Hi

I have recently purchased 2 Hermann's Tortoises from a UK breeder.  I am new to tortoise keeping and just like a baby am worrying about getting it wrong.

I am a little worried about one of my tortoises weight and would really appreciate some advice.  My two tortoises are about 7 months old, I have been weighing them weekly and they both eat together.  The foods I have been feeding them are a mixture of: Dandilions, Sow Thistle, Plantain, Clover, Rocket, Watercress, Kale, Pansys and they have had a florette mix once.  I have 2 weed books to try and look for more variety.

My tortoises weights are

                 Heidi 7.8cm      Milly 7.4cm
25/08/11   92g                  78g
31/08/11   94g                  78g
04/09/11   92g                  77g
12/09/11   89g                  82g
18/09/11   94g                  85g

As you can see Milly has put on a lot of weight which I am concerned about, Milly is the noticably smaller out the two.  Im not sure what to do as Heidi's weight seems ok.  Any advice on what to do would be much appreciated.

Hi and

The weights have been a nice steady progression, but they are at the heavier side of the scale. Firstly are you planning on hibernating them this year or waiting for next year? the reason I ask, is because if you are thinking of hibernating then you want the weights up that scale, if not then you need to regulate it. The way to work out the weights is to divide 85g by 7.4  3 times, you will 0.2097 for Milly, the scale you are looking at and need to go by is

0.16 -underweight

0.17.. low weight but Ok

0.18-19. good weight

20 and above- getting a bit overweight.

This is what I gauge my ones by, if they are getting heavier then I cut down on the food, or you could just feed 6 days out of 7, there are different ways to do it. I used to do the 6 days out of 7, but now just cut the quantity down on some days, as keya started to eat the substrate.
HTH
Jane

Hi Jane

Thank you for your response and sorry for not responding sooner.  I wasnt planning to hibernate them as I had read that if they have had a traumatic year e.g.  moving home this shouldn't be done?

I have started to feed them 6 days and if they are not out have cut there food right down but I weighed them yesterday and they are still gaining weight -eek!

Would it be wise to hibernate if they are on the larger size?

Thanks for your help