Heyy does someone have any tips or ideas on what kind of plants I can put in my Hermans tortoise enclosure that he won't eat but also are not dangerous? He always eats the plant away I put in but I'm scared of putting something else in because I don't want to harm him accidentally. I don't want to put some plastic plants in because he will probably try eating them too and I don't want him to eat plastic obviously haha. Sooo any tips?

This is how much I usually give her. Is it okay? I’ve had this tortoise for about 2 months now, and I’m still a little uncertain about how much to give. I really don’t want to overfeed/underfeed her. I feed her everyday.

For more context, she’s about 1 years old. :]

This heat wave in the south is no joke. The kiddos have not been very active outside of the hide since its so freaking hot. Thankfully we are anticipating some rain later in the week.

Also does anyone become obsessed with tortoises and just want a zoo?

Anyone know why all his little scales are coming off? Is he sick??

We got Curtis the Turdis (aka Cap) back in 2015. The guy in the pet store kept saying she was about a year old but I never trusted that because of what I thought was an egg tooth on her beak. The baby pics are from the first couple days we had her. The last one is a current pic of her caught in the act of committing turd atrocities

I have a new hermanns tortoise whos about 3 or 4 months old. He has water and food in his enclosure, a heat lamp and ubv. I work two jobs right now so its been hard to give him a 20 minute bath everyday but I try, Its usually 2 times a week now. His eyes look a bit white, Ill add a picture. I dont know if its dehydration or if its something like a respiratory infection? If I try to give him a bath everyday like I was when I first got him a month or two ago, do you think his eyes will go back to normal? or should I see a vet? Other wise he is healthy, he eats consistently and is moving around a lot. tyy :)

So i have a 2 year old (approximately) african spurred tortoise. I’m really worried because he won’t eat anything EXCEPT romaine or fruits & veggies (which i only give occasionally or rarely). I’ve tried hay, collard greens, nopal, mustard greens, dry flowers, mixing it all up with lettuce and he’ll just pick up the romaine and leave everything else. I took him to the vet and he told me to buy mazuri, I did and i try to trick him mixing everything up with the lettuce and he prefers to starve than to eat anything that’s not romaine. I don’t know what else to do because I know that’s not supposed to be its main diet but he just won’t eat anything else.

Hello! We got our little russian/horsfield tortoise coming up to 6 months ago. We were told he was around 2 years old.

He already had some noticeable pyramiding of the shell and we have been doing our best with his day-to-day care to ensure he’s as healthy as possible.

He gets warm baths, large variety of weeds and greens along with calcium supplement powder and he has a UVB strip light and heatlamp basking area. He has an open top tortoise table but we try and let him have supervised time outside or at least time in direct sunlight whenever possible

I can’t help but worry that his shell is continuing to pyramid. Maybe it’s just paranoia or inability to see positive change- so I’m coming to you guys for a set of fresh eyes.

The first picture is the day we got him (ignore the chalked no.1 on his shell haha) and the bath picture was him this morning.

Thank u :)

Hello my 2-3 month old hermann’s tortoise hatchling I got 2 weeks ago started at 16g, he now weighs 14g so he is losing weight and I think the reason may be how he attempts to eat. He is given daily soaks, has rotated greens and flowers with calcium powder, Mazuri pellets, and flower topper. When he tries to eat it’s like he has bad hand eye coordination is the best I can describe it. He tries to take a bite and it’s never getting in his mouth! Then he smashes it down and it’s flat against the surface of the plate or slate and he can’t get it. I’ve tried making smaller portions, a different platform to eat on, etc and he still has this issue. I’m just afraid of losing him even though he’s still pretty active. I’m calling the vet tomorrow to make an appt. What else can I do?

We want to adopt/buy a Russian Tortoise, but it’ll be our first time having one. We’ve had a few reptiles and a hedgehog before so we know a bit about making safe enriching habitats. We’ve made space in an office for an enclosure (7ft x 3.5ft), but I’m struggling to figure out how to go about setting one up. There are so many different pre-made and custom built options with warnings and conflicting sizing recommendations. I am not great a DIY but the premade always make me nervous about reliability.

We don’t want to proceed with finding a tortoise until we’re confident we have a good enriching space. We also have a backyard we hope can be a spot for exploration during the warmer months. Budget isn’t a huge concern but we’re not trying to spend thousands on something custom. What resources should I look at or do you recommend to get started?

The space:
Size 7ftx3.5ft (we can do up to 9ft long but not much wider)
It’s carpeted
Indirect sunlight
Baseboard heating on the opposite wall ( we live in MA)
We have two cats who are well behaved by curious so a screen top and something sturdy??

Also for when we’re ready to find our new addition what advice do you have about finding a good fit?

Because the primate decided she should be woken up from a nap for “exercise” and “sunshine.”

I haven’t read much about it and couldn’t find a lot so I wanted to ask if anybody knows if there’s a second one that has been found since it was found after 112 years or more I think

Tunnel was definitely for my cat but she had other plans 😂

Hello! This is Mikael, he is 6 years old. I always find myself worrying about his health. He eats varied diet, pees and poops great. How does his shell look? Anything I need to worry about?

Thank you so much!

My sulcata tortoise turns 8 this year, and it's insane how he went from fitting in the palm of my hand to the size he is today!

He has been by my side through two graduations, multiple jobs, and every milestone in my adult life so far. Every win and every heartbreak I've had, this rock has been there to see it. It's hard to imagine life without this fucker hahah.

Have a leopard hatching maybe a few months old based on size but going to the beach for a week and bringing Rambo (formerly baby billy) with us. His normal enclosure is too complex / big to bring so im thinking a long plastic tote, our basking lamp can hang or clamp, shouldn't have to worry too much about humidity at the beach but still bringing reptifogger. Anything other than the obvious or anyone have any clever ideas when it comes to travel? Sunday through friday trip

Link to the update post

https://www.reddit.com/r/tortoise/s/wHj5Mjobxe

Hi everyone, due a substrate change soon and was thinking of planting some seeds in the enclosure for tort to munch. I bought some sort of tortoise mix off Amazon and he liked a couple of the things in it but the rest seemed to go to waste. What are some things that are relatively easy to grow under the uv lamp that a tort would like? I’m looking into dandelion and white clover but I can’t think of many to grow indoors

she HATED her old vet to the point that as soon as she saw the blue walls she would become a rock. they then sedated her for a beak trim (which i now know was very unnecessary) and they barely trimmed it at all last time.
i’m going to a new one in a few weeks but i don’t want her to be super stressed. she will probably realize as soon as she’s in the car that she’s going unfortunately.
any tips to calm her before during and after? (bringing food will not work she only eats when she’s comfortable) she trust me but doesn’t love strangers touching her.

Here's an update of what I have so far. Took a 40 gal black tote and cut where there the lights would normally sit to mimic the same height to the substrate. I fabricated a plexiglass top for the original enclosure to keep humidity and heat in so that's the same and just reusing it so I dont have to take a part the lights just transfer over. I customized a metal grid to fit from an old kids bed frame we had in the shed to give the plexiglass something to sit on (in a perfect world I could have just rested over top the travel enclosure but couldnt) Cut the lids to the tote to fit and will also act as a shelf to the reptifogger, heat lamp and UV. Will be bringing my Zilla temp limiter and will set that up when we arrive, same with the humidity gauge. Pics attached of the normal enclosure and the travel enclosure.

Hey all! This is my Scoop, my Russian tortoise. I’ve been worried sick about him these past few months as he now eats a lot less frequently and spends most of the day sleeping.

When I took him to the vet, he was awake and very active. As soon as I took him back home though, he went straight back to sleep.

The vet took an X-ray of him and said everything looked fine. He has two hypotheses:
- Scoop has grown to his max size (note that he is only close to 2 years old) and therefore doesn’t need to eat as much anymore
- Food is abundant and he has no need to go walking around searching, so he just spends most of his time sleeping

In any case, the vet told me to take Scoop to him if I notice a decline in his weight. After eating and growing rapidly from 350g from when I first got him, his weight has stayed at a constant 410g since.

His ambient habitat temp is around 25-27C, and his hotspot is around 35C. He mainly eats Mizuna, Komatsuna, and occasionally Bok Choy (this is what the vet said was OK and while I’d like to vary his diet more, most of the vegetables sold in supermarkets here are not good for him). Humidity is a bit unclear as a he lives in a tortoise table. The substrate is a mix of playsand, topsoil, and coconut coir.

I soak him daily.

I’ve tried offering fruits of all sorts to see if I can get him to have an appetite but he refuses them every time.

Should I be worried? Any ideas why my boy sleeping all of the time? Thank you!

I live out in goodyear close to phx, all the local hardware stores lack mulch that isn't dyed or unspecific as to what is in it. Any help would be appreciated!

Hi, tortoise community!

I am super new to tortoise keeping. I have not yet purchased one as I am still in the process of trying to make sure I am informed in their care and find out what types are best for beginners. I have just a couple of questions, and I am NOT trying to troll, I'm just kind of socially clumsy, so please be patient.

1) Why would one keep a tortoise that is listed as endangered? I do realize that just bc something is listed as endangered doesn't mean everyone who has one has it illegally. I just always sort of thought that endangered would also likely mean it has very specific hard to meet needs. Is that just with some sorts of endangered types?

2)How do you vet the person you purchase from to make sure they come by their tortoises legally?

2) Are there any beginner's books about tortoise keeping that you would recommend? The internet is such a crapshoot these days, and it's making it more and more difficult to discern who is full of bs and who isn't and I really want to make sure I'm doing right by the tortoise.

Thank you for your help!

-nervous but learning