- Which turtle species feel comfortable in the garden?
- What does a turtle need for a species-appropriate life?
There are numerous misconceptions about keeping turtles in the garden that make life difficult for many animals. Important questions about the ideal framework conditions for a happy turtle life in the open air receive a precise answer here.
Turtles like to eat dandelions
Which turtle species feel comfortable in the garden?
Of the more than 300 tortoise species, it is primarily the Mediterranean tortoises that are suitable for keeping in the garden. In contrast, tropical species depend on living under the controlled conditions of the terrarium. The following species are shortlisted for outdoor keeping:
- Greek tortoise (Testudo hermanni)
- Marginated tortoise (Testudo marginata)
- Moorish tortoise (Testudo graeca)
- Four-toed tortoise (Testudo horsfieldii)
Please make a clear decision between keeping them in the garden or in the terrarium. Even robust tortoises cannot endure a repeated change of location between indoors and outdoors in the long run.
What does a turtle need for a species-appropriate life?
Despite their leisurely locomotion, turtles require a large territory. Plan an area of at least 10 square meters for an animal. For each additional copy, 5 square meters are added. Varied terrain with areas of sand, gravel, stone and grass as well as boulders to provide shade is ideal. Your tortoise flock also wants these components:
- A shelter with lighting and heat lamps
- Up to the age of 3 years with 2 square meters, later larger
- Garden soil without pesticides or chemical fertilizers
- Small conifers to protect against strong sun or beating rain
- Fodder plants in various places, such as dandelion, clover, deadnettle or buckhorn
When setting up the garden as an outdoor enclosure, please bear in mind that turtles are cold-blooded creatures. They do not have their own core body temperature. In order to warm up to an ideal 35 degrees Celsius, they depend on the sun or artificial heat sources.
tips
Garden tortoise species hibernate. For this purpose they need a winter quarters. A wooden box filled with a floor made of coconut fibers and humus-rich garden soil is well suited. After a preparatory phase of about 4 weeks, the tortoise stops feeding, is placed on the substrate and covered with leaves. Until spring it stays at temperatures of 10 degrees during the day and 6 degrees at night.