Are all tortoises nomads?

willee638

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Hi I have a red foot tortoise & she from the time she first came home at then half the size now, she would always try to escape her enclosure, now I often take her to outdoor open grass fields to roam around. At home she roams around to certain part of the house & frequently finds & returns to the same hiding place, I heard from other experienced keepers incidences of their tortoises escaping their outdoor enclosures & in some cases never found again. I would like to know are all tortoises nomadic animals that roams the terrains their whole lives for food & nesting places? Do they ever return to where they once hatched or have a sense of their own territorial home?
 

pawsplus

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They have territories and stick to them. Your tortoise may be trying to escape because she can see out. You should always prevent that. She needs a safe outdoor enclosure for warm weather. And wandering the house is not only extremely unsafe, but also too cold and confusing. She is running around because she is trying to find her way back to familiar territory and cannot. Ditto when you take her to fields. Provide large, appropriate indoor and outdoor enclosures that she cannot see out of and stop with all the visiting. :)
 

ZEROPILOT

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The one Redfoot that ever escaped from me was found a week later trying to get back into his pen.
I believe that they have a certain territory. Maybe they'll leave briefly to find food...
 

Yvonne G

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Nomads? Not really. A better description would be territorial. When you take them out of their territory they'll do just about anything to get back there.
 

willee638

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So as I understand it, tortoises are like cats. They disappears for a few days & later shows up wanting to get home, does red foot tortoises starts to slow down on eating in the winter seasons? When I bought my red foot in February she was not yet a yearling & seldom ate even with the proper heat UVA & UVB lamps, does her appetite not affected by seasons as an adult?
 

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So as I understand it, tortoises are like cats. They disappears for a few days & later shows up wanting to get home, does red foot tortoises starts to slow down on eating in the winter seasons? When I bought my red foot in February she was not yet a yearling & seldom ate even with the proper heat UVA & UVB lamps, does her appetite not affected by seasons as an adult?
They don't hibernate and don't slow down because of the season.
However, they will slow down if they stay below 80• because they will have difficulty digesting food.
 

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