Crazy Manouria

[John1982]

George and Martha tackling a large elephant ear.

















Some canned pumpkin, carrots, celery and a bit of spring salad mix.











They don't get to dress up for halloween but they certainly enjoy the treats. I cut windows for easier access and let them gnaw on it for a couple days.

[AlexisFitzy]

I love these two! They are so cool


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[artgecko]

I thought elephant ears were mildly toxic.... I guess they aren't to tortoises. Great photos btw! Tortoises are so neat and at times I have entertained the thought of keeping one, but the feeding and upkeep is too great for me. Great setup you have for them btw.

[John1982]

I thought elephant ears were mildly toxic....

They most certainly are, do not feed colocasia to any species except manouria! In the wild these tortoises feed on these plants and since I'm a fan of reproducing natural diet as much as possible they get their fair share here. The breeder who produced these told me about a researcher in Borneo that was having no success finding manouria for his paper. Eventually a ranger told them to look for the plants and check for bite marks. Using this method they were able to locate ample manouria for their research thus making their trip a success.

[BWyant]

I cannot help but literally belly laugh at their dirty face pictures.

Hey, I live in Alabama and I had great success this year dumping some sweet potatoes into an old tire and filling it with dirt. One nice thing about sweet potatoes is that they seem pretty easy to grow.

[John1982]

I cannot help but literally belly laugh at their dirty face pictures.

Hey, I live in Alabama and I had great success this year dumping some sweet potatoes into an old tire and filling it with dirt. One nice thing about sweet potatoes is that they seem pretty easy to grow.

I'll have to try the tire thing next year. I did have some sweet potato vine growing out of my compost but they were small still, like string beans, when I pulled them out. I tilled up a little 4 x 20 plot last week and planted some collards that'll hopefully provide a good bit of their winter diet.

[se7en]

i need to convert my balcony into what would suffice for living quarters for a small breed of tortoise

they look like fun

@john1982- how do you have your outside heated hide set up?

[John1982]

i need to convert my balcony into what would suffice for living quarters for a small breed of tortoise

they look like fun

@john1982- how do you have your outside heated hide set up?

Sounds like an interesting project with the balcony. You could even do some kind of tortoise door that leads inside to a heated hide and get away with much less insulation depending on your location. Tortoises are loads of fun and a pleasure to keep. I recommend them highly if you have the time and the passion.

Their first couple of winters outside I used bottom heat with a not so durable plastic heating pad that I believe was made for dogs. It worked but took a beating and was a pain to clean all the time - it quickly became their favorite place to drop waste. After 2 winters of use the tortoises had pretty well destroyed the heating mat and I knew it was time for a new design.

The last 6-7 years I've been using the same setup of enclosed top heat. It works well and, my favorite part, never gets crapped on by the tortoises. The mat also never comes in contact with the tortoises so it will last much longer - been using the same heat pad on this setup since I made the thing. It's simply the bottom half of one of those old dog igloos, flipped upside down, with a kane heat mat screwed into the ceiling. Just be sure to cut off any protruding screws on the top to protect your torts should they decide to take a climb.

Kane heating mats are fantastic and the brand I used. They're made for pigs and are designed to handle major beatings. Mine came with a guard on the first couple feet of cord which protects it very nicely from chelonian shenanigans too.

I go through one small bale of hay, used for insulation, each winter. They run about $5-7 around here. When the weather starts getting cooler I also bury the outside rim of the retreat to help it hold heat. Most days it gets warm enough that I unplug it and some nights I don't have to use it either. Depending on your species and outside temperatures you have to figure that part out. On the colder nights(below 40F) I stuff the entrance with hay and the torts plow out the following morning when they're ready.

It's in use right now but in a couple months, when I put it into storage, I can get better pictures. Until then, here are a couple shots of George doing his thing. They love to come out of the hide on cool mornings, climb up on top, then nestle down into the hay while waiting for the weather to warm. Then when I come in the enclosure they slide down like goofballs to greet me. The torts also love to scatter the hay EVERYWHERE but it only takes a minute to rake it up and toss it back on top and around the hide each evening.

Here's George getting ready to slide:

[se7en]

nice. thanks for the info.

if i do get one, it'll probably be this summer.

i'd have to do more research, but it appears they require much more attention and care than BPs.