Girtie (aka GIRTBALL)

sea shells

stop worrying about your sig

really a sig is a bonus .... to getting good knowledge and advice from the forum


you said you can not find any limestone flour

i find this a bit hard to believe

try sahra's shop !!

[sarah]

Yes i do sell limestone flour in my shop (See link in my signature) i cannot stress how important it is to get her out of that vivarium and liek sue said in the garden in the summer. Also her diet is very wrong that is why she has a pyramided shell.

Tell tayor he can email me if he wants to sort this out.

[Sea-Shells]

i am aware of dangers so dont worry.
and wizzasmum, lol i do put her in the garden when its hot days, she doesnt have an outdoor enclosure but our garden isnt soo big and shes noticable...and she just walks about eatings the grass,dandelions,clovers and other weeds.
she does have a weed diet, she eats clovers,dandelions,bind weeds and sowthistle...i bathe her once a day and she loves her bathes.
and i asked one of my freinds who keeps tortoises and shes got loads of limestone flour she said shell give me some.
her shell was already pyamided when i got her...and shes grew like this. i wont put her in a tabletop as she doesnt like them and i dont want to stress her, ill be putting her back into a rabbit cage soon as she seems to be happy and lively.

[sarah]

Sorry dont understand do you mean she carried on growing lumpy?? Glad you are feeding her correctly but make sure you only give her weeds. When i first had my tunisian i fed her on supermarket food and her shell got slightly lumpy shell, after lots of research i fed her on a weed diet, with nutrobal 3-4 times a week and limestone flour every day. Her shell now grows smooth the lumpy part will always be there but is now smoothing out because of the new flat growth.
It is also important that you dont over feed, only feed for an hour a day.

Here is a picture of my female tunisian notice the new flat growth




The picture you gave us in the first post how old is she?

I realise you probably think it's OK to put her out and take her in again to suit you but that is quite a stressful life for a tortoise and a rabbit cage is quite a cruel option (in my opinion) for an adult tortoise. I have just had a tortoise staying here for a fortnight while it's owners were on holiday and it has had to go into a large puppy pen to avoid putting it in the garden with my own torts. I felt like the cruelest person on this earth and couldn't wait to get it home to its own enclsoure(for the torts sake). If you have a small garden and it is safe and escape proof, why not leave your tortoise in the garden permanently with a heated area for bad weather. Tortoises like to walk around the garden even in the rain and on shady days, in fact we have very littel sun here today but all my torts are having a whale of a time out there. I don't think you would take a small dog outdoors for a run round and then bring it indoors to a small cage - would you? It seems a pretty sad life for an animal to me
Pleas think about this torts lifestyle, as though you were a tort and not a human

[Sea-Shells]

girtie seems happy enough with how i keep her. she likes the rabbit cage better than anything else...and i know to you its cruel in a rabbit cage for a fully grown tortoise, but beleive me her home is huge so shes not cooped up in a small ho0me.
she gets on with my cats and my giant bunny when she roams my bedroom.
wixxasmum, i know your very concerned but girtie is ok in her home.
yes, when i got girtie, hershell was already fairly lumpy, but she had just grown with a lumpy shell its never smoothed out or anything.

[Sea-Shells]

Oh and she is 7 years old now, and is roughyl 6-7 inches long about 6 inches wide and i dunno hieght shes pretty high.
i gotta hold her with 2 hands and hold her REALL|Y REALLY tight as she kicks hard

It's just very unnatural for a tortoise to live in these conditions. What if she ever develops eggs - she will not be able to dig holes in a cage. How do you KNOW she is happy. It is impossible for her to thermoregulate as nature intended her to You have already seen how her shell has developed - it does not just happen as you say, it's a result of incorrect husbandry. I would like to bet that if you put her in a garden with other tortoises and then put her back in this cage it would be a different reaction altogether, she would be begging to get out. Are you saying she just sits there and does not move, as this is not natural behaviour anyway. Some people put dogs in kennels and others keep horses in stables, fish in gold fish bopwls etc. It does not make it right does it? And yes you are right I am concerned and wish I did not see so many situations that upset me like this

[Sea-Shells]

no offence wizzasmum, but your over reacting a tad bit dont you reckon, girtie is happy because shes awake about eating climbing very active shes awake allll day and sleeps from roughyl 11 pm at night then wakes up at 9 am.
i feed her 2 times a day.
NOW correct me if im wrong but i thought when a tortoise isnt happy, they dont eat much, they sleep or dont move alot...and seem down and dull? now girtie isnt like this, shes awake alert eating drinking moving climbing everyhting a normal happy tortoise should be doing.
so a rabbit cage thats not the wooden type its like plastic on the bottom and bars on top? shes happy in this. its big enough for her to have walking space.

MABY we should leave this topic as it is cuz this sounds like it might get either a bit personal or a bit messy

[sarah]

Hello you should only feed your tortoise once a day for an hour and remove anyfood after the hour. It is easy to over feed a tortoise you have to be strong. I even gice my tortoises days off food so they have no food at all. Slow growth is the key aim for 1g -4g weight gain a month.