cuttle fish n tables?

[sandy]

My thoughts exactly Ade, I work in a junior school and believe me they dont need any help
from texting to become illiterate. The standards that children come into school with are
dropping beyond belief.
I also find it hard work, working out what they are saying<g> when text speak is used.

[Jimmy]

Ignoring the stress factor of a viv if is more to do with ventilation, a tort likes hot and cold and it likes to choose. A viv has poor ventilation so there will only be 1-2 degrees centigrade difference between cool end and hot end. Prolonged exposure to hot temps can make your little fella ill.

I am not going to give the vivs are bad talk as you prob spent a lot of money getting one via the pet shop as its what they told you they needed (did the same thing). A table would be ideal and i think everyone here would recommend you using one but if you are going to continue using the viv just try to make sure its ventilated as much as possible and theres a good variation of temps (put a thermometer in the warm and cool end) and maybe place some wood over the bottom glass so they cant see out.

Also judging by the fact your talking txt i would guess you were id teens so it would be a parental decision about replacing the viv rather than yours. A table can be built for about £30 or bought for about £60 and vivs hold value quite well as they are ideal for other reptiles.

[lozzy2k1]

ok my lap top is really hard to type on my curser goes away from wot im typing therefore it doesnt make sense. can som1 please tell me everything i am supposed to have for my tort. bare in mind i have a dog? Also wont it get stressed as cant see out at all? theey never try 2 come out at the moment but they are only litlle. i have a heat lamp and uv light. i use wood chips for the substrate.(Where do get hemp from) i use nutrobol on its food every day(they are babies) also i feed on pellets, a little bit of fruit now n again ,carrot(grated)now n again and mainly leafy greens like dandilions, cabbage cauliflour leaves, kale etc...i havn't given them flowers before though as wasnt sure which and if they eat the flower or leaves? my tort that i hav left is really fussy eater and is not keen on greens etc...she likes dandilions n kale and bit of tomato (jus the inside?) but a lot of the time she will only eat pellets even though i offer other stuff first and if is going all day without esaatin then give her some pellets. Also how often should they have a bath wen babies?well 1-2yrs should i put cuttlefish in viv on floor? i cant afford a table at mo but wil consider getting one wen can also i let as much air in as poss it also has a air vent?

[jobro1968]

hiya yes you can just put the cuttlefish on the floor. my tortoise loves pansies and yes they eat the flower. good luck with your litttle tortoises what breed are they?

[linda]

can som1 please tell me everything i am supposed to have for my tort. bare in mind i have a dog?

in the long term a viv will definatly shorten the torts life
tort tables can be made and positioned to be dog proof
i have 7 torts and 2 irish wolfhounds


Also wont it get stressed as cant see out at all?

imagine what the tort would see at its eye level in the wild


i have a heat lamp and uv light.
thats great rember uv strip lights need replacing every 6 months they loose their uv


(Where do get hemp from)
sarah sells hemp
also try a horsesuppliers



i use nutrobol on its food every day(they are babies)
thats great and will help keep them fit and healthy


also i feed on pellets,
most of us are against pelletts

http://forums.shelledwarriors.co.uk/...pic.php?t=1154

a little bit of fruit now n again ,
med torts can not digest fruit it will upset the gut flora



carrot(grated)now n again and mainly leafy greens like dandilions, cabbage cauliflour leaves, kale etc...
any thing from the cabbage family stops calcium being absorbed


i havn't given them flowers before though as wasnt sure which and if they eat the flower or leaves? my tort that i hav left is really fussy eater and is not keen on greens etc...she likes dandilions n kale and bit of tomato (jus the inside?) but a lot of the time she will only eat pellets even though i offer other stuff first and if is going all day without esaatin then give her some pellets.

have a good look at our weeds and edible flowers section
weeds are free and much more nutritious



Also how often should they have a bath wen babies?

i bath my babies dayly it keeps them hydrated


well 1-2yrs should i put cuttlefish in viv on floor?
yes just put the cuttlefish on the floor the tort will eat it or climb on it


i cant afford a table at mo but wil consider getting one wen can also i let as much air in as poss it also has a air vent?[/quote]

there are ways of recycling things to make a table
convert an old piece of furniture such as a book shelf
look on freecycle

[Jimmy]

Ok I will try my best (being a n00b to tortoise keeping and all).

A table does not need to be expensive, it just needs to be 4 pieces of wood in a square big enough so your tort cant climb over and out of reach of the dog. If the dog can reach a cover is a must. Apart from that a UV and heat light but you have those already. My viv only had a little vent along the back, the way to check its working is to take a temp reading from the cool end and one from the hot there should be a good variation, if there is not your ventilation is not good enough.

A tort is not the cleverest animal, if it sees and un-scalable wall it will just accept that its there rather than think what is the other side. With glass they can see there is something there so they will try and get out.

I personally feed min of a cuttle fish that way they involuntary eat it and it helps keep their beaks down but some people grind and place on their food but limestone flower is also good for this. Its full of calcium and has everything a tort needs for a nice healthy shell.

Hemp can be bought from any reptile shop (well most) but i have found it cheapest on e-bay. Its a hell of a lot cheaper than the wood shavings from the pet store (about 1/3 of the cost).

You should never ever feed your torts pellets bin them now! Pellets encourage a tort to grow to fast and will lead to pyramiding or a tort out growing its shell. There are pics on here and i can get the link if you think i am kidding. You should ideally feed your tort solely on a weed and flower diet again their is a list of what they can eat on here. You should avoid veg such as cabbage and cauliflower as this is bad for them. As its winter weeds are scarce so bulking their diet out with some lettuce and such is a good idea but you need to keep it varied. A hungry tortoise will never reject food. If they are ignoring the weeds they are only doing so as they know you will cave in and feed them pellets. Don't cave in give them the weed based diet every day and i promise within the week they will be eating it, they wont starve themselves to death Once you cross the initial fussiness there should not be any further problems.

I bath my torts every day. This needs to be reduced on the lead up to hibernation (if your torts are a hibernating species). A tort can live without food for a long while as long as they have water. Bathing them helps keep them hydrated, happy and healthy.

I think thats all your questions answered?

In regards to food if you want to know the does and donts look in the weed section of the forum and if you dont find what your looking for type a particular type of food and people will come back and say yey or ney

[Jason1]

Sorry but i have to take issue with lindas statement:

"med torts can not digest fruit it will upset the gut flora"

What makes you think that they cannot digest fruit? If this was the case it would come out in the same form it went in. Also this upsetting the gut flora business confuses me. what exactly do you mean by this? If you mean it makes them a bit more loose it has exactly the same effect on me but it doesn't mean its bad for me.

In the wild they will eat fruit but admitted not being the quickest animals other animals are more likely to get to it first. I have no problems with throwing in strawberry tops, the odd rotten tomatoe, grapes etc etc. You should see the charge from all area of the enclosure especially when strawberry is offerred. Admittedly I dont over do it. If I told my kids they couldn't throw there strawberry tops into the tort enclosure I'd have a very unhappy household. (including the torts)

Jason

[Pussygalore]

I also see no problem with the odd bit of fruit as a treat as I also think that they would come occassionally upon them in the wild ie fallen fig/date etc but as with the pellets the tort will eat the fruit over the greenery as a child will eat sweets over its veg so although mine do have a treat its usually after the good stuff has been eaten and as mine are out all summer so have access to grazing I do give them as a treat but torts kept inside don't have the access to grazing also don't have the space that an outside animal does so in turn can't walk off the calories by having to search for their food so the food intake has to be more restricted. Also I think fruit and things like cucumber (again a favourite) has no nutritional value apart from a source of fluid so you can't afford your tort to become fussy and only eat the treats as the animal would end up lacking in food values, get your tort onto a good healthy diet and taking the better foods readily before introducing any occassional treats.

[sandy]

Fruit should not be fed to tortoises. If they find the odd fruit out in the garden (blackberries etc)
then thats an odd fruit. When keeper especially new keepers see, fruit can be fed, then thats
exactly what they do feed fruit. It should be the odd piece of fruit eg once every couple of
months. If fed fruit regularly it will upset gut flora.
This is why its better to say no fruit, as keepers get more experienced they can take on the
knowledge of what can be fed on the rare occasions.
I am afraid to say that most (not all) new keepers are a lot younger and will take the easy
way out, and feed salad food along with fruit.

[piglet]

I agree with what Sandy has just stated.
I will admit that fruit is offered on the odd occasion by quite a few keepers but please only on the odd occasion.
Now reasons fruits aren't included and why is it stated they cause a gut flora imbalance .
Fruits are high in sugars many tortoises Med in particular can't break down excessive sugar intake the sugars cause a proliferation of gut flora and parasites these in turn give of there own waste products that cause a gassy build up (COLIC) which is painful enough in animals without shells so imagine the stomach expanding and being rapped within the hard shell agony,
I have had so many people come to me saying there tortoise is so active trying to escape all the time so the fruit they feed is obviously doing know harm , but what they fail to see is in most cases the tortoise is in discomfort from a colicky stomach, so this is why we say don't feed fruit as many young Keepers as Sandy has said will son fall into the practise of an easy way out of hunting weeds and soon resort to the Salad draw or the fruit bowel.
Tomatoes are also a citric fruit and cause scouring if over fed again not healthy for the animals as loose feces can attract flies and flY strike is highly likely.
D