Donations
Here at HappyTortoises we invest a lot of time and effort in communicating, researching and offering the best advise to our customers and tortoise-loving community!
Maintaining the best enclosures, researching and educating people, attending field research trips and seminars, buying items for Youtube videos etc, all cost money. There are a huge number of projects we’d like to participate in as well as projects to improve our existing facilities when funds allow.
If you’d like to donate to our cause or have appreciated free advice given, found videos helpful or would like to show your support for us, then please click the ‘I would like to Donate’ button below. You can then choose what you would like your kind donation to go towards from some or all of the donation options (as described below).
All donations are greatly appreciated to help us continue the work we do.
Thank-you so much!
Donation options:
General upkeep at HappyTortoises
Tortoise care and general upkeep at HappyTortoises
From breeding, incubating and caring for hatchling tortoises to give the best start in life;
to regular health checks, weigh-ins, bathing, etc;
to providing heating, UVB, cosy and clean enclosures for all tortoises
to healthy and high fibre diets, and much more!
Enclosure maintenance/upgrades
We are looking to massively overhaul our existing tortoise facilities, with a brand new tortoise building, indoor and outdoor enclosures, automated monitoring and misting systems and much more! We have lots of exciting ideas that will allow us to take in rescues, care for endangered species, offer tortoise holiday accommodation, etc. Any donations (however small) will be greatly appreciated to help us move onto the next phase of the project.
Tortoise research and field trips
Over the years we have spent countless hours researching everything tortoise-related - from habitat to food to heating and lighting etc. Our main source of research is a huge pile of books as well as information online from reputable organisations that conduct field studies, reading scientific study papers, speaking with experts and attending conferences. If your kind donation is going towards tortoise research it would go towards purchasing equipment to conduct simple studies of our own, attend tortoise field trips to observe tortoise behaviour in the wild, purchase tortoise books, attend conferences and much more!
A thank-you for advice given
If you feel you would like to donate to say thank-you for any advice given (whether it's a message via social media, a youtube video you've found helpful, an email or information on my website), then that would be greatly appreciated and I'm pleased that I was able to help you in some small way!
Tortoise conservation
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to volunteer at a tortoise conservation study in South Africa. This was a self-funded trip and was something I had wanted to do for a number of years. It was a really interesting study and although it was very physically challenging (climbing up and down steep, rocky hills in the burning midday sun!) it was a privilege to have a small part in the conversation of the Karoo Dwarf tortoises. We would love the opportunity to be involved in similar studies and tortoise research out in the field when funds allow.
Tortoise food
Researching best foods for each tortoise breed (to ensure year-round availability);
Sowing, planting and growing (& picking, washing and preparing!) fresh healthy foods for our tortoises.. (and even ‘weeding’ the weed patches!)
Creating YouTube videos
We get a constant stream of requests from our tortoise-loving community on YouTube, to make different tortoise-related videos. We have 40-50 videos waiting for narration, filming and editing but no time to do this. In the past I have taken a week's holiday from my full-time job in order to prepare and release one video(!). I do enjoy making the YouTube videos and have lots of lovely feedback, so it would be great to be able to justify spending time making these videos! Any donations towards YouTube videos will go towards buying equipment and items for the videos as well as time spent on research, filming, editing.
A cuppa and biscuit for HappyTortoises staff
Well.. who doesn't love a cuppa and a biscuit after a long day looking after tortoises?! I am lucky to be able to call on lots of help when needed: My Mum has been roped into helping on Saturday morning's with the bathing and weighing of all my tortoises - it takes 2-3 hours and I would be lost without her help! My partner steps in with the weighing, measuring and bathing when we need an extra pair of hands, he also comes to help me with 'tortoise-weed-picking' and washing, and many other jobs! Your donation towards this will put a smile on their faces for sure!