Pawsome Pet Pick – The Hermann Tortoise
In the U.K tortoises are a great family addition to have. They are nice natured with lots of personality and good for young children as they are low maintenance and fun to learn about as a family.
In our opinion one of the easiest tortoises to become part of your family is the non-hibernating Herman Tortoise, there are some things to consider though before buying one of these beautiful creatures.
1. They grow and live quite a long time! Fully grownaround 5-11 inches and about 7-9lbs females are around 12% larger than males. They live for around 30 years so you need to consider what space you have available for them.
2. They are cold blooded; so you will need a heat lamp for at least 12-14 hours a day which you would have on a timer to provide sufficient heat 32c -38c under the lamp area and maintain their housing vivarium to a temperature around 15-22c.
3. They need a variation of day and night so room temperature is perfect for them when not under the lamp basking.
4. A housing area will need to be provided for down time if they seek it. The size of your enclosure should be as big as you can manage. You can buy pet bedding for tortoises from local pet shops as well as heating lamps, shallow water bowls used to keep a constant supply of fresh water, feeding bowl to put their food into food pellets and calcium for when they are young until they can eat a more varied diet.
5. They enjoy a varied diet. In the wild they eat up to 200 variations of foliage in a year they would find themselves so you will aim to replicate that as best as you can and you should feed them fresh food every day.
Diet is a selection of green vegetation such as curly kale, leafy salad, water cress, broccoli, parsley, rocket, cucumber, strawberries, cauliflower leaves, apple all in a small quantity. These should be mixed with pellets still as part of the diet for an adult.
6. Tortoises enjoy interaction; some like being stroked, a neck tickle or a shell scratch and others may make a bond with a particular family member. They have big personalities for such a small creatures and like to have a roam around the house outside of the vivarium to stretch their legs!
