Make A Habitat for Hermann’s Tortoises

Hermann's tortoises are naturally suited to hot, humid environs. If you are going to keep tortoises healthy in captivity, you must mimic their natural ecosystem. Make sure that they have plenty of light, heat, and space to dig. Happy, healthy Hermann’s tortoises can live for as long as 75 years.

Steps

Building the Enclosure

1. Decide whether you want an indoor or outdoor habitat. Hermann’s tortoises can be kept either indoors or outdoors, as long as the weather permits. Tortoises need to regularly bask in the heat of the sun or a lamp. Consider the positive and negative consequences of each option: it might be easier to find space for your tortoises outside the house, but an indoor environment may be easier to maintain. This particular kind of tortoise has a specific temperature range, so it may not be feasible to keep a tortoise outside if you live in a cold region.
2. Create an indoor habitat. To start, build a box out of plywood or a plastic container. Build the enclosure at least four by three feet or eight times longer than your tortoise; adults are usually 6-8 inches long. Bear in mind that these are absolute minimum values. If possible, your enclosure should be even larger on all sides.
   • If you build the enclosure out of wood, be careful not to use cedar or pine. The acids in the wood can harm your tortoises.
   • Make sure to build a floor into the enclosure. Coat the floor with sand and soil to give the tortoises a place to dig. If you use an indoor habitat, it should mimic the outdoors as much as possible.
3. Try building a "tortoise table". There are different kinds of indoor pens, but a “tortoise table” is a simple and cost-effective solution. Start with a bookcase (or a wardrobe with the doors removed) laid on its back. Sink a tray for water into the wood. The tray should be large enough for the tortoise to stand in, but not deep enough to submerge its head. Lay a substrate of mixed compost and sand to a depth of about 10cm.
4. Build an outdoor enclosure. Choose a warm, dry area that gets a lot of sun. As always, the more roaming space the better. Put a fence around the area so that your tortoise(s) cannot escape. Other animals may hurt your tortoises if they wander too far and get lost.
   • It's much easier to house a tortoise outside if where you live gets to around 65-80 degrees Fahrenheit or 18-26 degrees Celsius, but if you don't live in a tropical or subtropical region, you must build an indoor enclosure.
   • Hermann’s tortoises love to dig, so be sure to put your fence deep into the ground. Try building your enclosure atop something solid that the tortoises cannot dig through. This might be concrete, brick, or wood. For a cheap and effective barrier, try laying down chicken wire beneath a few inches of soil.
   • Consider which direction your garden faces – the direction from which it gets most of its sun. If you have a north-facing garden, prepare the tortoise for hibernation by late September. Otherwise, your tortoises may stay out until late October, if it stays warm and dry enough.
5. Fill the enclosure with substrate. Make sure to use a filling with a fine grain. It is very important that the surface of the soil is dry: damp environments can cause tortoises to develop "shell-rot" or dermatitis before developing into respiratory disease if the tortoise is unable to completely dry off daily.
   • Do not use bedding that can be a habitat for mold or fungus such as bark chips.
   • Newspaper, pellets, and sand couldn't hold enough moisture, they're not appropriate burrowing material either.
   • Avoid clay-type soil, as this type of earth tend to hold much more moisture than regular soil.
   • You can mix different types of substrates to create a suitable bedding, one of the most common combination is topsoil with play sand.

Regulating Heat and Light

1. Keep the habitat warm. The temperature should be 80-90°F/26-32°C during daytime and 65-70°F/18-21°C at night. If you are keeping your tortoises indoors, you must also provide plenty of light and a place to bask.
   • Consider keeping a small thermostat in the enclosure so that you can monitor the temperature and keep it steady. This is most important at first, as you establish the tortoises in their new environment.
   • The tortoise should be okay if it is cool at night, as long as it is also dry. Make sure that your tortoise can raise its temperature during the day.
2. Set up a basking spot by using a heat lamp and a UV lamp. Tortoises bask in the sunlight in order to digest and absorb nutrients from their food. You don't need to build anything special – just ensure that one part of the enclosure will always be warm enough to meet the needs of a post-meal tortoise.
   • Look for ceramic heating bulbs that do not emit light. You can leave these bulbs on at night as well.
   • If you build your enclosure outdoors in a hot region, then you don't need to worry about making an artificial basking spot. Your tortoises will bask in the heat of the sun.
3. Light up the enclosure during the day. If you are keeping your tortoises indoors, out of direct sunlight, keep the space lit with a UVB light bulb of at least 5W (five watts). Set the light up in a central location – it should illuminate the entire space. Leave the light on for 8-12 hours a day.
   • Tortoises like it hot, but they won't be able to safely handle temperatures much higher than 80 degrees F. If the habitat gets too hot, move the bulb. Hang it higher above the enclosure.
4. Keep the humidity around 50 – 65%. Consider using a humidifier to regulate moisture levels. Place the humidifier directly into the enclosure, or just humidify the entire room. This is especially important if you live in a cold climate and use heating in the house – central heating tends to dry up the air.

Filling and Maintaining the Enclosure

1. Build hiding places. Hermann’s tortoises like to dig and hide, so it is important to provide a place where they can feel safe. Try building a small "tortoise house", or simply giving the tortoises a plastic food container with a hole to enter and exit.. Tortoises tend to sleep in their "hiding area".
   • This is especially important if you are keeping your tortoises in a very hot place. Make sure that your animals have a shady place to retreat if they get too hot.
   • If you have an outdoor enclosure, make sure that it is safe from predators – including birds. Tortoises are hardy creatures, but they cannot defend themselves against all animals.
2. Provide ample food and water. Hermann’s tortoises do not eat meat or grains. They eat a variety of vegetables (endive, radicchio, dandelion) – ideally, weeds and some flowers. Give them fresh food every day and every other day when they're older, wash it carefully with water before serving. Replenish a supply of clean water in a shallow bowl or container daily.
   • Tortoises also need calcium in their diet. Let them nibble small pieces of grit from your garden. They are also fond of clover.
   • If Hermann leaves something, it means they do not like it. It usually easy to tell a tortoise's preferences by watching its behavior.
   • Hermann's tortoises kept outdoors will often make a point of coming out during a rainstorm and drinking from puddles.
   • Never feed a tortoise with cat or dog food. Dog and cat food usually contain meat, grains, and other bits that tortoises can't easily digest or over consume.
3. Keep the space clean. Replenish the water and food trays daily. Change the substrate once a month, or whenever it seems especially filthy - If you can't afford to completely refill the substrate, try churning the soil and/or plant live greenery that absorbs Ammonia and Nitrates.
4. Be cautious about keeping multiple tortoises in the same enclosure. Be aware that putting many tortoises together can cause problems, that includes enclosure space issues. Two males, put together, will tend to fight over territorial disputes. However, tension may also arise if the female to male ratio is too small: the male often won't leave the female alone, and she can become too stressed. If you notice that the tortoises are bothering one another, you need to move them into separate enclosures.
5. Be gentle and give them space. Hermann's tortoises do not usually enjoy behind handled. Make sure to treat your animals gently when moving them into their new enclosure. Hold a tortoise with two clean hands, and do not drop it. Avoid handling the tortoises for at least a few days after you bring them home. They can be slow to adjust, and they need time to settle into their new enclosure.

Warnings

• When providing a hiding area, make sure that the tortoises cannot fall down or flip over from climbing over it. Domed or arched hiding spots reduces these incidents from occurring.
• If a tortoise stays on its back (carapace), their stomach eventually presses on to their lungs which causes difficulty breathing, and if they're exposed to a heat source, they can overheat as they couldn't retreat into cooler areas.
• If you keep your pet tortoises outdoors, make sure there is shade available to prevent them from overheating.
• When providing a water dish, make sure that it is shallow and that the water does not reach above their carapace. Hermann’s tortoises can drown in water.
• Make sure you also cover the top of your outdoor pen. It can be covered with wire or plastic mesh. This will prevent birds, dogs, cats, and wildlife (raccoons, opossums and skunks) from climbing over and eating your tortoises.
• Make sure you leave some area that is not covered with grass to allow the tortoise to dry off or dampen itself. If you do plant grass or any other plants in the tortoise enclosure, make sure that you aren't using any pesticides or chemical fertilizers. The tortoises love to eat the grass.

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Sources and Citations

See also

• Make a Turtle Environment
• Clean a Turtle Tank
• Set Up a Turtle Tank
• Create an Indoor Box Turtle Habitat
• Build an Indoor Aquatic Turtle Pond

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• Create an Indoor Box Turtle Habitat