Advice for uber hot days?

[batchick]

We've just had a seriously hot week her in Cape Town and both Ned (angulate) and our friend's leopard tortoise, Tiberius, have really battled with the heat. They are both outside tortoises who hand out in the garden. They have plenty of shaded areas to be in and have access to water both to drink and soak in. The problem is on such hot days they just hide under plants and sit it out. They don't eat or drink. The weather has now broken and Ned is very active again eating and pooping and pooping and pooping (not diarrhea, just a lot of stored up poop). I know hot weather happens, but I've read stories of tortoises dying from ovr-heating. Any suggestions of anything else I could do to help him manage the excessive heat?

 

[Redfoot Micah]

Hose them down - literally That's what breeder friends here do when it gets like that. You can put sprinklers in their area on timers if you are not around to do it through the day yourself.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

Another thing that works is making your tortoise a "cave" out of a large slab of rock, resting on other rocks...it stays considerably cooler underneath, so that's where my tortoises spend the heat of the day, coming back out when the cool of the early evening returns.

Ptolemy sitting atop their cave​

 

[wellington]

Another thing that works is making your tortoise a "cave" out of a large slab of rock, resting on other rocks...it stays considerably cooler underneath, so that's where my tortoises spend the heat of the day, coming back out when the cool of the early evening returns.

Ptolemy sitting atop their cave​

Love this pictures. Great advice already given.

 

[Yvonne G]

I pounded T-posts into the ground, spaced about 10' apart in a line through the tortoise's enclosure. Then I hung drip pipe all along at the top of the posts, with the sprinkler-type emitters in it. When you turn it on, the sprinklers shoot out a very fine spray of water in about a 5' circle all along the line. This cools down the air considerably and makes it very comfortable for my rain forest tortoises in our 100F degree weather.

 

[Tom]

One more vote for water. Automatic sprinklers make it easier, but even just spraying the area with a hose a few times a day will keep it cooler. All the evaporation. You could also add some more shade structures. I built 4x8' planter boxes on legs to give mine some more shade. PLus I use the top to grow them more food.

Also, being in their native area, and seeing that they do what they are supposed to do already, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[batchick]

Thanks everyone. I'll definitely try to figure out a spraying method, it is just tricky as we leave in the morning before it gets too hot. The cave sounds cool, but he's tended to ignore all the structures we've built. Tom, yes, we are in the natural environment, but I wonder if they don't go to ravine type environments in the extreme heat and the constraint of the garden means that he has a little more limited range of options.