been gone for a while, now really confused!

[alicia]

Hi everyone,
Ive been a member on this forum for a long time, and I first started coming on here for help when i owned my very first tortoise about 5 years ago i believe?...
anyway, after joining I learnt so much and took in all the information on all species of tortoises, diets, housing and general care. I thought after all my research I had my tortoises care down to a tee!
I gradually started to stop using this forum and would pop on every now and then, however recently ive been on here more and more again, it seems as though whilst ive been gone so much of the advice I was given and have used has changed.

what I'm basically trying to get at is this.....

what are you guys using as your new 'guidlines' for med tortoises.
I'm getting really confused over the whole humidity information as I always thought meds would be bathed frequently, but spraying the housing? surely RNS can be caused by all this soil spraying? and possibly mold?
another thing is (sorry about this guys) but a pelleted diet?
there doesn't seem to be any one not using pellets anymore!
ahhh, confused!!!

I know my tortoises are healthy and hopefully happy! but i want to do the best for them so would really appreciate some advice on these subjects.

thank you
xx

[JoesMum]

I can't comment on spraying, other than to say that I have never done it.

As for pellets, they're a useful supplement in winter when the weeds are scarce. Joe's diet is plant based... although I made the mistake of giving him a little red cabbage as a treat yesterday and the little darling is now refusing to touch all other food in hope! It's not the first time he's done this and I will win!

[nooddle]

I spray the soil in my tort table lightly to prevent it from becoming completely dry and dusty. Some do it daily, I just do it when it starts to get a little dry and have had no problems with mould or RNS.

As for pellets, I know a lot of people use them to keep variety in the tortoises diet when weeds are scarce but this winter I have been able to find a variety of weeds even up here in the north east of Scotland. Right now I have a massive amount of chickweed and smooth sow thistle growing in my garden as well as a little clover and dandelion. And a little further afield I have been able to find plantain, bittercress, shepherds purse and milk thistle and a few others. I also have a few tort friendly plants growing indoors. I have felt little need to supplement with pellets but understand it is a viable option when there are no suitable plants around.

[Alan1]

there's plenty people not using pellets Alice, it's just that those who were using them before were too afraid to say so because they were immediately jumped on.

It seems now that more people are more open about what they do. It is dangerous not just with tort keeping but with anything at all to blindy follow one person or one way, look at the Jim Jones scenario

The TT view is one way of doing things but not the only way

[Lyn]

I agree totally with your post Alicia. When I joined, vivs and pellets were really frowned upon so I have a table which I am happy with and I don't feed pellets and have no plans to either. (but each to their own )
I spray the soil a little and bathe mine a few times a week and they all seem happy.
I'm sure what you are doing is fine.x

[emma_mcraf]

Hi Alicia, I don't feed pellets but manage on a weed only diet, supplemented with a bit of romaine and raddichio when things are dire in the winter.
I bath my torts daily and only spray their table now and again to keep the dust down a bit.
It's good to read other's opinions on here and to see what works for other people. Keeping options open is good but I agree with Kelly, that if something works, stick to it!

[Ozric Jonathan]

Hi Alicia

HUMIDITY- the idea of med torts being given the option of somewhere more humid to hide out has taken off here. Especially for hatchlings and at night, when it's a lot easier to achieve.

Humidity is thought to be a factor in producing more smooth growth. We started to appreciate that med tortoises in nature spend time in humid conditions - to escape the heat of the day, at night when temps fall and humidity rises in shelters of any kind, around the roots of bushes and trees, buried below ground etc.

Bathing doesn't create humidity in my opinion, and its still popular.

DIET - there are huge numbers of people here who only feed weeds and garden plants. Pellets have been gaining ground but for a lot of keepers this is for times of year when there isn't much garden food. A lot of the pellet diets work on the idea that this is all the tortoise gets to eat but I don't think that many people here use them that way.

HIBERNATION or the absence of it. There is a lot more acceptance on here that it is OK not to hibernate med tortoises and the voices insisting that hibernation is an essential for health have mostly left. Or they stayed but don't say it any more, having been beaten into submission with a blunt instrument.

[JoesMum]

Originally Posted by Ozric Jonathan

Hi Alicia

HUMIDITY- the idea of med torts being given the option of somewhere more humid to hide out has taken off here. Especially for hatchlings and at night, when it's a lot easier to achieve.

Humidity is thought to be a factor in producing more smooth growth. We started to appreciate that med tortoises in nature spend time in humid conditions - to escape the heat of the day, at night when temps fall and humidity rises in shelters of any kind, around the roots of bushes and trees, buried below ground etc.

I can't help wondering how much confusion has grown up from the non meds (e.g. sulcata) that do need humidity as that is how the climate is for them in the wild. Many older meds have smooth shells and none of this raised humidity in their youth.

Originally Posted by Ozric Jonathan

Bathing doesn't create humidity in my opinion, and its still popular.

It's popular because it keeps the torts hydrated, not for humidity. From a personal POV, it's easier to clean up his toileting from the bath than it is mopping up half a gallon of wee in the tortoise table too!

Originally Posted by Ozric Jonathan

DIET - there are huge numbers of people here who only feed weeds and garden plants. Pellets have been gaining ground but for a lot of keepers this is for times of year when there isn't much garden food. A lot of the pellet diets work on the idea that this is all the tortoise gets to eat but I don't think that many people here use them that way.

HIBERNATION or the absence of it. There is a lot more acceptance on here that it is OK not to hibernate med tortoises and the voices insisting that hibernation is an essential for health have mostly left. Or they stayed but don't say it any more, having been beaten into submission with a blunt instrument.

The anti-hibernation brigade can be pretty blunt too. Many of us with older tortoises continue to do things the way we have always done them and tortoises remain healthy.

Joe was ill on emerging last spring, but assuming all goes well this summer he will hibernate next winter. That doesn't make me right or wrong... or anyone else. It is my choice and, like everyone else, I shall continue to try to do my very best for my tortoise as I have for many years.

All these issues create strong feeling and some are very vocal that their opinions are THE way to do it. Fortunately it doesn't happen too often on SW.

[Ozric Jonathan]

HUMIDITY - in part answer to Joe's Mum. Nearly all the older tortoises in the UK were wild caught and the smoothness of their growth was established when they were living in the wild in their formative years. During that time they spent a lot of time in relatively humid locations.

[JoesMum]

Originally Posted by Ozric Jonathan

HUMIDITY - in part answer to Joe's Mum. Nearly all the older tortoises in the UK were wild caught and the smoothness of their growth was established when they were living in the wild in their formative years. During that time they spent a lot of time in relatively humid locations.

Maybe... maybe not. The humidity of their 'native territory' is not continuously as humid as some keepers seem to keep their babies IMO.