Just a couple of ideas to keep your tortoise entertained

Lyn W said:

Lola used to push a tennis ball about but then started to walk over it and it would get stuck under him.. I tried a bigger ball but then I read somewhere here that because balls are tort shaped (to a tortoise) they are actually a bit stressed by them so barge them as they would another tort.
Lola tends to ignore them now.
I have a play tunnel from Ikea that Lola likes to walk through and lie in the middle of.
I started off with this cat play tunnel (with all attached cat toys etc removed) and he liked that so got him a bigger version.

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I think that you are right and the ball barging is aggressive territorial behaviour.
But I don't think that's necessarily bad for your tortoise, keeps it active and behaving normally, without risk of injury.
Don't think they get too stressed as they tend to win!
And then realize it's no threat and ignore it.

Hmmm mabey I will give it a try then...

Pebble doesn't really like playing with anything, I've tried a lot of things, she either tries to bite them or she gets scared. She prefers her food to be presented in different ways

I just finished making my "tortoise toy" out of two of those art clamp things. (clips?) I thought that was a great idea to keep Artemis mentally stimulated.

Whoops! My dogs puzzle toy ended up in the pic as well.

Has your tort tried to eat the clip-thingy? Creative idea!

Tidgy's Dad said:

hello!
Some of them have been from Doctor Who.
Today's avatar is a bonfire as it's Guy Fawkes night in the UK, when bonfires are lit and a figure is burned of the Guy who tried to blow up parliament and the King in the Gunpowder plot but was caught and executed.

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Remember remember the 5th of November; Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
I fail to see, how the 5th of November, could EVER be Forgot!

erinlyndon said:

My first idea is getting an old multicolour pen (no ink inside) and using the the colour selection levers to hold the food, if that makes sense. Pebble loves this, she spends a lot of time trying to eat the food. If you have a bigger tortoise you could use one of those jumbo pens. Make sure there is nothing on it that they can ingest.
My second idea is just getting a stone with holes in it like this, I got mine from a beach. Not only does it entertain them but it will help with beak growth

Hope you like my ideas.

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Love your ideas! simple and easy to get it!
How lovely!

Love the ideas ! I am going to try them thank you

Tidgy's Dad said:

hello!
Some of them have been from Doctor Who.
Today's avatar is a bonfire as it's Guy Fawkes night in the UK, when bonfires are lit and a figure is burned of the Guy who tried to blow up parliament and the King in the Gunpowder plot but was caught and executed.

Click to expand...

All I can see in your Avatar is in the lower right corner, it looks like a tiny guitar (?) the rest is blank. Am I misunderstanding something?

maggie3fan said:

All I can see in your Avatar is in the lower right corner, it looks like a tiny guitar (?) the rest is blank. Am I misunderstanding something?

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Hi; Maggie.
It's a poppy, symbol of Remembrance Day in the UK, what you call Veteran's Day in the US.
Lest we forget...............

Tidgy's Dad said:

Hi; Maggie.
It's a poppy, symbol of Remembrance Day in the UK, what you call Veteran's Day in the US.
Lest we forget...............

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We give out poppy's too. Now that you've told me, of course I can tell. Sometimes I'm just a goofball, plus I can't see very well. Thanks

GingerLove said:

Has your tort tried to eat the clip-thingy? Creative idea!

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Actually snobby girl hasn't even noticed it yet! She just walks around without stopping to check it out. But I HAVE been putting yellow bell pepper pieces in it. Mabey she is trying to train her pet human to find something green and leafy instead...!

The most successful entertainment I had for my Hermann's was a small head of live romaine. One of my friends grows greens in her garden to feed her rabbit, and almost always has romaine growing. She dug up one of the heads of romaine, roots, dirt and all, and we planted it in Elsa's enclosure. It towered over her like a tree but she went for it! She chewed on it, pushed on it and worked on it for 3 whole days.
She was victorious!!!!

So I have been thinking about giving the ball idea a try for a while. But I continuously procrastinate on the idea because I can always see something wrong with the toys I'm inspecting: Too big, she could get scared. Too textured, she might flip herself with that one. Too brightly colored, Too soft, Too squeeky, etc.
Well my one superficial human weakness was for a mini soccer ball...
Well, when I was at Petsmart, my Mom discovered these!They are supposed to be 1.5 inches. My cat would not leave the baseball alone, and my dog got her own mini basketball! Oh yeah, they are KONG toys. Probably the smallest balls they make.
I will have to update if Artemis plays with her ball or not!

So next time I'm out and about, I'll have to go get another 3-pack of these tiny KONGs, since my other girls insisted I share.
I was thinking at first about giving them all to Artemis once I'm finished with my Red Foot table.
I'm wondering...is the tiny basketball too orange for a tortoise ball? Would she just see it as a fruit?
There is also an 8-ball mixed into the assortmented balls I passed on, but I was thinking she might see it as a big eyeball, and get scared. No?

Beasty_Artemis said:

So next time I'm out and about, I'll have to go get another 3-pack of these tiny KONGs, since my other girls insisted I share.
I was thinking at first about giving them all to Artemis once I'm finished with my Red Foot table.
I'm wondering...is the tiny basketball too orange for a tortoise ball? Would she just see it as a fruit?
There is also an 8-ball mixed into the assortmented balls I passed on, but I was thinking she might see it as a big eyeball, and get scared. No?

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I think you are overthinking it. Just try one to see what happens. We had a soccer ball in our yard for a long time. I don't think Charlie ever played with it. He might have tried to mount it.

I've tried pebble with balls she either trys to eat them or is scared, if you want to try your tort with a ball just make sure it won't fall appart and its got to be big enough so it won't get ingested by your tort

hol-ee rollers are meant to be good too, i think their a dogs toy so they are very strong, and you can put food in them as well

My Russian has made a toy out of many of the potted plants I put in her enclosure. So I finally just said heck with it and put it in a plastic plant pot. She'll knock that thing around and dig at it and flip it around all the day long.