Perfectly healthy wild growth. in a Testudo graeca graeca. Most captive tortoises are not so fortunate, however, and deformed, damaged examples vastly outnumber healthy ones. Poor quality advice and misleading information is a major contributor to this problem. We are increasingly seeing recommendations that people should rely upon ChatGPT and other, similar AI sources when they have questions about how to care for captive animals, or to learn about conditions certain species

An Egyptian tortoise (Testudo kleinmanni) hatches in one of the incubators described here While you can buy commercial models, the "low cost" designs tend not to be very precise or reliable, while the "professional" designs are incredibly expensive. The good news is that you can make an incubator that will outperform all but the most expensive professional models at very reasonable cost and which is, in addition, very easy to build. by Andy C. Highfield This article covers bu

A female Testudo hermanni carefully positions her eggs Failure to provide adequate nesting sites in captivity can have serious consequences for heath, including an increased danger of egg-retention leading to possible fatal peritonitis. The lack of acceptable nesting sites can also lead to increased stress, and negatively impact upon captive breeding success. Tortoise nesting behaviour can be broken down into several distinct phases: Nest site selection Preparation of the nes

There is a lot of concern (and misinformation) about how tortoises handle potentially dangerous high temperatures in the wild. No-one comes to hose them down or soak them! It can be weeks and even months between rains. So how do they really do it? By the careful and clever use of behaviours designed not only to gain heat when required (basking) but also by other behaviours that are highly effective at losing heat when necessary. This can involve shallow scrapes, as used by Me