Cat wheel for a tortoise?

[RobinF]

Has anyone had any luck with using a large cat exercise wheel for their tortoises? I have a six-year-old red footed tortoise and I am getting ready to design a new enclosure. I had an idea about building a large cat wheel into the top of the enclosure with all the normal safety measures to give him more exercise. Has anyone had any luck with this? Or is this just a waste of time?

I have attached a rough idea as a starting point.

 

[Alice Sulcatia]

Has anyone had any luck with using a large cat exercise wheel for their tortoises? I have a six-year-old red footed tortoise and I am getting ready to design a new enclosure. I had an idea about building a large cat wheel into the top of the enclosure with all the normal safety measures to give him more exercise. Has anyone had any luck with this? Or is this just a waste of time?

I have attached a rough idea as a starting point.

I think it's a super cool idea to have an exercise wheel, and seen many successes.

Have you seen this DIY project?

Or how to train?

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Has anyone had any luck with using a large cat exercise wheel for their tortoises? I have a six-year-old red footed tortoise and I am getting ready to design a new enclosure. I had an idea about building a large cat wheel into the top of the enclosure with all the normal safety measures to give him more exercise. Has anyone had any luck with this? Or is this just a waste of time?

I have attached a rough idea as a starting point.

I've seen videos of animals using wheels in the wild with a remote camera. Snails, toads, lizards all used a small one. Larger ones used by land crabs, even larger by foxes, bobcats, opossums, skunks etc. I think they are real videos and not AI foolery. Some where I've seen tortoises using them too.

It's a great idea to do this. Please share video's when done building it. Thanks for sharing this interest.

 

[zolasmum]

I think it's a great idea in theory, but I do wonder how much the tortoise will excrete, in his excitement, as he whizzes around, and how much of that will end up literally all over him !
Angie

 

[Alice Sulcatia]

I think it's a great idea in theory, but I do wonder how much the tortoise will excrete, in his excitement, as he whizzes around, and how much of that will end up literally all over him !
Angie

I think it would be called S*** Storm! lol

 

[Fangorn]

I read that as "Cart wheel for a tortoise" and thought "heck ya, I'll do a cart wheel for tortoise!" I hear they are big gymnastics fans.