Caring for a Greek Tortoise
February 5th 2010 20:59
Greek tortoises are another small tortoise species that are pretty popular pets. They come in a few general colors, that are dependent on their location. For the most part though, you'll find the Golden Greek tortoise and the Iberia Greek tortoise. Both are are shades of mustard yellow, but the Iberia Greek is generally going to have much more brown coloring on the scutes, whereas the Golden is a more solid gold-mustard color.
Greek tortoises average about 6" to 10" in length as an adult.
When housing a Greek tortoise, you'll want to stick with a bare minimum of a 50 gallon rubbermaid storage tote, which is about 4'L x 2'W and about a foot and a half tall. It is ideal to have an outdoor enclosure for the tortoise when the weather permits, but during bad weather, an indoor enclosure will suffice.
You want to use a 50/50 ratio of dirt and sand substrate.
The temperature should be about 90 to 95F at the basking site during the day. You can provide this by using a ceramic heat emitter, but you should also use a UV emitting bulb. You can use the UV tubes, but you'll be spending more money replacing them every 4 to 6 months. The bulbs are heat emitting and UV emitting, which is by far optimal; they're a little more expensive from the beginning, but they last a good bit longer, saving you money in the end.
When feeding the tortoise, you want to offer a high fiber diet with plenty of calcium. You can offer calcium in the shape of a cuttle bone that allows the tortoise to much on it as he needs the calcium. This is actually better than sprinkling calcium powder on the greens because you can actually overdose the tortoise on calcium.
When feeding the tortoise, you want to provide a varied diet of leafy greens, grasses, and weeds. Greek tortoises are grazing tortoises, and do really well when they can eat grasses and weeds.
It's a good idea to use the bag of Spring Mix that you can get from the grocery store, but I would recommend varying the diet as different greens become available. Be careful of feeding too much kale and spinach though. Also avoid iceburg lettuce. Try to include romaine lettuce, endive, radachio, red lettuce, and collards on occasion.
You can also offer dandelions, clover, various grasses, and weeds.
Do not offer fruits or any other vegetables, like squash and carrots. This species does best when fed leafy greens and grasses.
You can supplement the food with TNT from carolinapetsupply.com, as this is a ground mix of fresh grasses and weeds. It won't be like the real stuff, but it's a good start to use every few feedings so that your tortoise can get the nutrients that it needs from the grasses that it may not get regularly.
If you want, you may consider growing a small grass and weed garden that you can pull from as needed. Try some of the following seeds.
Greek tortoises average about 6" to 10" in length as an adult.
When housing a Greek tortoise, you'll want to stick with a bare minimum of a 50 gallon rubbermaid storage tote, which is about 4'L x 2'W and about a foot and a half tall. It is ideal to have an outdoor enclosure for the tortoise when the weather permits, but during bad weather, an indoor enclosure will suffice.
You want to use a 50/50 ratio of dirt and sand substrate.
The temperature should be about 90 to 95F at the basking site during the day. You can provide this by using a ceramic heat emitter, but you should also use a UV emitting bulb. You can use the UV tubes, but you'll be spending more money replacing them every 4 to 6 months. The bulbs are heat emitting and UV emitting, which is by far optimal; they're a little more expensive from the beginning, but they last a good bit longer, saving you money in the end.
When feeding the tortoise, you want to offer a high fiber diet with plenty of calcium. You can offer calcium in the shape of a cuttle bone that allows the tortoise to much on it as he needs the calcium. This is actually better than sprinkling calcium powder on the greens because you can actually overdose the tortoise on calcium.
When feeding the tortoise, you want to provide a varied diet of leafy greens, grasses, and weeds. Greek tortoises are grazing tortoises, and do really well when they can eat grasses and weeds.
It's a good idea to use the bag of Spring Mix that you can get from the grocery store, but I would recommend varying the diet as different greens become available. Be careful of feeding too much kale and spinach though. Also avoid iceburg lettuce. Try to include romaine lettuce, endive, radachio, red lettuce, and collards on occasion.
You can also offer dandelions, clover, various grasses, and weeds.
Do not offer fruits or any other vegetables, like squash and carrots. This species does best when fed leafy greens and grasses.
You can supplement the food with TNT from carolinapetsupply.com, as this is a ground mix of fresh grasses and weeds. It won't be like the real stuff, but it's a good start to use every few feedings so that your tortoise can get the nutrients that it needs from the grasses that it may not get regularly.
If you want, you may consider growing a small grass and weed garden that you can pull from as needed. Try some of the following seeds.
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