About BATK

In England the overwhelming majority of animals kept as pets are mammals.  The husbandry, biology and medical care of mammals is reasonably well understood by pet owners and vets.

Tortoises are reptiles, and this means that their needs are different. The critical difference is that mammals keep their bodies at the correct temperature by burning food internally to provide the heat, and using various automatic systems to control their body temperature thermostatically. Except in extreme conditions, this is achieved without any conscious thought on the part of the animal. Tortoises, however, cannot do this. They need to bask in the sun in order to raise their bodies to the correct operating temperature, and they need both shade and sun in order to be able to regulate their temperature. The tortoise does this consciously in the same way as we are conscious of the need to eat and drink.

Another critical difference between a tortoise and the usual mammalian pet is the tortoise's ability to cope with adverse conditions for extended periods. If the mammal is put in a situation where the conditions of the air, ambient temperature, the food and water supply is inadequate, its condition very rapidly deteriorates. If we subject a dog to incorrect husbandry, his rapid deterioration tells us we are doing something wrong. Tortoises, in contrast, can put up with many potentially lethal conditions for long periods. At first sight this seems an advantage, but unfortunately this too often results in the owner not knowing that something is wrong. We frequently see tortoises that are suffering from a multiplicity of potentially lethal problems and the owners tell us "oh, it's all right, he's been like that for years". Unfortunately, putting right the effects of bad husbandry can also take years.

Most of the literature up to a few years ago on the subject of tortoise husbandry used mammalian husbandry as its basis and as such was far short of ideal on many topics. Anybody who has studied such literature will realise that much of it is also self contradictory. One further problem that the tortoise keeper has is that during their training many vets do not study reptiles, and many of the veterinary problems of tortoises are different from those of mammals.

The consequence of all of this is inevitable - 98% of tortoises imported into this country died within 5 years and most of the remainder are in poor health.

BATK is a charitable organisation set up to provide information to tortoise owners so that general husbandry of tortoises can be improved.

We have carried out a considerable amount of research in order to improve our knowledge, and we are in touch with others doing similar work in many different parts of the world. We issue newsletters, hold talks and have meetings. We can offer personal husbandry advice and recommend specialist vets in case of problems. We have several books on the subject available on our open days, etc.

We have, since we started, seen a marked improvement in the general health of our members' pets, and a marked improvement in the appalling death rate but there is still much to do.

First in extending our membership so that more tortoises can benefit from better care and husbandry; and secondly in the field of breeding, which is similarly full of pitfalls for unwary owners! In addition to our services to individual owners, we do a lot of "behind the scenes" work to promote the welfare of tortoises world-wide, details of which we publish in our newsletter as and when appropriate.

ALL donations are spent on our objectives. ALL our helpers are voluntary.

COMMITTEE 2007/2008

Chairperson:      Glyn Collins

 

Secretary:	Matthew Parsons
Treasurer:	Linda Jones
Newsletter:	Janis Field
Website Editor:	Lynn Smith
Tortoise Co-ordinator:                       Ann Collins
Publicity Officer:                                  Yvonne Parsons
Other Trustees:	Jenny Brooks, Brenda Vernon