Things You'll Need
- Vivarium or tortoise table
- Substrate such as wood chips or sand
- Newspaper
- Rocks, logs
- Shallow water dish
- Shallow food dish
- Chopped vegetables
- Chopped soft fruit
- Vitamin and calcium powder
- 100-watt UVB lamp
Instructions
Choose either a vivarium or a tortoise table as an enclosed habitat for your tortoise; each type of habitat has its own advantages. Since these animals like to climb and burrow, the enclosed area should be tall enough to allow for climbing and the substrate deep enough for digging.
Keep your tortoise on a substrate (ground covering) consisting of a material it can dig, such as wood chips or playground (tortoise-friendly) sand. Be sure the substrate is at least a few inches deep. Horsfield tortoises can burrow a tunnel to use for a nest.
Make sure your Horsfield tortoise has lots of logs and rocks to climb over to make the environment as realistic as possible.
Feed your tortoise coarsely chopped high-fiber vegetation, such as grasses, romaine or red leaf lettuce, hay, berries, clover, thistle and rose, hibiscus and dandelion leaves and flowers. Chop the vegetables more finely if the tortoise is young.
Always sprinkle powdered vitamins and minerals (especially calcium) over the tortoise's food. This ensures your animal is receiving all of its required nutrients.