Baby Horsefield Tortoise Care: The Ultimate Guide in 2023
Baby horsefield tortoises are, without question, one of the most adorable pets to have! However, without the right care, they can get very sick, leading to their deaths.
So, how to make sure the baby horsefield tortoise care? It includes
- The right UV lighting
- The correct and proper choice of diet and food
- Comfortable bedding
- Providing items with which they can play and remain active
- And giving clean and fresh water supply.
With all these care tips, you can have a happy baby horsefield tortoise. Want to know more about these tips? If yes, read on till the end of the blog.
Baby Horsefield Tortoise Care: An Overview
Contents
Regular care is a must to ensure your horsefield tortoise remains healthy and happy!
- Proper UV lighting is necessary to ensure your baby horsefields get sufficient vitamin D3. You can surely go for UV lamps in this case; however, it’s important that you also provide them with natural sunlight.
- Proper diet and food options are also needed to ensure the tortoises are in better health.
- Plus, you need to provide certain items that’ll keep the horsefields happy and active. Push toys and puzzles can be an astounding addition in such cases!
- You should also provide the horsefields with comfortable bedding so they can sleep well and enjoy their stay. There are times when people avoid this, which can be one reason your baby horsefields are unhappy and sick.
- A fresh and clean water supply is also a must-to-have as this is one way to keep your tortoises healthy.
Ways to Care for Your Baby Horsefield Tortoise
In this section, we’ve listed some of the most important ways you can care for your baby horsefield tortoise in the most effective ways. Ensure to read on till the end.
Proper UV Lighting
If you don’t know already, tortoises require proper UV lighting to make vitamin D3 and even absorb sufficient calcium. This will definitely prevent any kind of MBD (Metabolic Bone Disease).
No proper artificial lighting systems can replace the benefits of natural sunlight. Since you can’t always keep them under the sunlight, you can have a UV lighting device for the time. But it’s recommended that you ensure your horsefield tortoise gets sufficient UV light.
Plus, tortoises are ectotherms and must move about to maintain the correct body temperature. So, install a heat gradient in their cage and buy a high-quality thermometer to keep the temperature in check.
The Right Food and Diet
Horsefield tortoises are herbivorous, so they won’t be able to digest any animal protein. Therefore, to properly care for your horsefield tortoise, avoid feeding them meat or insects. However, you can try providing worms as they can help with digestion.
Moreover, horsefields require low-fat food. So, below are some lists you can try including in their diet.
- Dandelions
- Watercress
- White dead-nettle
- Sunflowers
- Parsley
- Rose petals
- Clover
- Dry hay
- Bell pepper
- Collard greens
- Carrots
- Plantain
However, there are also some items that you need to avoid. Here are some of the following lists:
- Hyacinths
- Tulips
- Buttercups
- Daffodils
- Milkweed
- Ivy
- Begonias
These food choices are usually poisonous and harmful to your baby horsefield tortoise, so avoid these items!
Comfortable Bedding
When it’s about the overall bedding for your horsefields, it needs to be dry enough to easily match their wildlife. Too much humidity can hurt the plastron (bottom of the shell) and make it pretty challenging for them to breathe in properly.
That’s not all; the loose particles can get stuck to food, leading to blockages. Since horsefield tortoises love to dig burrows, you can already make small burrows, allowing them to hide, sleep, lay eggs, and even regulate their temperatures.
Put Certain Items to Keep Them Active
The more active your horsefield tortoises are, the healthier and happier they’ll be! So, you can definitely try putting playful items to keep the tortoises busy.
You can place hides, rocks, logs, and ramps inside the tortoises’ homes. This way, they can dig and walk around, look around too, to themselves active! Here are some of the ideas that many tortoise experts suggest:
- Building interesting mazes will keep the horsefields active and work as an aesthetic decoration item
- Dig up certain burrows to keep your tortoises more active and playful
- Puzzles can also be a striking addition to their homes
- You can also go for push toys as they tend to keep baby horsefields happy
Sufficient Water Supply
You must supply fresh and clean water to keep your baby horsefield tortoises healthy. You can even give your horsefields foods like cucumber and lettuce since they contain fresh water.
Moreover, you shouldn’t forget to change the water content frequently; this way, clean water will always flow through the bowl.
That’s not all; horsefield tortoises like to take in warm water, which helps them to keep hydrated.
Note: The water level should always stay below the neck of the tortoise. Otherwise, it’ll hinder them from breathing.
FAQs
Here are a few more additional questions you might be asking now.
Well, baby tortoises should at least be soaked every day till they grow a bit old. And if your horsefield tortoise is quite older, consider bathing it at least 2 to even 3 times every week. If they’re kept under consistent heat lamps, more frequent weekly bathing is essential.
You can install essential heating elements to keep the baby horsefield tortoises warm on cold nights. Moreover, you can suspend ceramic emitter just above the horsefields’ sleeping space. And there, you can simply attach a thermostat to ensure that when the temperature drops, it can return to normal.
When your baby horsefield is healthy, it’ll have some growth ring around that’ll appear like a pale band between the scutes and above the marginal scutes. You can also feel the top shell to be pretty smooth, and there shouldn’t be any bumps (usually the signs of injury).
Bottom Line
Baby horsefield tortoise care is essential, especially if you want them to grow and be healthy. You must ensure that you’re feeding them the right food and diet and providing sufficient UV lighting.
That’s not all; you must also ensure the bedding is comfortable and provide playful zones to stay active and happy. And most importantly, ensure that the water supply is clean and fresh to drink; this way, they’ll not get any diseases.
