my hermans house

[midi-mania]

rite im quite new to tortoises (had one for 2year at my dads but then after one year i went to live with my mom and now after a year im back with my dad)
i have been reading all the advise on this website scince about 9oclock (its 00:47)
i live in a vilage called rainford (near liverpool)
and i am rather confused about my setup
i have a 2ft by 1ft viv, it has sliding doors (normaly slightly open) and it also has a load of drilled holes in the wooder panel (the roof that my dad made to fit lights etc)
i have a habistat set to 84f and a uvlight, i turn the uv off of a night and i turn the temp down a bit too to about 60f the habistat has a ceramic bulb
i have a water bowl in the tank and i have a peice of slate (with the heater above it) and the bedding is bech chippings i think, its from pets at home anyway
she doesnt have a house at the moment because she had a ceramic one but got too big and then she got a TEMPORARY carbord one and then we went on holiday to wales for a week and took her with us (had a dehumidifier in the room (its a realy old cottage getting renovated))
and we went out for a pub meal and when we came back she had pushed the house onto the heat bulb which had burnt the cardbord
so she doesnt have one atm
she is in a room alone apart from a canery and about 105 stick insects
on hot days (not had meany recently) she goes outside in her pen which has shade in it and its on the lawn so food too. oh and also she has another waterbowl outside incase she gets too hot or gets thirsty.
is this a good set up?

oh and she also eats clovers, dandilions, grass, plantains (if any are around), cucumber and everything in a italian salad (from tesco)

all advise is apresiated and also i dont exactly have bags of money (i dont have a paper round or pocket money or anything!)
so if you have anything that you dont need anymore that would be better for my tortoise it would be apreciated (if anyone lives near me)

my tort is hermiony the 04 hermans

[midi-mania]

oh she gets nutobal too

[sandy]

Sorry vivs are a no no with tortoises. They need an open topped enclosure, a bit like a drawer.
They need no heat at night, tortoises need a drop in temperature, just like they would in the
wild.
Any house should be at the opposite end of the enclosure to any heating. Curved tiles are
great for this, as they can climb on it too. Which will help keep the nails down.
Your tortoise should have a slow growth rate, about two to three gramms a month. Weighing
regularly helps to see how much he/she is putting on.
His/her diet should be weeds, which you can grow for free<g>. There are pictures and a list
on this site.

[laine21]

Hi, if you have an old bookcase, or can get one from freecycle, you could convert this by just taking out the shelves and if its a flat-pack type of bookcase, making the bottom a bit more secure and sturdy. It will give her so much more space to roam round, the viv you have is very very small for your tortoise. Have a look on the indoor housing section for pictures of how your little tort should be living.

Local woodyards often have odds and ends of timber they may let you have cheap or free.
Freecycle is a yahoo group, and there is a big one for the Liverpool area. Have you hibernated your tortoise, because as a Hermans, she should be hibernating each year for a short time.

Also have a look in the Tortoise health section, there is a sticky about life in a viv, and how it has effected a poor tortoise.

Get your dad to look at this site as well, I'm sure he would help you get the right set-up for your tortoise.

[midi-mania]

oh, and btw at first i folowed the petshops instructions, give it salad tomato and cucumber and keep it at about 84f in a fishtank

[midi-mania]

and i didnt know hermans needed to hibernate unless they were breeding (thats what it says in a book, she has never hibernated though...)

[midi-mania]

[quote="sandy"]
Any house should be at the opposite end of the enclosure to any heating.quote]

the house was at the other end (she likes to push things round inclding her BIG perice of slate)
she weighs about 440grams and her shell is 5" and head to tail is about 6"

[midi-mania]

this is why i dont have a BIG enclosure or anything for it in my garden (aswell as having rats that keep getting into the sheds and my cat)









i dno why the left half of my garden is dead lol

[Pussygalore]

your garden would be ideal to build a enclosure its full of old grazing and weeds which is what most try to acheive, thats the best sort of natural enviroment to keep your tort happy, its not difficult to build something a few planks of wood with some wire over the top, a simple house and your away.

[Pussygalore]

me again you could easily use one of your sheds as the house with the enclosure built onto it then shut your tort up at night, its easy to make access to and from a shed.