| Careful vigilance in hot weather
is essential. Timmie, a small tortoise had some blowflies buzzing round
her but thinking she had just walked through something unpleasant her owner
gave her a hose-down but did not inspect her underside. A few days later,
he noticed her back legs were covered in flies' eggs and was horrified to
discover that her tail was infested with maggots! She had to undergo three
major operations and it was been touch and go whether she would pull through.
Blowflies are a danger not just to tortoises but also to all animals stuck
in dirty hutches. Once hatched, maggots will eat their way into the flesh
of the living animal. The Tortoise Trust recommends bathing a tortoise weekly
in lukewarm water with a spot of Betadine antiseptic solution, followed
by a light rub over the shell with an old toothbrush. This makes the difference
between noticing and not noticing. |
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| They can and they do. Henry,
a tortoise was attacked by an urban fox which gnawed off parts of both front
feet to such an extent that he had to be put down. The fox was seen a few
nights later searching the garden again in quest of such easy pickings.
The tortoise's mechanism of retreating into their shells to avoid danger
does not make them invulnerable. Badgers also attack tortoises. Shut them
up at night. |
| No. You risk poisoning your tortoise.
Tortoises eat snails for the calcium in their shells. If you poison the
snails with any kind of poison, you risk poisoning your tortoise when it
eats the dead or dying snails. Get rid of the snails by hand. Even if your
tortoise is fenced off, a snail might make it through, over or under the
barrier. You will also be saving the life of your local blackbirds, which
can be poisoned by slug bait. |
| Tortoises often drown in garden
ponds. A pond is a disaster waiting to happen. Just because a tortoise has
lived near a pond safely for a number of years doesn't mean it can't happen.
If for some reason the tortoise decides to investigate, it can easily drown.
Ponds should be fenced off with a log roll or a wall, a few inches higher
than the tortoise would be, if it stood on tiptoe on its hind legs. That
way they can't get their front legs over the top. Tortoises have the ability
to suspend functions so they survive longer without air than a mammal. Even
so there are often severe side-effects afterwards such as infected eyes
and pneumonia. |