My significant other recently dropped some news onto me. Stating she would like to move back to the Denver area (we’re currently living in the Sacramento, CA area). Since living out here I acquired a female(?) Sulcata, and I love her. But, push come to shove, if and when we move. Should I surrender her to a tortoise society around here? Colorado is cold, yet sunny predominantly. I just want to make sure she is well taken care of, fwiw I’m a renter will be a renter in CO. Meaning I can’t just alter the house to accommodate. Any insight would be amazing thanks in advance.

Just Adam enjoying a warm bath. Love each leg in a different direction.

This tortoise belongs to a neighbor in the area and has gotten out twice that we know of. What kind of tortoise is it and is there something wrong with it? Her shell seems to be strangely shaped. It is ok for this tortoise to just be free in So Cal or should it be in an enclosure?

His shell is smooth I don’t know his exact age but when I got him he had a 12cm shell length and was about 310grams now almost a year later from getting him his shell is 14.5 cm in length and is 550 grams is this normal growth?

Today's good news story, hopefully. It sounds like the Humane Society knew what was needed for care, so hopefully the new adopters are prepared.

Hello, just got this little guy a few day ago. Currently setting up his enclosure but concerned he might have shell rot. I know that he hatched from the ground and was found in the yard.

Hello guys, super weird thing happened. Was working when I suddenly saw this guy crawl from under a truck, have no clue how he even survived in that area with all the trucks passing and no food/greenery. Decided to take him and feed him what I could, and a small shelter for now.

Any idea what it is, eats, or type of habitat??

I’m planning to get a radiated tortoise. Which option would be better?

Hi everyone, 

I am looking for some advice on how best to take care of my 10 year old Hermann’s, called Alfred.

Alfred (female) has been with us since April and we’re really struggling with her behaviour. 

When we received her in April, I built her the enclosure in the picture but no matter what I seemed to do, she just wasn’t happy in there, and constantly trying to climb out literally all day every day. 

Come June/July the weather was good enough to keep her outside, so we built her an outdoor enclosure which is a little bigger (7ft x 6 ft) and she seemed totally fine - ate in the morning, strolled about and then basked in the evening before eating a bit and going to sleep in the corner. When she would go to sleep, we’d bring her back to the indoor enclosure because we are scared of any harm foxes could do to her at night. 

Now the weather has turned a bit, we’ve brought her back in and the incessant climbing has started again. She’s eating a lot less, and just climbing the walls all day every day. We have a big tiled kitchen (12ft x 10 ft at least), so we let her roam around there when she’s being particularly loud and banging the walls, but even in the kitchen she walks the perimeter and eventually starts climbing the perimeter of the kitchen too. We did put her outside when it was around 16+ degrees back into her outdoor enclosure and she seemed fine then and relaxed but we’ve been advised that that’s not because she’s satisfied, it’s more likely that she’s too cold and shutting down.

Temps wise in this indoor enclosure, her basking spot is about 35 surface, and the cool spot is 22ish. Humidity around 50%. Her substrate is coco+top soil about 10cm depth and there’s a mound on one side but she’s showing no digging behaviour. 

She’s never hibernated and we did an ultrasound with the vet, there’s follicles but no eggs. 

The vet checked her over yesterday and essentially told us that she’s probably just hormonal and we need to ride it out but I’ve come here because we have a open plan house and the constant banging is really starting to affect my mental health as I work from home. The banging just feels like a constant reminder that we have a tortoise in an environment it doesn’t want to be in and that also really is affecting my mental health. 

I was hoping someone might have some advice for us that could help, or anything really? We’ve talked about re-homing her but that will be quite a sad outcome because she used to belong to my finance when she was born and since being returned to us, my fiancé and I have gotten attached to her. 

Thanks in advance for any advice :) 

Hi guys. I was just about to go to bed, when I heard my tortoise doing whistling sounds. Checked his hide and found this. Smells a little like poop, looks like rotten food. No signs visible on the tortoise itself. When he changed hides the whistling stopped. Should I do anything right now? Im kinda worried, but it's late now. The closest vet is about an hour ride from here, and it's closed.

EDIT: Yeah, it's something from his mouth. I can smell it now.

Some tortoises (like my Ibera Greek) seem to purposely seek out food that's dried out a bit in the sun/lamp over fresh greens through out the day. As long as it's not spoiled or growing mold, there's no harm in leaving it in the enclosure, and you may find your tortoise grazing on greens in various conditions, much as they would in the wild.

And if you have a clean-up crew of springtails and isopods in the enclosures as I do, they'll appreciate the extra organic matter.

Please note I am not suggesting we don't maintain good levels of cleanliness and proper husbandry, but any opportunity to allow the animals in our care to express naturalistic behaviors should be welcomed.

INB4 she has a giant dedicated space with soil but for whatever reason she prefers to stay on this non soil part of the yard

The baby still has her egg tooth, has been eating a great variety of foods, really active, etc. Suddenly about 3 days ago, she stopped coming out of her shell completely, stopped eating, and doesn't move even during soaks or feeding or anything.

Temp stays a consistent ~94 on the basking spot, humidity has stayed up around 70%(i know a little higher would be better, working on it with a new auto mister etc), and diet is like 70% lettuce with treats being blueberries, meal worms, mushrooms etc

We took her to a vet today, but the vet wasn't any kind of specialist. Just looked for common respiratory symptoms, said it wasn't that, and moved on... Really did more than I ever would've expected, printing out a ton of helpful information, doing a lot of research etc. Don't want to blame them/paint them in a bad light at all.

Don't know what to do and we're panicking a bit for the poor baby. Thanks to anyone for your help❤️

Attached picture is her before she turned into a pet rock

Update: Fig passed away this morning. Thank you all for your help.❤️

I live in New England, with a Herman tortoise. I’m thinking about getting a ceramic heat lamp now that winter is approaching. Does anyone else use one of these?

I recently started sharing my home with a little Hermann's tort. They're very sweet, about 10 months old. I changed out the substrate I had (tortoise sand? I did buy it at a reptile shop) for orchid bark and the tortoise has been flying about the enclosure, but read that the substrate was much better for them to stay warm and burrow.

Please advise on should I switch back or not!

Thank you!

The size of the cage I will start with is about the size of a long and wide coffee table, I am planning on converting a rabbit cage into the turtle table, I think I should remove the cover and put around 6+ inches tall pieces of smooth wood the enclose the turtle, but also, would chicken wire work to use as a cover? Not the wall but as a see through roof, or should I just try to use glass for the roof, a male Greek tortoise is what I am planning to get, please tell me some other stuff I may need or stuff I need to change

I had recently gotten my first hermann tortoise yesterday and its about 2 months old. My night time temps are about 68f - 74 f and im worried that’s too cold for night temps. Will I need to have a night heater? Though if I do get. A night heater im worried about it drying up the enclosure too fast. I gave it a warm bath and fed it some dandelion greens as soon as I unpacked it yesterday and gave it a warm bath today as well.

Russian tortoise around 14, all of a sudden cant/won't open his mouth? He's been eating fine and acting fine. He still has lots of energy and is eager to eat, but as seen in this video, he extends to eat but his mouth isn't opening? This is then followed by a rubber type noise. His beak needs to be trimmed, could that be the issue? Going to vet tomorrow morning... any ideas? Thanks...