I always get asked where I keep my tortoises and if I bring them inside during the winter. The answer is I keep them outside in two different tortoise gardens from late spring through early fall depending on the temperature. The three tortoises I have do not hibernate so they head indoors during the colder part of the year. Two of my babies are African Spurred tortoises (they are the brown ones). The third one is a Redfoot (she is the blacker one). Now both my Spurred tortoises are male and they tend to charge after each other in an attempt to fight for dominance. It drives our German Shepherd crazy. If they are out in the yard together and she hears them fighting she will barrel out the back barking her head off trying to break up the madness. She likes peace among the animals. So my larger guy (Oliver Boo) has his own bachelor pad. Yoda (the smaller Spurred tortoise) lives in a swanky part of the yard with Paluka the Redfoot. Both gardens are far from each other so there's no lingering stress over fences or anything. All gardens have tons of shade and tons of space to sun in. They also include edible plants and fresh water. The best part of having tortoises is you will never have to partake in the mess of composting. When cooking we always have a "tortoise bowl" on the counter where all veggie and fruit scraps go. At the end of the day the bowl gets dumped into both pens and devoured by three very spoiled hard-shelled critters.
