Need help on desert tortoise, please.

Question
I have an 8 year old desert tortoise, but we've only had him for three months. He's been in captivity all of his life. I have two questions.
First, why does my tortoise urinate just about every time he eats? We feed him green beans, cilantro, turnip greens, and other leafy greens, although not lettuce.
Secondly, he likes to come in the house to sleep and eat. He doesn't act like he wants to hibernate. We've built him a house in an outdoor flowerbed, and he's dug a burrow underneath it. Now, he wants in almost all the time. Should we let him stay in, or leave him outside?
Thank you for your help.
Marina

Answer
Hi Marina,

Desert tortoises are programmed to hold their urine as a hydration source until conditions tell them it's safe to urinate.  If there is green food available, that means there's also water, so it's safe for your tortoise to release its urine.

You need to improve your tortoise's diet a bit.  The leafy greens are great (high calcium--turnip, dandelion, collards, kale, chicory, etc.) and lettuce (not iceberg) is also OK as part of a varied diet, but no veggies (no beans) or fruit except the occasional bit of cactus fruit.  Other foods to try are prickly pear; weeds such as sow thistle, plantain, mallow, clover, chickweed, etc.; grape leaves; mulberry leaves; nasturtium, hibiscus, tree mallow, rose flowers, abutilon flowers.  

I'm not sure where you're located, but I'm not familiar enough with desert tortoises to give you information on hibernation.  I would contact the California Turtle and Tortoise Club (CTTC) at www.tortoise.org and ask them about hibernation.  If you're located in Southern California, you can contact your local CTTC chapter.  Hope this helped.