Overview

Hermann's Tortoises for Beginners: The Complete Pet Keeper's Handbook is a clear, reassuring guide for anyone ready to share life with this bright, charming Mediterranean tortoise. Instead of treating Hermann's tortoises as simple ""garden decorations,"" it shows you exactly what they need to stay healthy for decades: the right start, the right habitat, and calm, consistent care. You begin by meeting Testudo hermanni in the wild-its subspecies, colors, size, and natural behavior-so you understand the animal behind the shell. From there, the book walks you step by step through choosing a healthy, captive-bred tortoise, spotting red flags in sellers, telling males from females, and deciding which age and size really suit a beginner. Practical habitat chapters show you how to build a ""mini Mediterranean"" indoors or outdoors, with safe tortoise tables and pens, substrates for digging, hides, plants, basking spots, heating, and UVB lighting that actually match their biology. A full nutrition section turns wild grazing on weeds and herbs into simple daily menus based on leafy greens, flowers, and safe plants, backed up with clear advice on calcium, supplements, hydration, and which foods to avoid. You then learn gentle handling and behavior basics: how to lift and move your tortoise safely, how to read body language, what normal exploring, burrowing, and basking look like, and how to recognize stress before it becomes a problem. Health and wellness chapters explain the most common issues-respiratory infections, parasites, shell problems, pyramiding, dehydration-and give you practical hygiene routines, early warning signs, and guidance on when to call a reptile vet. A dedicated hibernation guide walks you through the whole process from preparation to wake-up, with clear checklists for deciding whether your tortoise should even hibernate at all. For readers who want to go further, there is an optional, ethics-focused introduction to breeding and hatchling care, plus a fun facts and myths section that clears up common misunderstandings about these long-lived reptiles. Whether you are choosing your very first Hermann's tortoise or improving the care of one you already love, this handbook offers a grounded, beginner-friendly roadmap to giving a small tortoise a big, secure, and genuinely natural life.

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