Tortoise won't sleep

[shelbyc]

Hello!

I have had my 2 year-old Russian tortoise for 5 months now, and it has been a wonderful experience. However, for the past 3 nights, my little one has taken FOREVER to fall asleep. She walks laps around the enclosure for hours and hours, and stops to dig at every corner of the enclosure. Eventually she will fall asleep, but in the mean time, she slowly drives me crazy! I have tried soaking her right before her normal night routine, and this seems to energize her, not calm her down.

If anyone has any suggestions of what I can do to help my little one fall asleep, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks

 

[wellington]

How big is the enclosure? What are the temps? If it's too cold, she might be trying to find a place to hibernate/brumate. If it's too small of an enclosure, I would enlarge it. Also, how deep is the substrate? Can she burrow into it. Maybe try making it deeper.

 

[Laura]

do you turn lights off at night?

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Soaks always pump up all of mine!

 

[ascott]

Soaks always pump up all of mine!

Yeah, seems to prime em up for mucking about searching for food and adventure...

 

[shelbyc]

How big is the enclosure? What are the temps? If it's too cold, she might be trying to find a place to hibernate/brumate. If it's too small of an enclosure, I would enlarge it. Also, how deep is the substrate? Can she burrow into it. Maybe try making it deeper.

Her enclosure right now is about the size of a 50 gallon Rubbermaid container (I thought about using an actual Rubbermaid, but I had worries about the humidity control). The cool end of her enclosure stays around 73*, and the basking area stays at 92*. As for substrate, there is currently about 2.5 or 3 inches. She can definitely burrow into it! In fact, she normally does when she is going to sleep. However, these past few days, she has had no desire to sleep when she burrows!

 

[shelbyc]

do you turn lights off at night?

The only time that I will leave either the uv bulb or the heat bulb on is when it is SUPER cold outside. Since I have had her, I believe I have only left the bulbs on once.