Aggie loves climbing, but...

[akp022]

Hi, my name is Amanda and my tortoise is Agamemnon "Aggie". I have been having trouble recently with Aggie climbing up the sides of him enclosure and falling upside down. I've heard this is really bad for a tortoise and I am so afraid that he will do this while I'm sleeping or not home and he could really hurt himself, but I am not sure what to do about it. I let him out 1-2 times a day for 30-40 minutes and sometimes he'll tire himself out and sleep pretty well but other times he will scratch incessantly until he either tips over or I get him out again. He is a very adventurous and fearless little guy and I don't think he'll stop trying because he absolutely loves to climb things, even though he is always stressed when he flips over. Here are some pictures of his enclosure, any tips would be greatly appreciated, I love Aggie very much and I really don't want him to get hurt!

I was also curious about one other thing. I am having trouble getting Aggie to eat his food when it has the white calcium on it so I started putting less on more often but I don't know if I can get enough in him and he's really bad about staying out in his UVB light so I'm afraid he isn't getting the calcium he needs on a daily basis but I'm not sure what to do, any advice?

 

[akp022]

This morning I woke up and Aggie was upside down in his water dish, lying motionless. I quickly picked him up and he was ice cold but he came out of his shell. I laid him close to me and covered him up with a towel to try and get his body heat up and he just laid there staring at me. I was really worried this morning and I need to make some type of change because I'm afraid of what might happen the next time. Please, if anyone has any advice, let me know asap!

 

[Kate]

BUMP! This owner needs the experts!

 

[Spn785]

Try and PM GBTortoise, he is very knowledgeable and has given me good advice.

 

[ShervyBaby]

Hi, my name is Amanda and my tortoise is Agamemnon "Aggie". I have been having trouble recently with Aggie climbing up the sides of him enclosure and falling upside down. I've heard this is really bad for a tortoise and I am so afraid that he will do this while I'm sleeping or not home and he could really hurt himself, but I am not sure what to do about it. I let him out 1-2 times a day for 30-40 minutes and sometimes he'll tire himself out and sleep pretty well but other times he will scratch incessantly until he either tips over or I get him out again. He is a very adventurous and fearless little guy and I don't think he'll stop trying because he absolutely loves to climb things, even though he is always stressed when he flips over. Here are some pictures of his enclosure, any tips would be greatly appreciated, I love Aggie very much and I really don't want him to get hurt!

I was also curious about one other thing. I am having trouble getting Aggie to eat his food when it has the white calcium on it so I started putting less on more often but I don't know if I can get enough in him and he's really bad about staying out in his UVB light so I'm afraid he isn't getting the calcium he needs on a daily basis but I'm not sure what to do, any advice?

Move your log into the hiding area. Your tortoise will have more space to move around. I would also suggest buying another tortoise house and connecting it to the one you have to give your tortoise more room.

 

[akp022]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I did move his log to give him more room and I moved the water to the middle of his home so that he cannot fall into that, now he can only fall into the substrate which should give him better traction to flip himself back over, but I think we are also going to try building a ramp type thing up along the sides. I think what causes him to flip backwards is because he crawls up and gets his back legs onto the little lip along the bottom of the home so he is completely vertical, so we'll see how that goes!

 

[GBtortoises]

One thing that would greatly solve your dilema is to get a much larger enclosure for your tortoise. The one in the photo is way too small and does not give the tortoise nearly enough room for normal activity. With that much light in that small of an area you may very well be trapping your tortoise in extreme that it is trying desperately to escape from.

 

[arotester]

One more thing that i would like to add that torts are not mammals to generate heat(shivering or by covering by towel),to make them feel "OK" you need to soak them in lukewarm water or place them under the heat lamp that you have.Also, to avoid the mishap you must avoid steep area around the water dishes and they should be shallow so that torts can get in and out easily without flipping over.In your case may be the tort is trying to climb at the corner at thus flipping over so try and relocate the dish(get the dish bigger if you can)in center of the enclosure.
Ditto for the large enclosure thing, it must get enough exercise.
good luck

 

[Irwin4530]

hope to see some pictures of your new enclosure soon

 

[whughes]

My guy does the same thing in his tank (climbing/banging on walls) when he is bored/restless/hungry/wants to wake me up at 3 AM. I second the above recommendations of increasing the size of Aggie's domain, and I also root for enrichment. I've been experimenting with different toys for Argos; I've bought him various fake plants and logs, plastic dinosaurs, balls he can push around, and even a couple of life-like tortoise figurines for surrogate conspecifics. I've read that tortoises are sensitive to change, so I don't change too much too quickly, however Argos can be quite fearless, so I rotate toys and substrates around once or twice a week. It gives him something to do/look at. Whenever I put him in a new tank set up, he spends a good 30-60 minutes exploring (and no banging on the tank wall) and seeing what's new. It's a lot of fun trying different things and seeing what your animal prefers - one of my favorite parts of animal husbandry. Hope this helps you some, have fun with it! And if you decide to give Aggie some toys or things to do in his tank, keep me posted! I'm always on the lookout for new enrichment ideas!

- Will