Circling the enclosure

[Hankilloh]

my tortoise is obsessed with trying to climb his walls and corners. Idk if he's seeing his reflection or what but is there a way to stop this? Is there something wrong with him and that's why he's doing this?

 

[JoesMum]

How long is your tort and how big is the enclosure?

It may simply be spring restlessness - but it may be that your tort needs more space.

If you post pictures of the enclosure we can see if there's anything else we can suggest.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Not enough room or maybe an unfamiliar enclosure?

 

[Hankilloh]

It's a 20 gallon and he's just over 5.5 cm I think. He's only just recently begun climbing so my guess is maybe just being bored. The more I hold him and interact with him the less he circles so it's probably just a curious little guy

 

[Hankilloh]

I normally have more coconut bark in there but I haven't bought any yet but I did recently move his log to the corner to see if that makes any difference.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Some folks have had luck taping paper or cardboard a few inches up on the bottom of the glass so that the tort can't see outside of the tank.
It won't look great. But it's worth a try.

 

[Hankilloh]

Definitely will try that. Worth a shot

 

[WithLisa]

20 gallon is quite small. You should give him some structure, stones, different (real) plants, little hills,..
At the moment he only has one fake plant to explore so I guess there's nothing else for him to do than circling around it.

Do keep him on sand? It looks awfully dry.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

20 gallon is quite small. You should give him some structure, stones, different (real) plants, little hills,..
At the moment he only has one fake plant to explore so I guess there's nothing else for him to do than circling around it.

Do keep him on sand? It looks awfully dry.

Good catch. It does look like sand.
Redfoot will need substrate than can hold humidity, like moistened orchid bark.
While we're at it, can you photograph your lights, too?
Let's see if we can identify things in its enclosure that would stress him out.

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

Good catch. It does look like sand.
Redfoot will need substrate than can hold humidity, like moistened orchid bark.

It's for a Hermann's, right? Still, sand is not a good choice.

 

[Hankilloh]

I was told calcium sand and coconut husk or bark would be a good substrate but maybe they were wrong. And I soak the bark or husk before I put it in so its moist. It's just not in the pic because I haven't bought any yet ( I just cleaned his tank a few hours ago lol)

 

[Hankilloh]

 

[Sara G.]

I would get rid of the sand immediately. It can cause impacting problems for your tort.
You should try coco coir (I think a lot of pet stores sell it as Eco earth. Comes in bricks that you soak in water). It's very good stuff and holds moisture very well.
Do you have pics of what bulbs exactly you're using?

And feeding your tort on a piece of slate or a flat rock will be better for its beak then the plastic pet dishes. And terra cotta plant saucers make great water dishes, though yours looks like it would be okay.

Do you have any pics of your tort? Id love to see!

 

[JoesMum]

There is excellent info on the care of red foots here
http://www.tortoiselibrary.com/species-information-2/chelonoidis/

It looks like you have a coil UVB. These harm a tort's eyes and should not be used. It needs to be replaced with a tube UVB which is used alongside a regular basking lamp or you could get rid of both and get a single Mercury Vapor Bulb that provides both basking and UVB.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I was also looking for a coil bulb. A photo of the bulbs.
If you have a coil bulb, this alone might cause stress and has in many cases also caused blindness.