And the moral of the story is: Never underestimate a tortoise!

[Terry Allan Hall]

So, following the direction I got last week, I prepared some prickly pear cacti to plant in my European torts' enclosures...now Jennifer is about 4" SCL and Ptolemy is just a hair over 4-1/2"...still fairly small, all things considered.

So, anyway, Monday I planted some decent-sized pads, about 6 per enclosure, and surrounded said pads by fairly large (12" - 15") rocks, with the idea that I'd keep my darlings away from the cacti, thus giving the cacti the rest of the year to grow and become established, and along about spring, I'd move the rocks, so Jennifer and Ptolemy can start feeling a bit off 'em.

In the meantime, I'd put pieces of prickly pear in w/ their food.

Came home today and they'd managed to climb to the top of these 12"-15" rocks and knock down and start eating every pear out there (maybe 2 dozen, all told)!

Maybe I should wait until this winter to start the pads, after I bring Jennifer and Ptolemy in for a few months...

 

[TortieGal]

The little dickens! if there's a will there's a way.

 

[Laura]

Mine is not planted near them! In fact, I planted it in the middle of the road, out in front of the house.. Nice and hot, dry, good drainage and the dogs cant get into it!
Its mostly spineless, but not all!

 

[Scooter]

Haha, they will never stop amazing you will they?

You could start them in pots now and then transplant them into the enclosure when they are established and larger.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

Mine is not planted near them! In fact, I planted it in the middle of the road, out in front of the house.. Nice and hot, dry, good drainage and the dogs cant get into it!
Its mostly spineless, but not all!

I'm attempting to grow spineless prickly pear, as well...the folks who owned our property before I bought it had a nice big exotic spineless variety planted into the rock garden in front...we also have a lot of native "w/ spines" prickly pear on our 196 acres (covers maybe 1/3 of it), but I hate getting those tiny spines in my fingers, so I'm wanting to start patches of the exotic spineless stuff elsewhere...but within the tort's enclosure is now looking less likely.

 

[Tom]

Terry, I grow mine in the tortoise pen sometimes and and a simple chicken wire wrap with a single stake surprisingly keeps the big, pushy, hungry sulcatas off of it. I was planning to go to cinderblock walls around it, but never had to.

I worry about yours flipping and being on their back in the sun while "rock climbing". Before I separated my males, I found Scooter on his back in the summer sun a couple of times. It was VERY disconcerting to say the least. I'm also a little sensitive to the flipping thing right now because I've found my hatchlings on their backs a few times too. Common for hatchlings, but it makes a person think about it too.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

Terry, I grow mine in the tortoise pen sometimes and and a simple chicken wire wrap with a single stake surprisingly keeps the big, pushy, hungry sulcatas off of it. I was planning to go to cinderblock walls around it, but never had to.

I worry about yours flipping and being on their back in the sun while "rock climbing". Before I separated my males, I found Scooter on his back in the summer sun a couple of times. It was VERY disconcerting to say the least. I'm also a little sensitive to the flipping thing right now because I've found my hatchlings on their backs a few times too. Common for hatchlings, but it makes a person think about it too.

Yeah, I thought about that, too, and removed the rocks earlier this morning...

I figure that if Jennifer and Ptolemy want the cacti THAT bad...

Think I've figured out a better place to grow the cacti, and I'll just put a whole pad in their enclosure 1-2X a week...win/win.

 

[elahmine]

Those are some mischevious tortoise.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

Those are some mischevious tortoise.

Wouldn't call 'em "mischevious"...more like "ambitious" and/or "determined".