Dr Mark R. Webb
This article originally appeared in a print edition of the Tortoise Trust Newsletter and has not been published online previously. It is still highly relevant, however, and may prove of great help to anyone working with this very sensitive species.
Africa is home to more tortoise species than any other continent including some of the largest e.g. the African spurred tortoise Centrochelys sulcata, smallest e.g. the tent and spider tortoises Psammobates and Pyxis spp. and rarest e.g. the Ploughshare tortoise Astrochelys yniphora . Its tortoise fauna also includes the enigmatic hingebacks of the genus Kinixys, which are endemic to Africa. Once thought to consist of three species - belliana, erosa and homeana – Kinixys is now known to contain at least eight species and subspecies.
In illustration, David Alderton’s Turtles and Tortoises of the World (1988) discusses these three species only, whereas both Andy Highfield’s Practical Encyclopaedia of Keeping and Breeding Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles and Holger Vetter’s Turtles of the World Volume 1: Africa, Europe and Western Asia, written in 1996 and 2002 respectively, describe eight taxa (species and subspecies) including what Vetter catalogues as the: Eastern hingeback K. belliana belliana; Western hingeback K. belliana nogueyi; South-eastern hingeback K. belliana zombensis; Serrated hingeback K. erosa, Home’s hingeback k. homeana; Lobatse hingeback K. Lobatsiana; Natal hingeback K. natalensis and Speke’s hingeback K. spekii. Both Vetter and Highfield base their discussions on the work of Donald Broadley (1993) published in the Annals of the Transvaal Museum.
The distribution of the genus Kinixys spans from north of the equator in tropical west Africa east and south through central Africa to the Republic of South Africa, Uganda and Kenya. To my knowledge, three species are kept, albeit quite infrequently, in the UK. These are the Western hingeback which is usually just referred to as Bell’s hingeback, Home’s hingeback and the Serrated hingeback, more usually known as the Forest or Eroded Hingeback.
The hingeback tortoises are so-named because of a hinge in their rear carapace and plastron, in front of the back legs, which enables them to shut their ‘back end’ including legs and tail away. As you read on, you will hear that I have had tremendous difficulty in identifying the genders of my hingebacks, and this is at least in part due to their ability to shut up shop at the business end whenever I try and take a look!
In May 2009 the Tortoise Trust were asked to rehome a large number of wild caught tortoises, mostly hingebacks, that had been intercepted by customs officials at Heathrow Airport following the arrival of a flight from West Africa. There were mostly Bell’s hingebacks, but there were also a smaller number of Home’s hingebacks. I drove down to collect twelve Kinixys homeana and bring them back to a place not particularly well known for its tropical climate – north Derbyshire (altitude 1200 feet!).
Upon arrival, the tortoises were placed into warm and humid terraria and bathed daily. It was clear that they were weak, dehydrated and felt very light for their size. Upsettingly, it was possible to see thin pale lines of scar tissue around some of their legs, where they had been bound to prevent escape at some point in the collection and distribution process. Their weights ranged from 75 to 195g, with an average of 128g. More worryingly, they were voiding green semi-liquid faeces in their bathwater. The priority was getting them rehydrated and feeding, but advice from Andy Highfield, who had examined the tortoises upon arrival with the Tortoise Trust, was that they were carrying large parasite burdens, particularly protozoa. So, following this advice and after consultation with my vet, we decided against any subtle approach (!), and rather than try and get stool samples from each tortoise, to establish the health status of them individually, I (aided by a veterinary nurse) tubed each of them and syringed a cocktail of antibiotics and wormer (Baytril and Panacur), in a single dose, directly into their stomachs. Dosage was adjusted according to the weight of each tortoise. Tubing these tortoises was incredibly difficult (see our other article for a video demonstrating this) and this process actually took several hours. It was also very stressful, presumably for the tortoises, but definitely for their new keeper! This was not an exercise that I wanted to have to repeat, and so I decided that following this treatment I would concentrate on minimising stress as much as possible and just allowing them to settle, in the hope that their gut flora, including any protozoa, would rebalance on their own. So, after bathing them daily for the first 10 or 15 days, I gradually reduced the frequency, so that after three or four weeks I had dropped down to weekly, and after a few more weeks I stopped altogether.
Sadly, in the first days and weeks I lost two of the homeana but the good news was that the other ten gradually settled and went from strength to strength. After six months, three were ready to be rehomed with another Tortoise Trust member and I kept a group of seven.
I have now had these delightful tortoises for around 18 months, and it didn’t take them long to become my favourites. I have experimented with various aspects of their care over this time and have come up with a system that seems to work very well, at least for me. This was of course based on information gleaned from articles and books, but it is also the result of observing the tortoises. In my view, so much can be gained by observing the behaviour of captive animals – it may sound blatantly obvious – but time spent quietly observing, preferably unnoticed by the animals, is for me, invaluable.
Captive habitat
Kinixys homeana are native to tropical rainforest habitats in West Africa, from Liberia, through Cameroon to the Congo. They show clear adaptation to life amongst leaf litter. Firstly, their colours resemble fallen leaves perfectly giving them excellent camouflage. Secondly, their physiognomy further resembles fallen leaves. They have a strongly serrated edge to their marginal scutes, giving them a leaf like appearance. Again this aids crypsis. Thirdly, they have long spindly, but strong legs; presumably this is an adaptation to lift their plastron clear of the leaf litter. Fourthly, they are good climbers which I assume helps enable movement across tangles of fallen deadwood. Finally, they have large, oversized (and I think beautiful but also slightly sinister!) eyes which must help them see in the dark conditions on the forest floor. All of these adaptations give strong steer to how to set up a captive environment for them: they are going to require a constantly warm, constantly humid environment with minimal seasonal variation, low light levels, and decor to include leaf litter and dead wood. That said, I still found myself experimenting with different set ups until I found one which seemed to work well.
Whilst experimenting with set ups one thing became clear to me. The one thing that homeana do not like is experimenting with set ups! They do not take kindly to change, and especially at first, I found that they could take weeks to settle following any changes made to their captive habitat. I have tried different types of enclosure but by far prefer using large black plastic tubs. These are sold as rigid standing ponds for koi carp and are available in different sizes. They are incredibly sturdy, relatively lightweight, totally waterproof (obviously) and create a sense of security for the occupants which I was unable to achieve with traditional vivarium or aquarium type housing. The black tubs are essentially like deep, dark, waterproof tortoise tables.
For substrate I use a mixture of one third orchid bark or other bark chips or mulch, one third cocofibre and one third live sphagnum moss. The cocofibre comes in a dry brick which rehydrates when soaked in a bucket of warm water. The moss I buy is sold in garden centres for use in hanging baskets. I mix these up and use a layer about 10 or 12cm deep. The other key ingredient here is leaf litter – I sprinkle this liberally over the substrate to try and recreate a dark, humid forest floor type environment. Of course the leaves compost down quickly and need replacing often. I then use random pieces of bogwood (sold for aquarium use) and cork bark to add to this effect, with scattered sprigs of plastic terrarium plants. I take a very naturalistic approach to substrates – I throw in woodlice, morio worms Zoophobas morio and earthworms. If these get lazy, they get eaten, but they help to create a bioactive substrate that as long as it is turned over from time to time, is rarely if ever changed.
In terms of heating, I was very mindful that these are denizens of West African tropical rainforests. I set them up in my warm reptile room. I use an oil filled radiator on a timer to keep the overnight minimum ambient temperature in the room, even in winter, at no less than around 18 degrees Celsius. To create a localised heat source I used a 60W red bulb in a clamp lamp at one end of the enclosure. I found that they were very wary of bright light for the first few months and so using a red bulb, which they can not see, was a good way of increasing enclosure temperatures. After around six months, I switched to a conventional bulb and they didn’t react to this adversely at all. The temperatures under and around this bulb are usually in the mid to high 20’s C during the day.
There is one additional aspect to terrarium heating. I use large circular plastic plant saucers as water trays. These measure around 40cm in diameter and are about 6cm deep. I have one of these, filled with fresh water, in with the homeana at all times. This is sat upon a 30cm square heat mat, positioned so that about 60% of the bottom of the water tray is in direct contact with the heat mat. I don’t use a thermostat but this is an old heatmat – not as powerful as some of the more modern ones. For the latter, I would suggest that a proprietary ‘MatStat’ is a very sensible idea. The effect of this is a heated water tray with a water temperature of approximately 23°C. When I collect leaf litter, I try to fill a few carrier bags so that I always have dried leaves to hand. This makes it easy for me to drop a couple of leaves (e.g. oak, beech, lime, horse chestnut), into the tray. These stain the water a little via the release of tannins and humic acids, and quite possibly lower the pH a little, although to be honest I’ve not tested this.
What I do know is that my homeana spend an inordinate amount of time in their water tray. They also defecate in it frequently, so it is important to change the water at least couple of times a week and to take care to scrub out the tray and disinfect. I use a proprietary veterinary disinfectant or at a push, a 1 in 20 dilution of household bleach. Of course it is essential that all traces of the disinfectant are rinsed away before the tray is refilled. Further, I have a few of these trays, so if I can allow washed trays to air dry between uses too. From a health and safety point of view, it is not wise to allow water to sit on top of a heatmat and so it might be prudent to use a sheet of glass to make a false terrarium bottom as a barrier. That said, I find that excess water that overspills is absorbed into the deep substrate and I have not personally had any problems in this regard.
Of course the heated water also increases ambient humidity, which I boost by spraying very heavily with tepid water every evening. Interestingly, I have four species of tortoise and turtle where I am using similar shallow water trays. These are three-toed box turtles Terrapene carolina triunguis, painted wood turtles Rhinoclemmys pulcherimma manni, Chinese box turtles Cuora flavomarginata and of course the Kinixys homeana. Of these, the homeana consistently spend more time in the water than either the Terrapene or Cuora box turtles and probably around the same proportion of their time as the wood turtles. So, in this sense the name tortoise does not seem all that appropriate – to me they are more like a species of wood turtle. In fact, their physiognomy, with the serrated marginal scutes creating a jagged edge to the carapace, is shared with a number of wood and leaf turtle species in Asia, such as Geoemyda spengleri, the Vietnamese leaf turtle and Heosemys spinosa, the Cogwheel turtle.
One final but important component of their enclosure design is the inclusion of overhanging artificial foliage to increase their sense of security and to mute sunlight. I had to shop around before finding some florists foliage with a wire core which can be bent into useful shapes. Further, I do believe that making sure the animals are in a quiet, low disturbance area also helps tremendously to get them to settle.
Feeding
I always seem to enjoy writing about feeding animals more than anything else. I guess this is because this is the main way in which I interact with most of my animals. With homeana, the key word is variety. They are genuinely omnivorous, and so do not fit many people’s conventional idea of a tortoise. As omnivores, their diet comprises plant material, fungi and animal material. I managed to track down a scientific paper that included some information on the stomach contents of wild hingebacks in West Africa, including homeana. This paper showed that their stomachs contained only small amounts of green leafy material, the usual staple of captive tortoise diets, but large amounts of invertebrates especially beetle grubs, fungal matter (mushrooms) and some fallen fruits. This of course does fit with a lifestyle spent grubbing around in leaf litter and fallen deadwood on the forest floor.
So, at first I tried to mimic this in their captive diet. That said, over time I found they would accept more and more leafy greens and they started to gain weight so rapidly I gradually increased this component of their diet, and reduced the amount of animal protein, whilst always offering lots of mushrooms. The following paragraphs outline the diet regimen that I have settled on, following this period of trial and error.
Plant material
I have experimented with many many types of salad leaves, vegetables, fruits and other items. As a staple, I use a crispy mixed florette salad as a base. I vary this by adding dandelion, chicory, baby leaf spinach, water cress etc from time to time. To this green base, thinly sliced cucumber, (thawed) frozen peas, grated carrot, banana slices, halved grapes, chopped apple and chunks of tomato are all added regularly. More rarely, I offer ripe fruits such as melon, fig, plum, peach, nectarine, papaya, mango etc etc. I try to ensure that the plant part of their diet is dominated by the ‘healthy greens’, together with the higher fibre apple and carrot. I avoid feeding soft fruit repeatedly. For the first few months, the tortoises were unwilling to take greens and feeding soft fruit, especially tropical fruit, was much easier. In retrospect, I do think that a high fruit diet does not suit these tortoises, and the sooner they can be eating a more varied diet, with fruit as a minority item, the better.
Fungi
Homeana love to eat mushrooms of any kind and I would estimate that mushrooms make up a third of their captive diet. They can get bored of standard button mushrooms, so you can try field mushrooms, chestnut mushrooms, shitake and so on. I slice these and place on top of a green salad, or just scatter them whole around the enclosure.
Animal material
I have tried a few different methods of giving animal protein, some of which were fairly grisly. Now, I offer pre-soaked pellets of Sera Raffy P, which is a proprietary brand of turtle pellets, or pre-soaked dog flakes (small dry flakes sold as a mixer). More occasionally, I mix a small amount (a large sugar cube sized piece) of finely chopped tinned dog food into their salad. I also offer live garden snails, slugs and earthworms from time to time. I must admit I have a lot of mouths competing for juicy feeders like these, so this is only an occasional treat as opposed to a staple item. I did discover that the size of slugs is not a barrier to their being eaten. Large garden slugs, the brown ones with orange skirts, are devoured. They are far too large to swallow whole, but the homeana literally tear chunks off them until they are gone. I would not describe myself as squeamish, but this is one thing I can not watch, it truly is gruesome but they clearly love slugs, the bigger the better!
To get an idea of the overall regimen, I offer a green salad topped with mushrooms and/or fruit two or three times a week. I offer mushrooms on their own once or twice a week. I add a small quantity of Raffy P to their salad once every few feeds, and once every 2 or 3 weeks, they get the Raffy P or dog flakes or live feeders on their own. Thus I only feed between three or four times a week. I know that many people are used to feeding tortoises daily, but this system seems to be working well.
In terms of supplementation, I have been using two German products which I believe to be very good. Nekton Rep is a general use vitamin and mineral supplement containing calcium and vitamin D3. It is a very fine, soluble powder and the tortoises do not seem to notice it. Nekton MSA is a high potency version, rich in calcium and D3, for breeding animals or animals in rehabilitation. I used Nekton MSA a lot for the first 12 months, and now am using primarily Nekton Rep.
Certainly, growth has been rapid. I was so keen to just let these tortoises settle down and feed at will that it was some time before I realised just how fast they were putting on weight. I had gone from weighing them every three days to just leaving them undisturbed as much as possible and I was feeding them more frequently and with a higher proportion of animal protein. The above text describes my current approach, designed to achieve a more controlled growth. Fortunately, as omnivores , they are relatively resistant to problems such as pyramiding. In fact in many ways keeping homeana is much more akin to keeping box or wood turtles than Mediterranean tortoises.
When the homeana first arrived in my care, their weights ranged from 75 to 195g, with an average of 128g. Now, 18 months on, they range from 198 to 414g, with an average of 295g. You will notice that the weights are spread across a wide range. This is at least in part due to gender I think – with the larger heavier animals being females. Owing to their hinge action however, I always struggle to get a really good look at their tail area to confirm this. It does appear that some animals are lighter in weight and have a longer, narrower carapace when viewed from above, than others which have a more rounded carapace in aerial view, which is also more domed in side view. So, I think I have both sexes present but they are still growing and have not yet reached adult size.
I would very much like to breed this species, maybe in a year or two’s time and hopefully this will be the topic of a future article. There are two reasons for this. One, I think they are amazing tortoises, full of character and an absolute pleasure to keep. Two, it can not be right to continue collecting these animals up in their native rainforest and shipping them to pet shops and so on in Europe or elsewhere in the world. I’d be very surprised if the losses involved in this trade aren’t huge. Hopefully, others will get to enjoy keeping captive born and raised specimens in the future.
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(c) 2010-2025 Mark R. Webb/Tortoise Trust
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