Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm thinking of setting up a few torts in a fairly large outdoor enclosure. We live in south-central Texas, just to the NW of San Antonio, and the climate is hot/dry most of the year and cool/dry for about 2-3 months in winter. It seldom (average just a couple times a year) drops below freezing-and even then the day might be in the 60s-low 70s!.

I'd like to keep the torts out year-round, so any suggestions as to the best species? I know Russians would have trouble hibernating with the high daytime winter temps....
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

Dear Brad, I have moved my herd of T. marginata, T. graeca-ibera, and "Russians" from the North to the South of the State of California and found them to be hardy and adaptable, even to the lowland tropical desert where we now reside. Any of the above and probably Hermann's would be reasonable choices. All have great, "outgoing" personalities, eat a varied diet of plants and weeds, many of which you can grow yourself or gather,attain reasonable size and not difficult to breed, reasonable price, etc. Mine use artificial burrows during the intense heat of Summer here, where they aestivate. I love all the above, and you will too. Good luck, Vic H., Imperial Valley, CA.

Thanks very much for the suggestions! You don't think the warm winter days will disrupt the Russians' hibernation cycle, or would I have to refridgerate them?
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

Dear Brad, maybe you could make an artificial burrow, that goes down say 30" or so...it will be pretty stable temps and probably allow them to go dormant in Winter and also aestivate in Summer. Regarding hibernation cycle, some real successful breeders (I am told) do not hibernate their A. horsefieldi, and they do fine. I do hibernate mine, and I have had less (but some) reproduction since I moved from Northern Cal to extreme So. Cal., whether being upset about moving to a new territory or perhaps not cool enough is affecting them I don't know...I have put them in the 'frig in the past, I let them stay outside this last year. Lot's of breeding activity, too early to say if it results in fertile eggs or not. Russians are fun, I like them a lot but males can be ornery. The ibera type Greeks are also great. Good luck, Vic H.

Thanks for emailing-I tried to email back to your Hotmail account but it got bounced....

I had come to the same conclusion-greeks, Hermanns, marginateds should all do fine outdoors here. I also like Stars, just will have to bring them in for three months in the winter. I'm mainly a snake guy, but have always liked chelonians, just that up north I had no room for them. I do have a nice colony of locality spotted turtles though.

I am going to make the pens out of rockwork and mortar. I'll plant the interiors with a good med tortoise seed mix. I was thinking about starting the base about 10 inches below ground-think that is deep enough? I know russians burrow, how about the rest?
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

Russians do indeed burrow, but not as much as I was led to believe, I guess it depends on exact locality/exposure/substrate. The others burrow under objects, down to hibernate or aestivate, but not a tunnel/burrow system like a gopher tortoise/desert/texas tortoise would in my experience. I made artificial burrows for them, and they do use them but it took awhile and some truly hot weather to "learn". They seem to prefer a shallow depression "scrape", often under a bush or overhang or amongst tall grass. I planted a lot of wheat this Winter, and to my surprise, they have eaten a lot of the leaves, the grain is now turning gold in the sun. They spend a lot of time basking in the filtered sun from the wheat grass.

I think my russians are fairly content, and do not seem to be motivated to burrow on their own, though I have had some dicey times searching for them just prior to hibernation, I waited too long and they burrowed in on their own. Good luck and have fun, Vic