Recently Inherited Charlie the tortoise!

[Tori 28]

Hello Everyone,
I have recently inherited my grandad’s tortoise Charlie! She is around 50 years old she has 2 spurs either side of her tail but I’m not entirely sure what type she is? and previously belonged to my great grandparents! So no pressure on me!! ?
My grandad is 94 and asked me to have Charlie now so she could settle in and he can advise me on things whilst he’s still around!
She has a custom made hibernation box and hutch with a pen in the garden.
She has full roam of our garden it’s escape proof!
She’s never had a UV lamp she sunbathes a lot!
The vet has checked her over and says she looks very healthy.
However I have some concerns over her diet. Her main staple food has always been gala apples, iceberg lettuce (which I know are not ideal!) cress and dandelions! I’ve tried to offer her tortoise pellet mix but she won’t touch it!
I’ve been trying to grow some weeds from a tortoise weed kit but it’s not growing quick enough! We have artificial grass so no natural weeds. I go out and pick what I can.
Any suggestions on how to ween her onto pellet food?! and what type of tortoise she is?
Thank you ?

 

[Crush da Baum]

Wow! She is beautiful! I have no idea what kind of tort that is.

 

[KarenSoCal]

With spurs I would think she's a Greek tortoise, testudo graeca, but I'm not sure of that.

To get her to eat new foods, you have to hide the new food mixed in with old food. Take her regular dinner, and take a small bit of the new food. Dice or chop or blend the new food into very tiny pieces and mix it up with the dinner. It has to be small enough that it will stick to the old food. You can spritz it with water to help with that.

As she gets the taste of new foods, she will be more willing to eat them, and you can slowly decrease the lettuce.

She really shouldn't be eating apples, or any fruits, but you already know that. Torts love safe flowers...try a flower as a treat.

Here's a care sheet that includes Greeks (in case I'm correct on that). It should be helpful to you. I also have a very looooong list of tort foods.

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

www.tortoiseforum.org

Compiled by Tom:
Good foods for tortoises are "chicories," types of lettuce that are likely to be on the far side of the more common floppy green heads of lettuce most people buy. Anything labeled as simply "chicory" is good, as are radiccio, frisee, escarole, and endive; you might even find something labeled as dandelions. You may find a bag of "Spring" or "Spicy" mix that is good, just check the label to be sure it has some of the chicories I just mentioned. The leaves (just the leaves) of turnips and radishes are also good, as are carrot tops. Collards, mustard greens, bok choy, and other dark, leafy greens are okay as well. If you have any kind of Mexican/hispanic market near you, they will sell cactus, labeled "nopales." Cactus is a great food to rotate in the diet, as it is high in calcium.

You don't need to feed all of these at one time, just make sure your tortoise is getting access to different types of food. As you get more experienced, you can find the better types of food listed on the care sheets.

Here are a whole bunch of non-grocery store suggestions.

Mulberry leaves
Grape vine leaves
Hibiscus leaves
African hibiscus leaves
Blue hibiscus leaves
Rose of Sharon leaves
Rose leaves
Geraniums
Gazanias
Nasturtium
Lavatera
Pansies
Petunias
Hostas
Honeysuckle
Cape honeysuckle
Leaves and blooms from any squash plant, like pumpkin, cucumber, summer squash, etc...
Young spineless opuntia cactus pads

Weeds:

There are soooooooo many...
Dandelion
Mallow
Filaree
Smooth Sow thistle
Prickly Sow thistle
Milk thistle
Goat head weed
Cats ear
Nettles
Trefoil
Wild onion
Wild mustard
Wild Garlic
Clovers
Broadleaf plantain
Narrow leaf plantain
Chick weed
Hawksbit
Hensbit
Hawksbeard

Other good stuff:

"Testudo Seed Mix" from http://www.tortoisesupply.com/SeedMixes

Pasture mixes or other seeds from http://www.groworganic.com/seeds.html

Homegrown alfalfa

Mazuri Tortoise Chow

ZooMed Grassland Tortoise Food

Ones that you can buy in every store:
Arugula
Lambs lettuce
Chicory
Kale
Mustard greens
Organic kohlrabi leafs
Organic carrot leafs
Organic radish leafs
Dandelions
Radiccio


Their main diet should be broad leaf weeds, succulents and grasses. Store bought foods are okay, but not the best. Collards and dandelions are a good food, but neither should be used every day. Check out the plant ID section for lots of ideas on weeds to feed. You can get spineless opuntia cactus pads from most Mexican grocery stores, or grow them yourself. You can also easily grow grape leaves, african hibiscus, regular hibiscus (if it will survive in your area), and mulberry leaves. You can try red apple, ice plant, and jade plant too. Also look into Gazania, pansies, nasturtiums, carnations, geraniums and many others. At the grocery store, favor endive and escarole, but also use cilantro, carrot tops, mustard and turnip greens, bok choy, radiccio, swiss chard, watercress, parsley, all the lettuces, etc. Lots of variety is best. There are also tortoise "weed" seed mixes that you can grow. I like the "Testudo Mix" from Tortoisesupply.com.
Buckwheat; cactus; vetch; Mohave aster; creosote bush; desert four o’clock; tacoma stans; bladderpod; globe mallow; goldenhead; burro weed; so many things!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

I'm worried Charlie may try to eat the artificial grass.

The grocery stores sell packaged salad mixes like Rocket, Bistro Style Salad, Crisp Leaf Mix, Mixed Baby Greens, then you can look online for dried flowers and salad toppings to add to the greens.

 

[JoesMum]

Hello! Welcome to you and your lovely Greek I live in west Kent, not too far from you, and had our Greek for over 47 years. Sadly, he passed away after a large tumour developed

Like yours, Joe was a garden tortoise and loved a windfall apple if I wasn’t able to get to them quickly enough. They’re not good for Greeks as they can’t process the sugars properly, so apple, strawberries and tomato all need to be on the list of things that can be fed occasionally in a small quantity.

Joe had free range in our garden and mostly ate the garden. I had three types of plant... 1. edible, 2. trampled and 3. too big to be eaten to the ground or trampled.

Now is the time to forget your perfect lawn and let a wildlife and tortoise-friendly Weed patch develop. You can still mow it, but leave the weeds alone!

It is really important to know the weight of your tortoise and to keep an eye on it throughout the year. Joe was pretty big and weighed around 3.3kg.

At this time of year, very little supplementary feeding is needed if your tortoise is free to graze. I just used to give Joe romaine or little gem lettuce a couple of times a week. He still gained weight after hibernation and maintained that through the summer.

When weeds were short in early spring and late autumn, I supplemented with a wider range of greens from the supermarket. For this The Tortoise Table Plant Database is a lifesaver... Write a list of things that grow around you and those that you can buy and look them up on The Tortoise Table Plant Database for suitability to feed. If you can’t identify a plant, post a photo in our Plant ID section and someone will help.

The Tortoise Table - Home

The Tortoise Table plant database and resource site for Tortoise owners

thetortoisetable.org.uk

I did use pellets in very early spring and late autumn. I used Komodo. They MUST be soaked thoroughly in water, whatever the brand, before feeding. Joe was never terribly keen on them and would always eat vegetable matter in preference.

Tortoises are notoriously picky eaters. They know what they like and they like what they know. Joe would get fixated on one food regularl. Our neighbour has a cherry tree overhanging our garden and we know Joe ate the cherries because ewe found the pips in his poop. Yet more for me to try to pick up before he got to it! He would become so cherry obsessed he would refuse other foods and even tried to eat a Small red circle printed on the newspaper once! Just remember that they can survive days without eating, but not without water. A few days hunger strike when you remove a favoured but bad food will do no harm as long as your tortoise is soaked daily.

Finally, have you seen the thread I put together about outdoor accommodation for tortoises in the UK? You may find it helpful

Outdoor Accommodation in a Colder (UK) Climate

Background We live in the UK and have had our Greek, Joe, a male Testudo Graeca Graeca (TGG), since 1970. He is full grown, weighing in at around 3.2kg (7lb) and measures just over 26cm (10”) Straight Carapace Length (SCL) He would have been wild caught, so was not a baby when he joined the...

www.tortoiseforum.org

 

[Tori 28]

Hello! I’m so sorry to hear Joe passed away ? He lived to such a good age and you clearly had such a great set up for him he was a very lucky Tort! ?

I have photos of me as a toddler with Charlie, she’s been around longer than me!
I read your post on set up really helpful.
Trouble I have is that we had our garden landscaped as a play garden for our children 2 years before my grandad asked me to have Charlie!

She has been fine with the artificial lawn never tried to eat it but does find the odd weed in it! She has full roam and access to the 2 large flowerbeds & she loves hiding in the overgrown hebe plants! (See photo
She also trots around the patio and the brick edge so she’s got a variety of textures.

Our front garden is natural lawn so we take her on supervised walks around there! (It’s just not enclosed and safe enough to let her stay there).
We had a large hutch and enclosed pen made for her with an end that we can take off so she can have full roam. But it’s useful to have the pen so on the rare occasion we can keep her penned in if we have the trees being cut/leaf blower on etc.

Her hutch is positioned in the far back corner under the trees but it gets the early morning sun so she enjoys basking on her little ramp turning from one side to the other! Once she’s done that she goes off for a walk around.

We have been surprised at how social Charlie is! She will often come up and sit next to my daughters or follow them around!

The vet weighed her before hibernation last October but I haven’t been able to get her back to the vet because of lockdown!

What scales do you use? Our bathroom scales are no use for a tortoise!

Similar to you, I keep a very close eye on the weather and was regularly putting her back in her hibernation box inside when the temperature was due to drop at the beginning of Spring. April time.
She came out of hibernation host his year in late March and picked up very quickly.

My grandad tells me she will stop eating in August and will naturally empty her stomach on the wind down for hibernation.
He’s never had any problems with this.

So really my main concerns are around her limited diet as she is so picky but I will try all the helpful suggestions!!
Noted that I also need to regularly weigh her so I must source some suitable scales.

Looking ahead, the basking lamp in the outdoor hutch that you had for Joe would be beneficial for Charlie.
Did you make it or buy it ready made?
We are not particularly DIY handy!

 

[Sarah2020]

Hi I am in the UK you may want to look at buying an hibiscus and rose Bush to plant in a bed and next year as flowers drop Charlie will have extra food? I bought a few as bare root in Jan this year on line which is cheaper and they are all growing now. I also have pansies growing in pots which are easy to pick and add to food. Enjoy the fun of Tortoise ownership and their personality!

 

[newCH]

I just wanted to add that Charlie is a beautiful tort !
That was very nice of you to care for Charlie. I have planned for my youngest son to care for
Sheldon when I am unable.
Also, you could weigh yourself holding Charlie & not holding Charlie - and the difference would
be what Charlie weighs.

 

[Sarah2020]

I use digital kitchen scales and a dish set to zero and add totoise. Really nice to do regularly to monitor growth or reduction!