We picked up our new babies this week (4 hermannis 9 months old) and they are absolutely lovely. We live in Germany and lots of care advice here is quite different and probably not quite so welfare orientated as in the UK. We got them from our daughters teacher who breeds them and has written various reptile books.

They were raised in a glass terrarium, never bathed, UV light on only 4 hours a day, heat lamp 2 hours on-2 off during the daytime. Their diet was pre-prepared salad mix of lambs lettuce, romaine and radicchio plus eggshells and cuttlefish. They also fed on a Callisia repens in the terrarium. It's sold here as a tortoise food plant.

We have them now in the plastic base of a rabbit cage with 3 caves, aloe Vera plant, Callisia repens, lots of stones and slate under the heating area. It's 160x80cm. Our uv light is a strip fluorescent light (lucky reptile).

I don't feel that they were brilliantly cared for by the breeder and we hope that we can do our very best for them. They look very healthy. When they arrived, they were very excited and roamed around speedily for hours and ate lots.

I've a few questions I hope that you can help with.....I'm sure they are probably silly questions :)....

Our substrate is about 8cm deep. 50/50 mix of sand and topsoil. The humidity is about 50%. The heat area is 35degrees, cool area about 22degrees. It is quite sandy and they are getting sand in the food and water bowls. Is it harmful for them to digest some sand? Their poo looks quite normal.

Despite their previous owner limiting the uv light, we have it on 10 hours. The heat lamp is on 2 hours on/off over 12 hours. Should the heat lamp be on longer?

To start with, we thought it would be best to stick to the diet they are used to though I've bought each lettuce type fresh rather than pre-packed as we don't like the chemicals that are added. I've ordered a seed mix from the uk (shelled warriors). I tried to order from Tlady but the online order looked a bit strange with no quantities and other normal online ordering info. As we've had a very long winter here, there's very limited weeds around though I will send the kids out later to try and find some dandelions. Can you suggest any other food that I can introduce to them gradually that is easy to buy? They chew a bit of the aloe Vera...is that safe? A pet shop here said it was but I'm not a bit dubious about their advice.

When they looked really docile yesterday, I bathed them though didn't use a brush yet as they aren't used to bathing at all. They perked up a lot after that and drank lots of water. I've never noticed them drinking from their water bowls. Is it essential to brush them? Should I bath them every day?

Oops so sorry this has ended up being so long. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Hi, we also live in Germany and I was wondering what substrate you use? I am finding it difficult to find a too soil that's is sterile and wondered if you new any? Sorry to but in on your post.
Kelly

Hi, we also live in and I am finding it difficult to find a too soil that's is sterile and wondered if you new any? Sorry to but in on your post.
Kelly

Hi Kelly. We found it impossible to buy pre-packed sterile topsoil like you can in the uk. We ended up going to a small family run garden centre and bought soil that is filtered though not sterile as such. We filtered it a bit more ourselves before we got our tortoises and removed the occasional seedling. So far so good. I'd like to know how to actually sterilize it if possible. Perhaps someone might be able to tell us. All other bagged composts seem to be with added fertilizers and chemicals. How have you managed?

All the best

M

Yes we have had trouble finding some so we have coco soil in at the moment with some bark at one half, we have found some beech bark today so going to try that as it looks less sharp than the other stuff we have, hopefully going home for may half term so I will stock up with topsoil lol I do find it hard here as they are different ways to the uk regarding husbandry lol were abouts in Germany are you?