GeorgeUK
Active Member
Hello all,
I hope everyone has had a great Summer.
My Lady Dorothy turned 5, and she's doing just great. She's a real character.
As you can see from my "smallest leopard tortoise on TFO" thread, you can see that for her age, Dorothy is really small. She is, however, healthy & I assume happy. So her size isn't a massive concern for me. I've also managed to prevent her pyramiding from getting worse by regularly bathing her and daily mists.
My only problem is, I've really struggled to get Dorothy to settle outdoors. I planned to build her a big outdoor enclosure, however our contract on the house would prevent this at the moment (we are technically not allowed pets). Though the landlord has told us he doesn't mind - I'd rather not push that too far by transforming the garden.
I do however allow Dorothy to roam outside in the garden supervised as often as possible. For some reason, she runs to the corner of the garden & stays there for hours. She doesn't even attempt to explore or eat the grass or weeds (both of which she gobbles up happily indoors.)
When she's inside, she sleeps a lot, she basks a lot with her legs stretched out & she eats. Occasionally she will wonder around her enclosure.
Am I doing something wrong? Or can they really be this chilled out?
I'm about to spend a few hundred £ on her new indoor enclosure which will be double the size. Even if she doesn't make use of it, it'll give me peace of mind knowing she can wonder around more if she wants.
Also, she's currently on Orchid bark, however I was tempted with her new enclosure to buy some high quality top soil, and plant untreated grass in it - would this be a good idea? Or would a grass base have disadvantages?
Thanks in advance for any advise
I hope everyone has had a great Summer.
My Lady Dorothy turned 5, and she's doing just great. She's a real character.
As you can see from my "smallest leopard tortoise on TFO" thread, you can see that for her age, Dorothy is really small. She is, however, healthy & I assume happy. So her size isn't a massive concern for me. I've also managed to prevent her pyramiding from getting worse by regularly bathing her and daily mists.
My only problem is, I've really struggled to get Dorothy to settle outdoors. I planned to build her a big outdoor enclosure, however our contract on the house would prevent this at the moment (we are technically not allowed pets). Though the landlord has told us he doesn't mind - I'd rather not push that too far by transforming the garden.
I do however allow Dorothy to roam outside in the garden supervised as often as possible. For some reason, she runs to the corner of the garden & stays there for hours. She doesn't even attempt to explore or eat the grass or weeds (both of which she gobbles up happily indoors.)
When she's inside, she sleeps a lot, she basks a lot with her legs stretched out & she eats. Occasionally she will wonder around her enclosure.
Am I doing something wrong? Or can they really be this chilled out?
I'm about to spend a few hundred £ on her new indoor enclosure which will be double the size. Even if she doesn't make use of it, it'll give me peace of mind knowing she can wonder around more if she wants.
Also, she's currently on Orchid bark, however I was tempted with her new enclosure to buy some high quality top soil, and plant untreated grass in it - would this be a good idea? Or would a grass base have disadvantages?
Thanks in advance for any advise