Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Starting to acquire some "BLACK" Burmese Mt. Tortoises....Got 8 total now. Some adults, some babies, some yearlings. Not the flashiest tortoise in the world, but dang they sure are neat.....Enjoy....

Barry

Nice looking lot Barry. Curious about what your setup is for the large animals and if you keep them outdoors? I am alway interested in knowing how folks keep larger animals such as these.

Paul

Hi
Nice torts, but I would change their diet to something healthier than fruit, romain lettuce, bell peppers and squash. All these are ok in very small amounts, but you have a high phosphorous and low calcium ratio here. The romaine might be in the proper ratio, but otherwise nutritionaly it is useless. switch to dandelyon greens instead of the romain.
Good luck breeding them.

Their main diet consists of turnip greens, collard greens, mustard greens, and grazing on natural grasses in the yard. I also give them mazuri from time to time as well along with some fruits occasionally. The pic you see is just of them having to be inside from the cold and getting a littl treat......

Thanks

Yeah, sometimes you have to throw the feeding rule book out the window when they have to be brought in out of the cold. Sorry to have doubted you, Sounds like you know what your doing.
speaking of cold and burmese browns, aren't they pretty active in cool weather? When I got married, I chose to honeymoon in San Diego just to see the Galapagos torts at the san diago zoo. It was the first day of spring, and as luck would have it, it was very cool and rainy out, I'd say about 60 to 65'f. All the tortoises were put away except the burmese browns and the russian torts who were cruising around like it was august or something. I'm sure anything below 60'f would probably be even to cold for them.
Elliott

Hi Elliot,

I live in San Diego and while it doesn't get terribly cold here, it can get pretty cold. The days warm up pretty warm and that's where some folks can get into problems I think.....Letting their tortoises get cold, but the warm up, then cool down, etc.......Plus nights here can be pretty humid with the cold fog and if they don't have adaquate shelter, they breathe in that cold, damp air, then you've got problems. These guys are very cold tolerant, and I can put them outside in my yard and not worry about them escaping, but I just don't have adaquate shelter for them yet. These guys I have are the "Black" ones and not the browns, but I don't think there is much difference in care between the two. Thanks for sharing.

Barry