The Tortoise Table

Hello people of Reddit! I’m 16 years old, and my parents and I have been looking at getting a Hermann’s tortoise as a pet in about 2 weeks. I’ve done as much research as humanly possible, but still wanted to get some advice from actual tortoise owners, as the internet has been giving me mixed results. I already have a proper enclosure, heat lamp and such, so if I could get advice on anything around food(I know it eats dark leafy greens like spinach, but I was told to not give it the same thing every day), handling it, and anything around stress that would be wonderful!! Thank you

Hi GerardBeal and welcome to The Tortoise Table.

It is excellent that you are doing your research before you get your tortoise -- some people don't and end up with big problems. Here is a link to a good care sheet for Hermann's tortoises: https://www.tortoise-protection-group.o ... 014New.pdf

The main things to get right are: having an open tortoise table and not an enclosed vivarium, having adequate heat and light and also UVB (either as an all-in-one mercury vapour bulb or a heat/light bulb plus a separate tube for UVB), being able to raise and lower your heat/light bulb to increase or decrease the temperature in the table as needed, and having a good substrate like a mixture of screened topsoil and sand.

Regarding food, I'm afraid spinach is not good for tortoises, as it is too high in oxalic acid (have a read of our entry for spinach here: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/pla ... nt=608&c=8 The best food for tortoises is weeds and flowers from plants that are safe to eat (dandelions, plantain, sowthistle, campaula, hawksbeard, pansies and many more). You are right in saying that you shouldn't feed him the same food every day -- as wide a variety of food as is possible is best for them.

You can look up any plant on our database to see if it's safe, and you can also use the filter tool on our database to produce lists for yourself of plants that are good to eat. Just go to this page and scroll down to the section called 'How to Use the Traffic Light Filters' and go from there, and if you have any problems or a question about a plant that you can't find on the website, just let us know and we will research it for you. https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/pla ... -database/

You must be so excited about the arrival of your tortoise! If you'd like to send us a photo of your set-up, we're happy to look at it and suggest a few tweaks if necessary, but it sounds to me like you've got things well in hand. And do send us a photo of your new tortoise when he arrives (we never get tired of looking at photos of tortoises! ). Do you have a name for him yet?

Nina