New owner needing advice please!

[Louni]

We have recently bought 2 2yr old horsfields ( Burt & Ernie) and I am feeling a little worried about a few things and wondered if anyone could give some advice? We have built an outdoor enclosure with a 'house' for night time. The outside has different suitable plants and a slated area, places to hide inside and lots of rocks etc giving differing levels. I am feeding daily with plants and flowers from a list and whilst I can't see how much of the plants they are eating, they don't appear to be eating much of the food I leave in their dish. They have cuttlefish and i am sprinkling on nutrobal 3 times a week. Also, I am unsure as to wether we need a uv lamp or maybe a heater? The idea is that they will be outdoor tortoises and we know that we will need heat etc at some point but is it needed now and if so what is the best sort? The information on the Internet is baffling and any help would be very much appreciated! Sorry to have so many questions!

[sandy]

Originally Posted by Louni

We have recently bought 2 2yr old horsfields ( Burt & Ernie) and I am feeling a little worried about a few things and wondered if anyone could give some advice? We have built an outdoor enclosure with a 'house' for night time. The outside has different suitable plants and a slated area, places to hide inside and lots of rocks etc giving differing levels. I am feeding daily with plants and flowers from a list and whilst I can't see how much of the plants they are eating, they don't appear to be eating much of the food I leave in their dish. They have cuttlefish and i am sprinkling on nutrobal 3 times a week. Also, I am unsure as to wether we need a uv lamp or maybe a heater? The idea is that they will be outdoor tortoises and we know that we will need heat etc at some point but is it needed now and if so what is the best sort? The information on the Internet is baffling and any help would be very much appreciated! Sorry to have so many questions!

If they have edible plants outside, they are probably eating these. To be honest food is not the worry, but dehydration is, so make sure you bathe them regularly, and that they have water available all the time.
I am not in the uk at the moment,but when I left on Sunday, you certainly didn't need any extra heat. And if I am honest my tortoises have not had any extra heat since the beginning of may. I do live in the SE, and our temps have been reasonable for tortoises since then.

[Suze65]

They certainly don't need any extra heat or uv at the moment, like sandy mine haven't had any since May, except for a few babies and young juveniles. If they have plants in their enclosure they may be eating those , so not clearing the dish, but I wouldn't worry too much, make sure they have a good size water dish that they can sit in and bath them 3 times a week. If you've not had them long, they may still be settling in and this can take some time as torts don't like change, and sometimes don't eat much for a while, but that's ok. Hydration is more important. And also with heat we've been having, they are not likely to be very active for much of the day, they will hide away in the afternoon heat until early evening and maybe come out to eat again.

[Louni]

Hi, that's great, thanks very much for the advice. I think I may be panicking too much. It's almost more worrying than a new born baby! I am bathing them daily at the moment and they also have a water dish that one of them sits in but the other doesn't really, I change the water twice daily to ensure it's clean. I am also weighing them once a week(maybe this is too much) to make sure they aren't losing weight.
Thank you so much for that. No doubt I will have more worries soon!
Louise