The Turtle Blog » tortoise

Do I need to use a calcium supplement for my tortoise?

admin — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 03:23:41 +0000

Any turtle or tortoise kept indoors needs to be fed calcium supplements. The calcium supplements should include Vitamin D3 and should be accompanied by a good UV lighting system for maximum beneficial effects.

Any turtle or tortoise kept outdoors should be supplemented with calcium without Vitamin D3.

We have eggs!

admin — Fri, 01 May 2009 03:31:37 +0000

It’s egg-laying season for the majority of our turtles and tortoises and there are eggs to be dug up everywhere! Today alone we got Cuora flavomarginatas, spotted turtles, redfoot tortoises, Nicaraguan wood turtles, and albino red-eared sliders.

Digging eggs is a morning and evening ritual every day of the week now for the next several months. Which means for us: massive hangnails, dirty/broken fingernails, and lacerations on the finger tips. Why do we have these problems? It is very important that we hand dig the eggs as using a shovel puts the eggs at risk for being broken. It’s tough work but it pays off when you see a cute little face with an egg-tooth looking out at you on hatch day

What plants in my garden are poisonous to my box turtle or tortoise?

admin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:29:43 +0000

There are many plants that could prove lethal to your turtle or tortoise so the following list consists of just a *few* of the more common ones:

Chrysanthemums (“mums”)
Daffodils
Euphorbia
Privet
Crocus
Cyclamen
Delphinium
Foxglove
Hydrangea
Jasmine
Lilly of the valley
Lobelia
Lupine
Mistletoe
Potato leaves
Rhubarb leaves
Rhododendron
Wisteria
Yew

It is imperative that you do not use any toxic garden chemicals such as weed killers, pesticides, mouse/rat/slug poison, etc.

What are some beginner tortoises?

admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:42:00 +0000

We always recommend Redfoot tortoises for beginners. They are very hardy and easy to take care of. Some other tortoises you might consider are Russian and Hermanns tortoises as they stay small (4-6″ and 8″ respectively).

How can I be sure my female tortoise/box turtle is getting enough calcium?

admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:45:04 +0000

During egg-laying season it is very important to be sure that your female tortoise/turtle is receiving adequate amounts of calcium to ensure proper egg formation. We do this by placing multiple cuttlebones in their feeding area. We do this every 2 weeks during egg-laying season and once a month in the off season. It is also a good way to ensure that both males and females have calcium available to them at all times to support their bones. Cuttlebones can be found at your local pet store, most grocery stores, and can also be ordered online at http://www.reptilesupply.com.

Why is iceberg lettuce not recommended for reptiles?

admin — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:05:31 +0000

People have long been told not to feed their reptiles iceberg lettuce because it does not contain enough of the essential nutrients necessary to keep your animal healthy and because it is “mostly water”. Both varieties of lettuce contain the same nutrients however romaine lettuce contains almost 3 times the amount found in iceberg. Iceberg can be fed to your reptile but should not replace romaine or other greens in their diet.

What does an ear infection in turtles or tortoises look like?

admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:58:11 +0000

When turtles and tortoises get ear infections, you will most commonly see a swelling on the side of their head. This is more commonly known as an abscess. Unlike infections in humans, when turtles and tortoises develop pus, it solidifies into a ball. This occurs because, although turtles/tortoises can absorb moisture through their skin, they cannot release moisture from underneath the skin. When this happens, it is imperative that you take your animal to see a veterinarian, preferably one that specializes in herps. If left to heal on its own, it can lead to serious complications such as eye problems, the rupturing of their ear, and even death.

Brrr…it’s cold!

admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:42:47 +0000

So when people think of Florida, they think of beautiful, sunny, hot weather. WRONG! We are experiencing quite the cold snap right now here at the farm. It has been quite the undertaking to ensure the health and comfort of all of the animals. We have brought all of our baby turtles in and locked all of our breeders and sub-adults up in their nest boxes with infrared heat lamps going to keep them warm. That means we had to move thousands of animals around and this is something that we have been doing almost every other week due to the erratic weather of “Sunny Florida”.

We hope that all of you reptile/amphibian enthusiasts out there are taking the necessary precautions to keep your animals safe as well. If you are not sure how to set them up or what to do, feel free to contact us and we can help!

Turtle/Tortoise Kits on the Way!!

admin — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:46:22 +0000

In just a few days we will be launching our new turtle and tortoise kits. There will be 3 types of kits available – 1 for turtles and 2 for tortoises (either forest/tropical or savannah/grassland). They will be available in different sizes depending on the size of your tank. We cannot ship glass so you will have to purchase the tank and a screen lid either from your local pet store or another tank dealer.

What the kits will include:

Turtle- proper filtration for tank size specified, lighting, basking platforms, water conditioners, and food

Tortoise- proper substrate, lighting, hide, mineral supplement (ex. vitamin/calcium dust), water bowl, and food

We will make an announcement on here and on the home page of the website once they become available!

General Hatchling Tortoise Care

admin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:52:26 +0000

This is intended as a basic set of husbandry techniques to follow to help insure the health of your new hatchling tortoise. The following techniques have been used with great success by our breeding facility for close to thirty years. We have refined our practices to help to insure the health and proper growth of our hatchling tortoises.

Purchasing your tortoise is one of the most important factors in its survival. We ask all of our potential customers to, please, research the animal you intend on purchasing BEFORE you buy it. Always have its enclosure set up and supplies on hand BEFORE you bring it home. Here is a basic checklist to follow when making the purchase to give you a heads up on its health. We know that you can’t always be present during the selection of your tortoise due to Internet sales, so make sure that you are buying from a reputable breeder. Ask questions on how they are kept and what their feeding regime is. Ask what type of lighting is being used and what, if any, dietary minerals are being supplemented and how often. Ask to see pictures of the exact tortoise that you will be receiving and when it was approximately hatched. In the event that you can purchase your tortoise in person, here are a few more things that you can look for. The shell of your new tortoise should be firm to hard. All newborns will have a certain amount of “flex” to their shells but they should not be overly soft. Make sure that the area around the yolk sac on the plastron is well healed and is not moist or has any discharge coming from it. The animal should have clear eyes and they should both open. Watch for gaping or discharge from the nose or mouth. This is a sign of an upper respiratory disease and all specimens in that container should be avoided. The most important thing is to ask questions. If the person you are buying from can’t answer your questions, I would think twice about the purchase. Although you take all these precautions, the fact remains that this is a living animal and could always have an underlying problem that is not easily seen. Please quarantine all new animals before introduction to your existing collection.

First in the rearing of your hatchling is the habitat in which it will be placed. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a clean environment. All bedding materials should be changed on a weekly basis. The tank or enclosure should be disinfected with each cleaning and we recommend using a mixture of 2% Chlorhexidine and water at a rate of 2 oz. Chlorhexidine to 30 oz of water mixed in a spray bottle. The chlorhexadine can be purchased at any veterinarian clinic and at some internet supply houses. This mixture will disinfect the surfaces of the enclosure and most importantly will not harm your hatchling. This mixture may also be used as a disinfectant for cuts and abrasions that may occur on your tortoise through its life. Each tortoise species has specific needs for bedding and other environmental needs that will be covered in individual species descriptions.

All tortoises need a clean and fresh source of water available at all times. We use a vitamin and electrolyte supplement once weekly added to the water in either their drinking source or the soaking container. All baby tortoises are very susceptible to dehydration and should be soaked in a container at least twice weekly. This is a very good time to add calcium and vitamins to the water as most tortoises will drink as soon as they are placed in the water. The soaking will help with two major issues in a baby tortoises life. Those are hydration and the stimulation to defecate and clean out the digestive tract. The water should be at room temperature and no deeper than ¼ – ½ inches in depth. They should be allowed to soak for approximately one hour. Please keep a good watch over your babies to insure that they do not tip over and drown.

The calcium demand for a newly hatched tortoise is considerable and it is very easy for deficiencies to happen in the first few months of their lives. Babies that get “soft shell” a form of osteodystrophy, are almost always caused by too much dietary proteins and not enough dietary minerals. It is very important to balance this and to add a calcium and mineral supplement to their food source at least three times weekly to help prevent “soft shell” and other carapace deformities from occurring.

We never mix species in one enclosure. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first reason is that most species require different environmental needs. There is not a “one enclosure fits all” category. The second reason is disease control. Most species have built up immunities to certain diseases that are found in their environment. When a different species is introduced, you run the risk of spreading a disease that the other species does not have any immunity to and vise versa. We also recommend that all new animals be quarantined from your existing population for at least 30 days to ensure that they are healthy and will not spread any disease to your established animals.

Lighting and heat are of major importance to your hatchling. Proper levels of UVA/UVB are essential in the proper growth of your tortoise and metabolism of calcium. Remember that all tortoises are cold-blooded animals and need a heat source and a cooling area in their enclosure so that they can thermoregulate their body temperature. They need to be able to reach optimum temperature to increase their metabolism and to ensure the proper digestion of their food . We have found the power sun bulbs work very well for heating and some UVA/UVB output. We also use coil type UV bulbs to ensure that our hatchlings are receiving proper amounts of UVA/UVB light waves. The strip lights do not give off enough to make a significant difference. Again, different species have different optimum temperature ranges and different UVA/UVB ranges.

We hope that this will help you in the basic care of your new baby tortoise. These are all techniques that we use with great success . Good luck with your new pet.