New user and a couple of questions.

[RClaire]

Hi I'm Claire and I have a hermanns tortoise called Tilly- not entirely sure of the sex yet as it's only two, but I think it's a female.

Anyway I got her four months ago and she's really settled in, although I do have a few questions if anyone can help. Firstly I have noticed that her legs and claw areas are turning a yellow colour, compared to when I got her she was more darker/greenish/brownish. I feed her a variety of food and I sprinkle reptile vitamins on the food each day- is there anything I'm doing wrong nutritionally? Or does anyone know if there is a common complaint about the changing of skin colour of a hermanns tortoise?
Secondly sometimes I think she sleeps much of the day, do you think this could be down to loneliness? She came from breeders who had five in the same area, so I'm wondering if this would have an impact on her being on her own all day?

Any answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Claire

 

[dmmj]

I do not own any hermanns so I can not comment on the toenails, but tortoises generally like to be alone, they are solitary, it is young and babies like to sleep as maggie would say so It is prob just sleeping I will let the hermanns owners comment on the other stuff, welcome.

 

[egyptiandan]

Welcome to the forum Claire

We would need to know exactly what your feeding, to know how good the diet is. What is your set-up like? Young animals do tend to sleep for most of the day.

Danny

 

[spikethebest]

Welcome to the forum. Can you post some pics of your setup and torts?

 

[DonaTello's-Mom]

Hi Claire and welcome. There are many experienced keepers on this forum, their so nice and VERY helpful. With more information from you, they'll be able to guide you in the right direction. Like the others have said, the babies do tend to sleep alot. We love seeing pictures too!

 

[RClaire]

Just trying to see if this picture will send... this is Tilly anyway!

<a href="http://s814.photobucket.com/albums/zz67/RClaire1/Tilly/?action=view&current=002.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/zz67/RClaire1/Tilly/002.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

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maybe this one will work!

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Hi guys,
Now iv got the hang of this picture thing- heres a few pictures of Tilly. I keep her in a vivarium at the present moment but I'm looking to housing her in a tortoise table, however I'm busy building an outdoor enclosure at the present moment, so one thing at a time. So in the vivarium temperatures range from 30-35 degrees celcius in heated end and approx 23 in the cool end. However the heating does go off a couple of times in the day for an hour as I didn't want her becoming over heated. Her diet consists of many greens picked from the garden and other items bought from local supermarket, such as mixed salads, tomatoes, cucumber, raddish etc, however I am wanting to feed her home grown foods, does anyone have any advice on this? I heard you can purchase the seeds from some website. She seems to really like lettuce and cucumber, but I know these have hardly any nutritional value and shes very fussy with other foods i have tried. I think this might be part of the reason for her skin colour change to yellowish. How much of an affect will the uvb have on her skin colour and should the bulb be emmiting between 10-12 uvb?
Sorry for all the questions but I've only had her for 3 months and I really want to take good care of her, cant wait for the outdoor enclosure to be finished, its quite good so far, will post pics when its completed etc. Also one final question is concerning pyramiding, can anyone explain this concept and what causes it? my tortoise is showing some early signs but I really dont want to add to the problem, therefore the more I know the better, is it caused by hermanns tortoises not getting enough humidity as well as diet etc?
Hope someone can help, or give direction as to where I can find this information from a reliable source as much information on the internet is contradictive- it gets confusing.
Anyway thanks for your help in advance.

 

[DonaTello's-Mom]

Great pictures! Soo cute!

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Look here on the forum Claire......
http://tortoiseforum.org/forum-10.html