Tent Tortoise

1 Overview

The Tent Tortoise (Psammobates tentorius), also called the tent star tortoise.

The Tent Tortoise, also called the tent star tortoise, is a tortoise species relatively tolerant of high heat and dryness. Adults are rather small, prefer plant food, and are fairly demanding to keep; a few scattered individuals can be found in the domestic pet market.

Chinese Name: Tent Tortoise

Alternative Names: Tent Star Tortoise

English Name: Tent Tortoise

Binomial Name: Psammobates tentorius

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Subphylum: Vertebrata

Class: Reptilia

Order: Testudines

Suborder: Cryptodira

Family: Testudinidae

Species: Tent Tortoise

Distribution: South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana.

Appearance: 13–15 cm.

Habits: The Tent Tortoise is a tropical and subtropical terrestrial tortoise. It likes dry environments with laurel, ferns, azaleas, and numerous epiphytes.

Reproduction: Females usually lay eggs between March and October, 2–5 times per season. If a female becomes restless, eats poorly, gains weight, and digs with her hind legs in a frog-swimming motion, she is about to lay.

Diet: It likes succulent, juicy plants; in the wild it often eats cacti, hibiscus leaves, aster-family leaves, rose leaves, and weeds—high-fiber plants.

2 Physical Characteristics

The Tent Tortoise is a relatively common species of the star tortoise genus and one of the more suitable for human keeping, but overall it does not adapt to captive life as easily as other tortoises, and its appearance is similar to the Indian star tortoise, so it is not kept in large numbers.

The Tent Star Tortoise currently has three subspecies: P. t. tentorius, P. t. trimeni, and P. t. verroxii. It is the most widely distributed of the star tortoise genus, ranging across Namibia, Botswana, and all of South Africa, with the densest concentration in the Etosha wildlife reserve between southwestern South Africa and the Namibian west coast. These areas have a rainy season from March to April; the Tent Star Tortoise is also among the star tortoises most able to adapt to captive environments.

The Tent Star Tortoise looks much like the Indian star tortoise, but its head is brown with black spots and its shell margin has large serrations; its carapace patterns are more regular than those of typical tortoises. A difference: males are larger than females; tail features are similar—males have a thick long tail, females a fat short one. All star tortoise species are strictly protected within national parks, have low visibility, are difficult to keep, and seldom survive in captivity.

3 Care & Husbandry

A tortoise’s activity is usually related to temperature, but the Tent Tortoise does not show this strongly. Interestingly, it tends to lie dormant during the rainy season and becomes active once the rains end, indicating it is a tortoise that prefers dry environments.

The Tent Tortoise is a tropical and subtropical terrestrial tortoise that likes dry environments with laurel, ferns, azaleas, and many epiphytes. It occurs only on fairly high hills and slopes, far from water. During the rainy season many turtles emerge to drink. It is timid; when startled it retracts its head, then extends it again, repeating several times, while emitting a hiss; once calm it bobs its head up and down and slowly extends it. If picked up, it extends its limbs and opens its mouth to bite. After feeding normally in a new environment, its resting spot becomes fairly fixed.

In captivity the Tent Tortoise has a fixed resting spot; by day it often climbs to a shady place and stays still, and after a long stay tears may appear at the eyes. At about 25°C it is active, often leaving its shelter to roam. At 32°C it often climbs into its water dish to drink, sometimes resting there 5–10 minutes. Below 18°C it becomes inactive; placed in sand, it buries its whole body except the head and enters hibernation.

4 Habitat & Environment

The Tent Tortoise likes high-temperature, low-humidity conditions. Generally, low environmental humidity or insufficient water intake causes stones (bladder stones) in tortoises, but the Tent Tortoise usually does not have this problem; the environment need not have many water dishes—keep it dry.

Humidity Control: First, ventilation—the enclosure must be well ventilated, or disease easily results. Drill holes or fit screens/louvers on the sides; do not use stuffy sealed containers such as fish tanks. As a desert tortoise, its humidity must not be too high; generally keep it at 40–50%, not exceeding 70%.

Temperature: Do not place heating equipment in the center of the enclosure; place it at one end to create a temperature gradient so the tortoise can choose. Put a thermometer in both the hot and cool zones to fully understand conditions. If using bottom heating (heat mat), place the hot-zone thermometer on the enclosure floor above the mat, since floor temperature exceeds air temperature—the floor temperature is the actual keeping temperature, and too high causes burns.

5 Feeding Requirements

Like most tortoises, the Tent Tortoise is herbivorous and needs large amounts of varied plants to meet nutritional needs; some vegetables and fruits can be offered, but not too much, or diarrhea results.

In the wild, the Tent Tortoise’s staple is various weeds, pasture grass, and alfalfa, so it needs lots of high-fiber food as it grows. In other words, you can keep it like a cow, since their diets are quite similar. About 75% of its diet should be weeds, pasture grass, and alfalfa. When feeding, cut only the upper part of the weeds without harming the roots, so it has endless fresh pasture.

The remaining 25% of its diet is various vegetables or plant leaves, such as mustard greens, collard greens, watercress, Indian lettuce, clover, grape leaves, and dandelion. Also avoid feeding beet, spinach, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, corn, bean sprouts, tomatoes, and any legumes or high-protein plants. Do not feed fruit; cactus can substitute. Ensure all food is free of pesticide and chemical contamination. Dry the leaves before feeding so they are not too wet, or diarrhea may result.