be fed sparingly and infrequently otherwise that will make your tort sick.

Please can you feel the plastron (undershell) of this tort and tell us whether it is soft or hard.

Please change the substrate. Sand impacts in the gut and can kill. Coco coir, orchid bark or cypress mulch are preferred. This enclosure is also very dry. These are grassland torts, not desert residents and need to be housed accordingly.

I cannot see what type of lamp you have. Is it a Mercury Vapour Bulb (MVB )? You need to be absolutely certain of the temperatures in your enclosure and in the basking spot. Too hot or too cold and you will have an inactive tortoise. Use a temperature gun tyoe thermometer, they are inexpensive from amazon, to check the 4 important temperatures : Directly under the basking lamp, warm end, cool end and overnight minimum.

You tort has no shelters or hideaways. Please look through our enclosures thread for ideas on how you can use plants and cover to make life less cary for this tortoise.

We feed her mainly watercress and dandelions, she loves the flowers but we cant find a lot of them at the moment. She gets some tomato once every 2 weeks as a treat.

The plastron is hard.

I was told sand was best for her, so i will make sure i change it to bark straight away. How can i make it less dry? We do have an outdoors enclosure for her but its a bit too cold right now.

I cant remember the exact name of the lamp but it gives UV, heat and daylight rays. It was the recomennded lamp and cost about £70 for the one bulb. The temps are:
Under the lamp: 31C
Warm end: 26C
Cool end: 24C
Overnight: Will check tonight and post tomorrow morning

We used to have a shelter in there for her but she never used it, she always sleeps in the corner, dug into the sand with her bum in the air XD

Thank you for the reply I will change the substrate asap, any more info?

 

[Jlant85]

^^ That is the basic of the basic @JoesMum covered a lot of the proper husbandry. Something i would suggest, dont hibernate unless you are properly prepared! I had my tortoise for years now and i dont hibernate mine. I rather be safe than sorry. I will one day but not right now until i do further research. Pet shops will make it seem that having a tortoise is easy so they can sell them a lot quicker but little do they know that it is actually a very hardy pet to own. Hope im not scaring you. By far tortoises are the most awarding pets i've own. ^^

 

[Jlant85]

for plants to feed your tortoise, i use
thetortoisetable.org.uk
Check out whats good and not to feed your torts there =)

 

[Fueledbylatte]

^^ That is the basic of the basic @JoesMum covered a lot of the proper husbandry. Something i would suggest, dont hibernate unless you are properly prepared! I had my tortoise for years now and i dont hibernate mine. I rather be safe than sorry. I will one day but not right now until i do further research. Pet shops will make it seem that having a tortoise is easy so they can sell them a lot quicker but little do they know that it is actually a very hardy pet to own. Hope im not scaring you. By far tortoises are the most awarding pets i've own. ^^

I know how hard it is looking after tortoises, as i said we did have one in the past for a very long time but it died while hibernating I got a Medi tort because i was told we didnt NEED to hibernate unless we really wanted to, so we wont be

 

[Fueledbylatte]

for plants to feed your tortoise, i use
thetortoisetable.org.uk
Check out whats good and not to feed your torts there =)

I think we have a fussy one, she doesnt like half the things shes allowed to eat XD Only watercress and dandelions at the moment! We bought some seeds that we have put in her outdoor enclosure so when it gets warmer she will have a lot of weeds to munch on

 

[Jlant85]

^^ Getting him to feed the right way is long process. One thing you can do is get the food he/she really likes and chop them up to small pieces and add the food you want to begin introducing. slowly take begin decreasing the favorite food and keep adding the other foods. My greeks hated Mazuri! i mean they wont even touch it! i would chop up the greens they like, sprinkle the muzuir (small amount) and slowly increase the sprinkled mazuri. Took me about 3 months to get them to eat it by itself. I had some torts who doesnt eat kales. Same process and BAM! they would eat kales by itself. They take a lot of time and patients. It felt good when you know you can accomplish this in the end. Right now i have my first eggs hatching as we speak. ^^ So EGGxiting!

 

[Jlant85]

We do have one issue here... WE ARE TORT ADDICTS AND WE NEED OUR DAILY DOZE OF CUTENESS! MORE PICKS PLEASE! ^^

 

[Fueledbylatte]

^^ Getting him to feed the right way is long process. One thing you can do is get the food he/she really likes and chop them up to small pieces and add the food you want to begin introducing. slowly take begin decreasing the favorite food and keep adding the other foods. My greeks hated Mazuri! i mean they wont even touch it! i would chop up the greens they like, sprinkle the muzuir (small amount) and slowly increase the sprinkled mazuri. Took me about 3 months to get them to eat it by itself. I had some torts who doesnt eat kales. Same process and BAM! they would eat kales by itself. They take a lot of time and patients. It felt good when you know you can accomplish this in the end. Right now i have my first eggs hatching as we speak. ^^ So EGGxiting!

Ill have to try that! My little one hates kale XD

 

[Fueledbylatte]

We do have one issue here... WE ARE TORT ADDICTS AND WE NEED OUR DAILY DOZE OF CUTENESS! MORE PICKS PLEASE! ^^

Such a poser Most photogenic tort ive had though XD

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Your poor little tortoise is being made to live in a very un-welcoming and scarey environment. Baby tortoises are prey, and as such, they stay hidden most of the time. Your baby has no place to hide, so he's probably pretty stressed out all the time. Also, your viv isn't big enough. If you had a bigger viv you would be able to put in some plants (real or fake, doesn't matter), a big rock, anything to close off the openness and make him feel more comfortable.

Read the care sheet for Greek tortoises that we have at the top of the Greek section, and make adjustments to the way you're caring for your little guy. Especially the diet and viv.

 

[Fueledbylatte]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Your poor little tortoise is being made to live in a very un-welcoming and scarey environment. Baby tortoises are prey, and as such, they stay hidden most of the time. Your baby has no place to hide, so he's probably pretty stressed out all the time. Also, your viv isn't big enough. If you had a bigger viv you would be able to put in some plants (real or fake, doesn't matter), a big rock, anything to close off the openness and make him feel more comfortable.

Read the care sheet for Greek tortoises that we have at the top of the Greek section, and make adjustments to the way you're caring for your little guy. Especially the diet and viv.

Okay thank you for the info, the breeder had his vivs all open with no shelters etc. so i didnt know to include rocks and stuff

 

[Ashes]

Okay thank you for the info, the breeder had his vivs all open with no shelters etc. so i didnt know to include rocks and stuff

It's okay. That's what this place is for - to learn. Nobody thinks any less of you because you have no hides, or because you have sand, etc. The people here truly love torts and just want to help you give yours the best home you can. I have a little Redfoot - thought I did my research but not enough. Lol. Now, though, after being in here and reading insane amounts of information, his home stays above 80% humidity because he's a tropical tort. It took me a good month to reach that level, but now it's easy. It's a trial and error game at the beginning. I change his enclosure quite a bit trying to make it better. Like I have new substrate and moss on the way and I can't wait because I don't like the coco coir blocks anymore. Just gotta find what you like and what your little'un likes. don't be afraid to ask any questions in here - ever. Even if you think they're dumb. Good luck!

 

[Fueledbylatte]

It's okay. That's what this place is for - to learn. Nobody thinks any less of you because you have no hides, or because you have sand, etc. The people here truly love torts and just want to help you give yours the best home you can. I have a little Redfoot - thought I did my research but not enough. Lol. Now, though, after being in here and reading insane amounts of information, his home stays above 80% humidity because he's a tropical tort. It took me a good month to reach that level, but now it's easy. It's a trial and error game at the beginning. I change his enclosure quite a bit trying to make it better. Like I have new substrate and moss on the way and I can't wait because I don't like the coco coir blocks anymore. Just gotta find what you like and what your little'un likes. don't be afraid to ask any questions in here - ever. Even if you think they're dumb. Good luck!

Thank you so much We are changing her substrate over from sand to bark today, and i honestly think that is why she flipped herself: because shes been more active today because we added shelters and some extras

 

[Cornflowerblues]

Baby tortoises are programmed to hide in order to keep save from birds and other predators.
Our spur-thighed only became more active after over a year, it's natural behavior.
According to that of course, you need to make sure that the surroundings offer enough chances to take cover and feel comfortable.
You can add rocks, plants, a house if you want, a cave... anything that will provide shelter.
On top of that they become more active when there is actually something to do and something to explore, so the more interesting you make the enclosure, the more curious it will be. Ours actually likes to climb a bit, so we added some wide, horizontal branches on the ground as well.

Another reason for inactivity can be a lack of sunlight or a problem with the diet. If you don't feed it right, it will not have the vitamins and energy it needs to move around a lot and stay healthy on the long run. Make sure you feed it with a variety of herbs, best grow them yourself or pick them outside if you can. If you have a chance to grow salad and herbs within the enclosure, your tortoise can have fun hunting for food and will learn to feed itself.
Make sure you have proper lighting but also enough options to find shade and cooler corners for warm days. The soil should be good for digging.

And last but not least, every turtle has its own personality so maybe your is just a bit quiet or takes a bit longer to warm up to the new environment and to you. That will change
You will see that over time, as you figure out what preferences and needs it has, it will get used to you and it will become more adventurous.
By now, ours is up and about earlier than all of us at home and is constantly exploring, but it won't happen over night

 

[HermanniChris]

Sorry I'm just jumping on here really quick because I have like 5 minutes but we need a bottom (plastron) picture. Looks like you don't have a Greek tortoise. I'm a seeing a Marginated (Testudo marginata). All the advice you're being given is great. But it's still important that you know the exact species you have.