I have a greek tortoise that is about 5" long and hes in a 20L tank (20 gallons, long). Is it big enough?

Answer 1

The most useful form of indoor accommodation for Golden Greek Tortoises consists of a “turtle table” (How to Build an Indoor Land Turtle Table by David T. Kirkpatrick Ph.D). To all appearances this looks like a bookshelf unit flipped onto its back. A reasonable size for a very small specimen is 2 foot by 3 foot, (60 cm by 90 cm). As the animal grows the size of this habitat should be increased. For an adult Golden Greek tortoise 6 inches (15 cm) or more in length the indoor habitat should be at least 4 foot by 2 foot, (120 cm by 60 cm). Into the bottom of this “turtle table” holes can be cut to allow for the sinking of food, water and eventually nesting containers flush with the surface for easier animal access.



The water dish in the habitat should be large enough to allow the tortoise to soak in it if it wishes - it must also be shallow enough to protect from drowning, small photographic developing trays work well for this purpose. As a substrate in the dry portion of the environment grass hay serves admirably. Grass hay may provide supplemental food as well as providing a burrowing substrate that does not “hold” humidity. As an alternative to this topsoil mixed with clean sand may be used. It should be noted that if using the soil / sand mix that "spoiled' substrate will not be obvious and a schedule of changing it will need to be set.



Mating bahavior is typical for T. ibera In one corner of the environment a hardware store reflector clip light lamp should be positioned to provide artificial basking facilities. This should be positioned to provide a basking spot of 90 - 95 degrees F or so (32 - 35 degrees C) in that section of the habitat. The habitat should also be equipped with a full spectrum fluorescent light to provide for UVB. A UVB source is necessary for Vitamin D3 syntheses (needed in calcium metabolism). If preferred to this lighting arrangement a Mercury vapor bulb may be used that fulfills all requirements. There should be a hide box located in the corner away from the basking spot to allow the animal a cool dim retreat or enough hay to fully bury itself in serving the same purpose. The author has had excellent success with using both a mercury vapor light to provide UVB and daytime heat as well as a ceramic heat emitter on 24 hours over one end of a habitat to provide a temperature gradient. With both the light and the ceramic heat emitter mentioned above it is advised that one use a fixture with a ceramic fixture, as Mercury vapor bulbs and ceramic heat emitters are very hot, these should also be affixed in such a manner that they cannot contact the flammable substrate. With a setup such as the above the author has seen frequent breeding activity and outgoing, highly active tortoises.

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Answer 2

The rule of thumb for tortoises is that they should be in at least 100 square inches for every inch of shell length, so a 5" tortoise should be in about 500 square inches, or about a 2' x 2' space. Many experts feel that an adult Greek should be in at least a 8'x4' space- in either case, bigger than a 20 gallon aquarium.

In general, glass tanks are not the best options anyway. Try either a tortoise table, or a very large Rubbermade-type tub as described at http://www.tortoisetrust.org and an outdoor habitat when it is nice out.