Spur Tortoise
Spur Tortoise or well known as the Spurred Tortoise is the largest African mainland tortoise. The female version of this tortoise can grow up to 26 inches. They are a common pet in Europe and could also live up to century. This Tortoise is able to run and can burrow quite well too. This tortoise can gets agitated when rain is about to fall and can become motionless when temperature is too hot or too cold. This tortoise digs a permanent ‘self-borrow’ which can occupy two or more tortoise.
Males and females Spur Tortoise has a very distinctive behavior when human approached them. males usually make a hissing sound before retreating inside his shell while female make a croaking sound then will lift up her shell off the ground then drops it with a thud before retreating inside her shell. Many owners have observed their tortoise to have their own way to ‘converse’ by making sounds such as croak, grunts and even whistle. Males are the aggressive one and could bite one another when they are fighting.
Their carapaces are brown in color and their plastron, limb and head are yellowish in color. Female tortoise is rounded in appearance and has a short and blunt tail while male tortoise have deeply forked gulars and its tail is thin and long and tipped by a horny curving spur. Spur Tortoise is usually found in central and northern Africa wherein dry regions are prominent. When it comes to breeding, male Spur tortoise fights with the other tortoise to get the attention of female tortoise.
Their diet consists of veggies like the succulents and fruits. You must include food rich in fiber every time they eat. Female Spur tortoise digs her pear shaped nest which takes her 1-4 hours to finish it. Sometimes she can even make sounds like ‘put-put’ while making her pear shaped nest. She digs her nest using her front legs and pushes the dirt off to her burrow using her hind legs.
Here are some tips on how you should take care of the tortoise when you are planning to make them as pets:
- Provide them dark green veggies and fruits. Do not feed them with any cabbages and tomatoes.
- UVB is necessary for the tortoise development.
- Provide them enough substrate for them to burrow.
- Make sure that you will not place anything around their habitat that will tempt them to climb up because by doing so and they fall down with their shell under them and no one is around to help them, then they might die instantly.
