Juvenile desert tortoise won't go in his burrow anymore

[Ranger Jeff]

Hello all - so glad to find this forum. I have recently adopted a juvenile desert tortoise from AZ Fish and Game. His name is Ranger Jeff. He has a lovely little burrow in the backyard that I built him and he uses it all the time. When he was rescued, AZFG said he was very underweight - so I wanted to be sure he was healthy enough to hibernate this year (he lives in the backyard). On Monday, I took him into the Vet -- I had to reach into the burrow to get him out for his appointment. And ever since that time, he will not go back in his burrow. He has picked out an odd spot in the yard - the side yard near the front gate with very little protection, plants, or his water. I have made a little make shift temporary shelter and moved his food and water near this spot. Is there anything that I can do to get him interested again in his burrow? I am guessing that I violated his sense of safety

 

[AnimalLady]

Hello! Welcome to the forum. I'm a new tort mom so I'm not very experienced at all. Lets wait till the others chime in.

I got the same feeling that you got, maybe he feels you violated his safe space?

 

[Carol S]

Welcome to the Forum. I love Desert Tortoises, they are so personable.

Perhaps try putting a treat halfway inside the burrow.

 

[Ranger Jeff]

When I brought him home, I put him in front of his burrow, and he went in initially and then came out and wandered around the yard, as a good ranger would . And then he headed back towards the burrow, changed his mind and headed down the side yard. I will try that treat idea to see if he will accept the burrow again. I get it, if a wild beast had found him in the wild, he would probably avoid the area until he considered it safe again. Had plans to build a second burrow, so might accelerate that idea. Maybe he will like the new burrow and next Spring accept the original.

 

[BeeBee*BeeLeaves]

Ranger Jeff is being moody. They kinda are like that this time of year. Maybe that whole, should I? should I not? brumating thing. And our weather climate has been so odd this year. My plants are confused. My English roses did not bloom in May and June that much and now October, they are gangbusters. Odd. So if plants are confused, maybe our tortoises are a little bit also. The el Nino possibility may have something in the air that they can sense.

 

[Tom]

If reaching in and pulling a tortoise out of its burrow was a deal breaker, then NONE of my tortoises would ever go in their burrows. Nobody's would.

Tortoises choose where they want to bed down using a wide variety of reasons. I can speculate about a few possible reasons, but I don't pretend to actually know why this is. In some cases, the easiest course of action is to simplyput the shelter where they have chosen to want to be. In other cases, they can be trained to go into their shelters and be made more comfortable by repeatedly putting them in the burrow after dark and on hot days.

Good luck.