Indian Star Tortoise

Description

Indian Star tortoise

Indian Star tortoise for sale are one of the more popular, small tortoises for sale.  Of all the small tortoise species available to purchase, some would say that the Indian Star is the most attractive.

These are really beautiful overall, with a dark black shell and yellow to orange yellow bands of color. A smaller species these are classified as the smallest of the star tortoise species.

Star tortoises can be tough to care for if you are a novice, so we recommend getting and older baby, or yearling when possible.  The biggest thing they need

Indian Star’s are fairly easy to care for, so long as you invest the time to educate yourself about proper Indian Star tortoise care.  We highly recommend you check out our extensive and FREE Indian star tortoise care sheets, available throughout our website.

Indian Star Tortoise hatchlings

Baby Indian Star tortoises are available for sale online, from time to time are medium-high prices.  Because an Indian Star tortoise for sale is a small species of tortoise, they only lay a couple of eggs, which drives their price up over larger species of tortoise, and giant tortoise for sale.  Therefore, the Indian Star tortoise price is going to be higher than some other species of tortoise.

Indian Star for sale

Indian Star tortoise care is fairly simple.  Overall, so long as you pay attention to climate and humidity, keeping baby Indian star tortoises for sale is quite simple.  Please take the time to explore our Indian Star tortoise Care sheet.  Once your habitat is setup correctly, paying special attention to temperature and humidity, everything should be smooth sailing.

Star tortoise care

The Indian Star tortoise care sheet offers a great deal of guidance.  Our care sheet covers anything from Indian star tortoise habitat setup, to general care.  Also, it has a great tortoise safe foods list and more.  Exploring proper care is an important part of becoming a new tortoise owner and should never be overlooked.

Star tortoise Habitat

Keeping anywhere from 1-4 Indian Star tortoise can be achieved in a variety of ways, with small space. Indian Star tortoise hatchlings can be kept in anything from an aquarium, or an open top tub, to a sweater box.  Keeping baby Star tortoise is easy so long as you maintain the correct parameters.

Below we briefly touch on all of the important parameters that will be important to raising a happy, health baby star tortoise to a beautiful adult Star tortoise.

For Indian Star tortoise hatchlings, we recommend something in the area of 24″x12″ at a minimum and no larger than 2’x4′ until they are at least 18 months old.  Keeping the habitat compact will enable you to dial in the parameters easier while maintaining a small enough space for your tortoise to feel secure yet not get “lost”.

Indian Star tortoise for sale

Humidity is key when raising a healthy star tortoise for sale.  Humidity will not only affect the overall health of your tortoise, it will directly reflect the look as well.

Shells that are seen with heavy pyramiding are a result of 1 of 2 things, or a combination of both.  Humidity should be kept in the neighborhood of 72-75% for baby star tortoises for sale.  Once mature, Humidity can be kept closer to 50% for an Adult Star tortoise.

Keeping humidity in safe range will also aid in your baby Indian Star tortoise for sale remaining hydrated and growing properly.  When humidity slips under 60% for an extended period of time, it will lead to a pyramid shelled, dehydrated baby tortoise.

For this reason, we prefer to house our baby Indian star tortoises as well as our baby Burmese star tortoise for sale in closed systems, with very limited air movement.

Indian Star tortoise humidity

Low movement, high humidity air with humidity around 75% is how we keep our baby Indian Star tortoise groups.  It allows them to grow evenly, with very smooth shells.  Humid air with low movement and warm ambient temperature really does seem to allow them to grow so very quickly.  At the same time, their shells remain and grow smooth like a bowling ball.

Baby Indian Star tortoise diet

Variety is the spice of life they say, and it certainly is the most important part of what to feed your baby Indian star tortoise.  Feeding your new Indian star tortoise hatchling a wide variety of high-quality fresh greens and veggies is key to success.

Indians really do love a variety of food, and we here at tortoise town always feed a wide variety of fresh greens.

Tortoise town prepares our baby tortoise food daily by chopping a wide variety of greens.  Greens we feed our baby tortoise include kale, romaine, collard greens, mustard greens, radicchio, various lettuces, dandelion.

Star tortoise for sale

We also chop up some yellow squash and chop up some carrots in our blender and spread them across our tortoise salad as we call it.  Soaking tortoise chow in water until soft, and tossing it with the greens is HIGHLY recommended.

Using to feed your little star tortoise also will supplement the lack of real UVB during the indoor months.  When shopping for a new baby tortoise for sale, be sure to choose Tortoise Town!  Other species of star tortoises include the Burmese Star tortoise and the Sri Lankan Star tortoise.

Indian Star tortoise Lighting and UVB

Exposing your new baby Star tortoise to proper UVB levels is essential for proper growth.  Without UVB, the Indian star tortoise will not be able to make and absorb their own vitamin D.  In addition, calcium absorption lowers with lower levels of UVB exposure.  For a strong, healthy baby tortoise, it is key to provide amble amounts of Vitamin D.

How do I do this, you ask? Easily, thru providing your baby Star tortoise proper UVB lighting.  We recommend a T5 high output tube style UVB lamp.

UVB Output is much better than using the cheap, coiled lamps, OR Mercury Vapor lamps. Lastly, remember your light source is not always your heat source.  Heat sources can be provided by way of a heat panel, or heating element, or additional spot lamp style heater.

baby Indian Star tortoise for sale – Heating

Heat sources can be provided by way of a heat panel, or ceramic heating element, or additional spot lamp style heater.  Here at tortoise town we prefer to use heat panels or CREs (Ceramic Heat Emitter).

Keeping the hot spot around 92 Degrees is perfect.  Be sure that the colder end of the Indian Star tortoise habitat is kept 77-80 degrees at all times.

In the evenings, total temperatures can drop in the neighborhood of 75-77, so long as humidity is proper and air movement is low.  If Humidity happens to be lower than 60%, try to keep the evening temps in the area of 80.

baby Indian Star tortoise Water

Always provide access to fresh, shallow water for your new baby Indian Star tortoise for sale.  If keeping a juvenile Indian star tortoise, or even young adult Indian star tortoise, water access is still important.  For baby stars, we soak them twice a day for 7 minutes per soak in super shallow water.  Lastly, just be careful when soaking your baby.

They can drown so very quickly!Indian Star Tortoise FoodHere at TT, we feed mostly all of our baby and adult tortoises the same combination of a wide variety of greens, and veggies.

Our daily “chopped salad” is a combination of chopped Collard Greens, Mustard Greens, Yellow Squash, Softened and soaked Mazuri tortoise chow, shredded carrots, and the occasional tomato.

Baby Indian Star tortoise for sale

Baby Indian star tortoises are as cute as can be, but they need proper care to thrive.  When setting up for a baby Indian Star tortoise the most important thing is humidity.  Our biologist advises that high humidity and low air flow are the key to success.

With limited air flow, and high humidity, baby Indian Star tortoises will absolutely thrive.

It was a common misconception years ago, that most species of Star tortoise, including the Indian, needed very dry air.  While that may be the case in well established larger adults, we have found that tortoise babies need it to be humid.

Indian Star tortoises are the smallest of the star tortoises, and therefore make great tortoises for those seeking an indoor or outdoor tortoise, that remains small.  At full maturity, Indian star tortoises reach sizes of 6-8″ on average, with a small percentage reaching 9-10″.  Other star tortoise species include:

• Burmese Star tortoise
• Sri Lankan Star tortoise