can a tortoise roam around the house?

Gillian M

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You will always get some to say go,ahead and others that say don't. The thing about why it's not a good idea, is because of the dangers for your tort. If you can build her a large outside enclosure, then, yes, take her outside, which is the best place for her and let her roam. If your talking about roaming in the house, bad idea because of the risk to your torts life.
Hi, what is wrong with a tort roaming around the house? Mine does till I take it out in the sun. There's no other choice when one lives in a flat...one can't keep the poor thing "imprisoned."
 

Gillian M

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Thanks very much the info. I for one live ALONE in my flat and ONLY my tort lives with me, ie: no other person or pet.
As for cleanliness, I can assure you the place is VERY clean. For this reason I allow my tort to roam around the house if I'm not planning to take it out. I keep a eye on it so long as it is moving around. Would that be alright?
Another question: HOW can I train my tort to do certain things or not to do others? I'm asking as I don't want to annoy it or keep picking it up. (It's a Greek tort). Appreciate your answer, thanks.
 

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It'd be easier to train a pack of cigarettes! Seriously. They will come when called, know what time is dinner time and do a few interesting things, but actually training them? They aren't capable of dog like intelligence......Although I'd be surprised if someone didn't try to correct me.....
 

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This is @ascott 's reply to this question on another thread. So as to not hi-jack the other thread, I've moved Gillian's question to its own thread:

Ascott said:
To let a tort roam our habitats or not? Always a question that will offer up a bunch of opinions, stories of what happened to some, stories of how dumb it is and success stories....so if you see the trend here, it is that folks do alot of different things based on their own lives. Now, I would love nothing more than to have a posse of torts cruising through the house at will...well, except for the huge puddles of urine, and some species offer up white gooey urates mixed in with the pee....so much fun to clean and then disinfect (especially if there are children in the home, or dogs that lick floors)..oh and then there is the moments where the tort will be set on moving behind the electronic equipment and get all caught up in the cords....and now way will the cords stop them, they have no problem continuing on their path and all kinds of things come crashing to the floor (you see, torts will rarely throw it in exact reverse to get out of a situation, onward and upward) and a total score if they come across any little doo dads they may come across on the floor, hair from the humans (which is awesome when intwined within their gut as it attempts to move through) or a piece of something that is hard or broken off of something else and sharp (again, a great item for causing rips and tears to their system...and not nice at all if it does actually make it through and out the end---ouch)...and then there is the awesome dash, or be smashed by one of those cumbersome humans along with the smaller versions of them....and if there are any dogs in the house...awesome, the tort can get to experience what it may be like to be a rawhide treat....

So, while there may be a few hazards...there is always the eventual reality to the tort that has been allowed to roam a large area, that well, it is there... a large area. Once a tort has been exposed to a large space, it will be unsatisfied and unable to settle into an appropriate enclosure set up for its safety....see, when you take on the responsibility of hosting a tort---it is kinda your task to do what is best for the health and well being of the tort....so perhaps making the indoor time enclosure the best it can be...at so be it, the tort will learn its environment and will get a routine down there just as you feel he will in your habitat...you may also want to invest a bit of time in researching what is involved in supporting a healthy brumation for this species, they are deeply driven to brumate....just some sharing here....again, no judging--seriously.
Thanks, Angela
1.0.0 Son
 
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Thanks very much the info. I for one live ALONE in my flat and ONLY my tort lives with me, ie: no other person or pet.
As for cleanliness, I can assure you the place is VERY clean. For this reason I allow my tort to roam around the house if I'm not planning to take it out. I keep a eye on it so long as it is moving around. Would that be alright?
Another question: HOW can I train my tort to do certain things or not to do others? I'm asking as I don't want to annoy it or keep picking it up. (It's a Greek tort). Appreciate your answer, thanks.
I'm no expert when it comes to Greeks. But I don't think you can train any species to do or not to do things. They are very smart but they don't have the compasity to be trained. My tort recognizes me.but I'm better off asking a infant child to do my food shopping rather than teaching my tort even the difference between right and wrong. Torts are awesome. And yes I'm new here but it sounds like your looking for a friend like a dog. Don't take me out of context. Just giving some constructive criticism. Hope ya find what your looking for. If your tort didn't fulfill you need as a pet there are lots of folks here that would be interested in taking him
 

Gillian M

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Welcome to the forum. NO WAY..I'd NEVER give my tortoise away. I LOVE it. But I just wondered if torts could be trained like other animals. It seems not. Want a laugh? Here you go...believe it or not I'm scared of BOTH dogs and cats and for this reason I decided to get a tortoise. Thanks your help.
 

Gillian M

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This is @ascott 's reply to this question on another thread. So as to not hi-jack the other thread, I've moved Gillian's question to its own thread:

Ascott said:
To let a tort roam our habitats or not? Always a question that will offer up a bunch of opinions, stories of what happened to some, stories of how dumb it is and success stories....so if you see the trend here, it is that folks do alot of different things based on their own lives. Now, I would love nothing more than to have a posse of torts cruising through the house at will...well, except for the huge puddles of urine, and some species offer up white gooey urates mixed in with the pee....so much fun to clean and then disinfect (especially if there are children in the home, or dogs that lick floors)..oh and then there is the moments where the tort will be set on moving behind the electronic equipment and get all caught up in the cords....and now way will the cords stop them, they have no problem continuing on their path and all kinds of things come crashing to the floor (you see, torts will rarely throw it in exact reverse to get out of a situation, onward and upward) and a total score if they come across any little doo dads they may come across on the floor, hair from the humans (which is awesome when intwined within their gut as it attempts to move through) or a piece of something that is hard or broken off of something else and sharp (again, a great item for causing rips and tears to their system...and not nice at all if it does actually make it through and out the end---ouch)...and then there is the awesome dash, or be smashed by one of those cumbersome humans along with the smaller versions of them....and if there are any dogs in the house...awesome, the tort can get to experience what it may be like to be a rawhide treat....

So, while there may be a few hazards...there is always the eventual reality to the tort that has been allowed to roam a large area, that well, it is there... a large area. Once a tort has been exposed to a large space, it will be unsatisfied and unable to settle into an appropriate enclosure set up for its safety....see, when you take on the responsibility of hosting a tort---it is kinda your task to do what is best for the health and well being of the tort....so perhaps making the indoor time enclosure the best it can be...at so be it, the tort will learn its environment and will get a routine down there just as you feel he will in your habitat...you may also want to invest a bit of time in researching what is involved in supporting a healthy brumation for this species, they are deeply driven to brumate....just some sharing here....again, no judging--seriously.
Thanks, Angela
1.0.0 Son
As I mentioned already:
1) the place is VERY clean
2) I keep an eye on my tort while it is roaming round the house
3) I live ALONE: no other person, no other pet.
So while make things so complicated??
 

Grandpa Turtle 144

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Your like the parent that says my child will not eat it's veggys so I'll give it candy to fill the child's belly . No a tort should nt run a round the house it's not good for the tort . But have a great tort day !


Sent from my iPhone using TortForum
 

Gillian M

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As I mentioned already:
1) the place is VERY clean
2) I keep an eye on my tort while it is roaming round the house
3) I live ALONE: no other person, no other pet.
So while make things so complicated??
Thanks your advice.
 

Tom

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As I mentioned already:
1) the place is VERY clean
2) I keep an eye on my tort while it is roaming round the house
3) I live ALONE: no other person, no other pet.
So while make things so complicated??

You are failing to recognize the dangers. No matter how careful you are little bits of things will hit the floor. Broken pieces of things, hair, buttons, staples, pen caps, paper clips, nails or screws that work themselves loose over time. I can't tell you how many of these things I've seen inside tortoise in xrays at the vet hospitals of friends of mine. I've also seen lots of xrays of broken legs or shells from tortoises that were accidentally stepped on or smashed with a door because the silent ninja tortoise ended up somewhere that it wasn't expected to be. Lets not even get into electrocution from biting into cords, poisons, cleaning product fumes and residues, inappropriate temperatures, etc...

It doesn't matter how careful you think you are. Its just a question of time.

If your enclosure seems like a "prison", then I suggest you improve it. None of my indoor enclosures seem like a prison to me, and none of my indoor torts seem to mind being in their large enclosures one bit.

I suggest you make your tortoises enclosure much larger and more interesting and then leave your tortoise in its own environment where it is reasonably safe, instead of allowing your tortoise to roam in your environment where there are many potential hazards. This may not be what you want to hear, but those of us that have seen this practice lead to disaster are trying our best to warn you before you and your tortoise have to learn the hard way. Just for a moment, envision how you'd feel if one of these preventable accidents happened to your tortoise. Is it worth the risk? I can assure you that NONE of those people crying in the vets office ever thought anything bad would happen from this practice. All of them thought they were doing their tortoise a favor by letting them out of their small cage...
 

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