My husband came home from work tonight to find our poor little guy almost all the way on his back and totally stressed out. He said it appeared he had been there for awhile as it looked like he was really struggling and in pain. My husband said he had a tiny bit of blood on on his neck where it appeared the skin had repeatedly rubbed on his shell as he fought to turn over.
When he told me what had happened I was so upset! Poor guy! I know tortoises can suffocate if they are on their backs for too long, luckily Pickles seems ok now, but what if it happens again and we don't get home in time?
There is nothing he could have fallen off of in his enclosure. The water dish is very shallow, and there's a rock in it so he can't tip it over. He could potentially try to climb and fall off his hide, but he was completely on the other side of the cage. It appears from the position he was in that perhaps he was trying to climb the walls. I have seen him do that before, but never to the point where he did more than kinds of scrape and push his front leg on the wall while attempting to push himself up. If he is climbing the wall and flipping over when I am not home, how can I prevent it? I have tried to make his cage the safest and best place possible for him--I even returned the glass aquarium I bought at Petco and purchased a beautiful custom tortoise enclosure from a local reptile dealer who has been breeding Redfoots for 30 years. I thought he would be totally safe and happy now! The enclosure is made of wood, with a glass front, so he was not climbing the back wall because of something he saw outside the glass.
Any ideas? Advice? I am so stressed, I am afraid to go to work tomorrow and leave him alone! Also, any ideas on how I can lessen his stress after what was surely a traumatic incident and make him feel better?
When he told me what had happened I was so upset! Poor guy! I know tortoises can suffocate if they are on their backs for too long, luckily Pickles seems ok now, but what if it happens again and we don't get home in time?
There is nothing he could have fallen off of in his enclosure. The water dish is very shallow, and there's a rock in it so he can't tip it over. He could potentially try to climb and fall off his hide, but he was completely on the other side of the cage. It appears from the position he was in that perhaps he was trying to climb the walls. I have seen him do that before, but never to the point where he did more than kinds of scrape and push his front leg on the wall while attempting to push himself up. If he is climbing the wall and flipping over when I am not home, how can I prevent it? I have tried to make his cage the safest and best place possible for him--I even returned the glass aquarium I bought at Petco and purchased a beautiful custom tortoise enclosure from a local reptile dealer who has been breeding Redfoots for 30 years. I thought he would be totally safe and happy now! The enclosure is made of wood, with a glass front, so he was not climbing the back wall because of something he saw outside the glass.
Any ideas? Advice? I am so stressed, I am afraid to go to work tomorrow and leave him alone! Also, any ideas on how I can lessen his stress after what was surely a traumatic incident and make him feel better?