My tortoise went on her back :(

[sassytorty]

This did happen a while ago, but Torty flipped on her back one day. Thankfully I was home at the time and removed her from that position. I keep worrying if it will happen again! How did she manage to do that and what should I do to prevent it?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Watch her and see what she is climbing on and remove it.
All of us like to decorate the enclosures, but tortoises don't see decorations as anything more than an obstacle.
You need a flat water dish and flat food dish. Some plants. That is about it. Tortoises of a certain age and size can usually stay upright. Young ones due to shape and inexperience are much more prone to flipping.

 

[TMartin510]

One of mine likes to try to climb on his log house, time for a new one, but everything the pet stores sell is so small imo

 

[tinyherms]

Flip back. Put in water. Watch carefully. Don't FREAK OUT!

I check on tinyherms regularly to make sure he hasn't done this. When I first got him, he flipped all the time. He's a "flipper", sadly.

So I just removed everything he liked climbing all the time. Replaced with some straw that is interesting for him, but isn't a "flip hazard" at one end of his enclosure (but should be changed very regularly to stop it getting moldy - I do it once a week).

Flipping is not great for them though. If you look at a picture of tortoise anatomy you see their lungs are right at the top of the shell, so when they're on their backs, essentially all their organs are weighing on their lungs. And their lungs are a bit weird, more like a honeycomb system than our bronchiole tree-like system. Like the difference between a cactus and a tree. So the compression makes it even harder to breathe, which they have to do by moving their front legs in and out like a bellows, because they don't have a diaphragm like us.

I figure they probably feel a bit like we would if we were upside down and forced to do a headstand. Not pleasant, and best be put to rights sooner rather than later.

 

[dmmj]

it flipped for a reason.you need to figure out why and fix it it will probably happen again. they usually flip over for a reason you need to figure out why and fix it

 

[sassytorty]

Flip back. Put in water. Watch carefully. Don't FREAK OUT!

I check on tinyherms regularly to make sure he hasn't done this. When I first got him, he flipped all the time. He's a "flipper", sadly.

So I just removed everything he liked climbing all the time. Replaced with some straw that is interesting for him, but isn't a "flip hazard" at one end of his enclosure (but should be changed very regularly to stop it getting moldy - I do it once a week).

Flipping is not great for them though. If you look at a picture of tortoise anatomy you see their lungs are right at the top of the shell, so when they're on their backs, essentially all their organs are weighing on their lungs. And their lungs are a bit weird, more like a honeycomb system than our bronchiole tree-like system. Like the difference between a cactus and a tree. So the compression makes it even harder to breathe, which they have to do by moving their front legs in and out like a bellows, because they don't have a diaphragm like us.

I figure they probably feel a bit like we would if we were upside down and forced to do a headstand. Not pleasant, and best be put to rights sooner rather than later.

Ok thank you. Yeah Torty hasn't flipped for a while. I recently just put smaller "slides" in her tank just because she seemed bored. She hasn't been anywhere near flipping and someone is usually home incase she does.