8 replies to this topic

[Slothy85]

Hi,

I got home today and saw that a couple of scales on my torts head were loose and out of position. I gave him a bath and the scales came out in the bath. She is 4 years old and I've never noticed something like this and think she may have injured herself. I've attached a photo of her head and the scales. Is there any action that I need to take or is it ok and she will just self-repair.

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[wizzasmum]

It looks as though your tortoise has caught its head on something. How are you keeping it? If there is wire netting or similar it will try to walk through it, resulting in the type of injury shown. I’d bathe with a weak iod8ne solution and leave it to repair itself ;)

[Slothy85]

It got out of its tortoise table and was walking around the floorThere isn't any wire about anywhere so I'm not sure exactly what she hurt herself on.

Thanks for the advice

[wizzasmum]

Tortoises walking around houses, so often get hurt, thats why its recommended that they are kept outdoors in the habitats in summer and in safe indoor habitats or in hibernation over winter. If its fallen from a height, its very possibly received the injury then. Does it have deep soil to dig into?

[Slothy85]

Thanks. I take him outside as often as I can however I'm unable to build him an enclosure out there an am worried about him getting attack by birds. Also living in the UK I'm not sure how long I could leave him out there for safely due to the cooler temperatures.
On escaping the table he would have fell about 6 inches. He doesn't have very deep soil to dig into in his table around 1-2 inches.

[wizzasmum]

Well, it’s too late to look at outdoor housing now, but I’d seriously consider it for next year. 4 years is much too old to be confined to a Tortoise Table. He really needs to be outdoors to thrive as it’s not possible for a tortoise to live indoors, long term. Have a look at Karen’s enclosures on here.

[babettebeau]

To reassure you, most of the keepers and at least the active ones on this forum live in the UK and some even north of the UK and a lot of us keep our torts outdoors at least for April to September, some keep theirs outdoors longer. Here is below the initial basic information on outdoor enclosures:

Regarding protection from predators from the sky (birds) and from the ground (foxes, rats etc) and also to avoid your tortoise to escape, you need to put wire adequately around your enclosure, but the base of your enclosure should be solid and not wire.

Electrics: heat lamp is 100% required for tortoises in the UK outdoors.

Shelter: cold frame in aluminium is good as shelter to start with. Some people have sheds. The heat lamp should be installed in the shelter. Please note that rabbit hutches are too low to install a heat lamp.

Please read the posts in the outdoor enclosure section on his forum that will give you further information on outdoor enclosures.

Also you can Google images for tortoise outdoor enclosures in Google to get ideas of what people have done.

Should have any questions on outdoor enclosures please let us know.we are happy to help

Hopefully that is helpful.

Sabina

[babettebeau]

Also for example my two torts are 4 years old like yours and they live outdoors each year from April to September and I am in the UK too. They hibernate 3 months and the rest (3 months) they live indoors at this age.

Sabina

So yes it is possible to have yours torts outdoors with adequate equipment.

[wizzasmum]

Sabina has given good advice here ;)