Horsfield tortoises are great animals! They have real personalities  and once you get to know them, you become really attached!



Housing

Horsfield tortoises can be housed inside or outside. 



Inside

When housing these tortoises inside, they must be in a tortoise table, or (as we use) a vivarium with the roof taken of. They can not be housed in vivariums without proper ventilation because the humidity will rise and this will effect the tortoises shell and give it deficiency diseases such as pyramiding. When in indoor enclosures, they should have top soil as a substrate and we grown weeds in there for them to snack on if they get hungry and its not meal time yet. We also place lots of rocks, hides, branches and different levels for them to have a bit of excitement and personal space.



Outdoor

These tortoises are a burrowing species, so enjoy being outside and digging. They would require somewhere warm to go back to when night falls. In my experience  my tortoises prefer being outside than inside, but when it comes to winter, the ones that are not ready to hibernate will be taken inside to a warm place to stay the winter. When they are outdoors, we give ours a heated den to go back to during the night as temperatures fall dramatically where we are at night time. Also in their enclosure, we have several bushes, soft soil (so they can dig) and various rocks and branches to make it more exciting and give them places to get away from each other if a fight/mating occurs.



Hibernation

It is best to hibernate your tortoise, and it is highly recommended  We hibernate ours and have never had any problems. Find a cool spot with a temperature of around 5ºC (41ºF), and set up a hibernation box. This box does not need to be very big, but enough room for the tortoise to be able to move around in if needed. Once you've found a suitable size box, fill it with shredded news paper and straw. We then find a slightly larger box and place that around the smaller box for insulation. Use a thermometer to check the temperature inside the box, anything below freezing will most likely kill your tortoise(s), and anything above 10oc is likely to make your tortoise(s) active again and make them loose weight.

In spring, your tortoise should be removed from the hibernation box and taken somewhere warmer-indoor enclosure where you should gradually increase the temperature. It is advisable to soak your tortoise in a warm, shallow bath on the first day to encourage your tortoise to drink, you can also offer food at this time, and the tortoise should eat within the first few days of waking up.



Feeding

Tortoises are reasonably easy reptiles to feed. They only eat vegitables, fruit, weeds and specialized tortoise food. We feed ours in the morning and evening as they often wake up during the night and want a nibble to eat. We feed ours on weeds, leuttice, cabbage, peppers, cucumber ect. Foods that should not be given to tortoises...

Iceberg lettuce,

Bok Choy,

All grains,

bread,

pasta,

fruits which contain high amount of sugar,

Dog and cat food

These foods will damage your tortoise. 

Water is equally as important as food for your tortoise, so always make sure there is a bowl of water in their enclosure for them to drink from and re hydrate.



Breeding

Horsfield tortoises' mating ritual is extreamly aggressive  so i do not recommend breeding these if you are not used to this aggression behavior. It can do great deals of damage on the tortoise's, but despite this, it is natural behavior.

The male will circle the female biting her repeatedly  A female that is ready to mate will run away causing the male to chase her. If the male can catch up, the female will decide that he is a strong enough male to father her young and will stay still. The male will then bite her a few times again, and then begin mounting her. It can take a while before the male mounts the female, normally i leave them to it (whilst overseeing them encase the biting becomes serious) for about 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours depending how long it takes for the male to mount.



The female will then, around a month later, lay eggs. If she is in an outdoor enclosure, she will begin digging a large hole in the ground. She may dig a few holes until she has found one that she is happy with, then she will begin to lay. She will lay a clutch of 2-5 eggs. Once she has covered up those eggs, i normally retrieve them and incubate them in the incubator at about 30ºC (86ºF) on moist vermiculite with around 80% humidity. They should then, hatch 80-100 days later. You could leave them in the ground, but this way you have no idea when they will hatch and if they will even hatch.



Hatchling care

Hatchlings will come out as perfectly formed miniatures of the adults. They (in my opinion) are very cute when they first hatch. They eat the same foods as the adults, just in smaller amounts, and we keep them outdoors during the day, and indoors at night time until they get a bit bigger.