Hi guys! I wanted to post because we had an aaah haaa moment today with our new little tortoise.
We purchased him from petsmart about 2 weeks ago for our daughter, who had recently lost a wild box turtle she’d claimed as her own. We had a little boxed off area in the backyard, and she took care of him every morning and night. I fortunately he was able to get out and broker her heart.
So, my husband being the “fixer” he is went to petsmart and purchased a “Greek” tortoise and all of the “required” supplies. As you can imagine the more research I did the more I realized we probably had this whole tortoise thing all wrong.
Thanks to this forum we discovered he’s not a Greek at all but a Hermann Boettgeri. We’ve also learned that he’s to be young to determine its a “he” at all. So, the name Hercules, Herk for short, will stay for now - and Daenerys, Dani for short, is reserved if he turns out a she.
Herk had been staying in his Petsmart approved 20 gallon aquarium, with trip to the backyard - in a new and improved small enclosed tortoise habitat. Then today the light bulb went off... we have 3 HUGE raised garden beds full of what we’d already been feeding the little guy. So - a few minor adjustments and we now have a real outdoor habitat for our little tort. Complete with a buffet of carrot tops, squash, zucchini and strawberry leaves along with some places to hide. Luckily we have rose bushes out front and clover plus dandelion on the side of the house, so winning in the natural food area, We will bring him back inside at night and during the winter months and are laying out plans for a tortoise table to replace his aquarium.
I never thought we’d be a tortoise family, but I really dig this little thing! View attachment 245843View attachment 245844View attachment 245845View attachment 245846View attachment 245847View attachment 245848
We purchased him from petsmart about 2 weeks ago for our daughter, who had recently lost a wild box turtle she’d claimed as her own. We had a little boxed off area in the backyard, and she took care of him every morning and night. I fortunately he was able to get out and broker her heart.
So, my husband being the “fixer” he is went to petsmart and purchased a “Greek” tortoise and all of the “required” supplies. As you can imagine the more research I did the more I realized we probably had this whole tortoise thing all wrong.
Thanks to this forum we discovered he’s not a Greek at all but a Hermann Boettgeri. We’ve also learned that he’s to be young to determine its a “he” at all. So, the name Hercules, Herk for short, will stay for now - and Daenerys, Dani for short, is reserved if he turns out a she.
Herk had been staying in his Petsmart approved 20 gallon aquarium, with trip to the backyard - in a new and improved small enclosed tortoise habitat. Then today the light bulb went off... we have 3 HUGE raised garden beds full of what we’d already been feeding the little guy. So - a few minor adjustments and we now have a real outdoor habitat for our little tort. Complete with a buffet of carrot tops, squash, zucchini and strawberry leaves along with some places to hide. Luckily we have rose bushes out front and clover plus dandelion on the side of the house, so winning in the natural food area, We will bring him back inside at night and during the winter months and are laying out plans for a tortoise table to replace his aquarium.
I never thought we’d be a tortoise family, but I really dig this little thing! View attachment 245843View attachment 245844View attachment 245845View attachment 245846View attachment 245847View attachment 245848
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