HELP , sick yearling Spur thighs?.

[Lorna]

Since I started keeping tortoises, I've made at least five great friends through them, often just as above, someone asks a question on a forum and, hey, I'm nearby, pop over. Our friendships now go beyond tortoises, and they are such a bonus to tort keeping.

When I got my first tortoise, I was hoping I'd found an all-absorbing interest that would teach me something, and an animal I would grow to love. Well, that happened but I never expected the amazing bonus of lovely new friends.

Lorna

[CherryBrandy]

[QUOTE=Jilly;654439]Seems I am utterly hopeless at everything, I can't work out how to post pictures of the set up and torts,;can I email them to someone instead? I have an ipad which didn't want to play, and Windows 8 on a PC, but cant do it on either, I'm so sorry,

Jilly is isn't simple so you are certainly not hopeless! you need something like photobucket - it is free, just register. Then you need to upload a photo from the upload TAB into your PB library - to do this just click on the TAB and browse where your own photos are stored PC/documents/pictures -double click and it will download to PBucket.

Then select the photo in PB, double click so it appears in a screen on its own - then look for 4th field down on the right - you need to copy the IMG - it says something like URL in the field..... - right click to copy the IMG. come into SW site on the advance setting and choose the 'yellow postcard' tab up top to insert image - paste the IMG !!! preview and bobs your uncle - as in two spur thigh pickys !!! would love to see them and great they are doing well.

CB

[Daryn]

Just want to give you some information about what tortes do in the wild when its to hot outside although Im no real expert its just what I have read.

When its hot all the time they go into a sort of hibernation mode called estivation so as others have said they might just be too hot and this is why they seem sleepy. TBH I wouldnt block off their hide, tortes seem to know what they want more than we do, if they have a hide its a great way for them to cool down.

Get them outside as often as you can, if you could make something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11khXfjuShU it would be ideal and keep them safe. I would keep them in something like the video shows every day and bring them in at night TBH. Only addition would be a mini coldframe inside the enclosure, you would see much better activity from them.

Its just my opinion Im sure others have their own though.

[CherryBrandy]

Daryn, is that one of your creations? it is very good. I like the narrative too though think SW should have got a mention !! One of mine goes to bed 3.30 every day like clockwork and she use to hiss if I got her up , now I don't bother I shut her away about 6 each night and that's it ! oooh I saw kamp kenan after the u tube clip as it went into it - he has 11 sulcatas !! amazing.

[Daryn]

No its not mine I just had a quick look around to see what I could find to give an idea of the type of thing that could be used. To make something like that easier to build I would use wood for the walls, decking boards are my favourite build material for enclosures.

[CherryBrandy]

I thought re decking boards as you've posted the actual build before haven't you? it was excellent. I like gravel boards too. I actually put tent pegs either side and cheap easy method. but I do like bricks too. I am reading all the lamp not lamp posts. very interesting.

[Daryn]

yeah these lamp things are getting confusing now lol, should we have them should we not.

Natural sun as much as possible is the way forward obviously but hard to get in the north of UK at times lol.

I was thinking last year about the lamp thing, why do we need it, well to produce heat and light, thats when I first started thinking about using a tube heater in a mini coldframe area rather than a lamp, its great using a thermostat, we can set it up and forget about it, when the clodframe gets hot from the sun then the tube heater wont switch on, when its not reached its temperature then it switched on but most of the time you will get free heat from the sun.

Someone suggested using LED strip lights for the light side of things on dull days, I think this is an excellent idea, these are very cheap on ebay and could be used to provide the light they need.

I really need a bit time from doing stuff for others so I can play around and build something.

The other thing I like to do is try to make these things as cheap as possible. People think it costs a fortune to buy these things, I like to try and get the same but without spending alot of money of even using free stuff.