faster than the hare (Tortoise)

Member Name: barbie84

Product:	Tortoise
Date:	01/03/08 (361 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy maintanance pets

Disadvantages: expensive to set up

The importation of tortoises began a very long time ago, over 120 years ago.

It is estimated that around 100,000 tortoises are imported to the uk every year, these are not the most popular pet and ranging from £100 to over £1000 each i dont think they will ever be as popular as a hamster so where are all these tortoises going, there must be a lot of deaths.

Tortoises are land dwelling animal that lay eggs, can live for hundreds of years and eat anything green.

Hermans tortoises are the easiest to keep, they only eat veg and there favorites are dandilions, leafy greens and grass.
They grow to less than 10 inches which is quite small compared with other breeds.

We keep our hermans on sand substrate as they would normally come from very dry arid places and i have bermuda grass in the tank to eat and hide in.

Tortoises need a basking spot in there tanks of at least 90'c at one end and a cooler side of 78'c. They need a strong uv light which should be on for no less than 12 hours a day i prefer a d3 bulb for this not a strip light as the uv rays travel a lot further.

A lot of reptile owners dont know that a uv tube only emmits uv for 8 inches and needs to be changed every 6 months. A d3 will emmit uv over 4 foot and will do this untill the bulb eventually burns out.

You will need a shalow water bowl as tortoises are not very good at climbing and you will need to give added calcium by powdering there food with a supliment.

You will also need to bath your tortoise at least once a week and clean there shell with a soft nail brush to prevent infections.

Tortoises are easy to care for if you have the right set up which will cost you anything from £200 upwards, they are great pets, easy to look after, very friendly and fun to watch.

Tortoises are supposed to be slow but if mine see something they want they get a right stomp on.

Summary: a great pet