Desert Tortoise is going crazy

[JohnnyB65]

OMG, I closed off the Tortoises area so he can’t get in trouble, but then I haven’t seen him in 3 days. I figured he was rearranging his burrow getting ready for winter and even left him some treats along with his regular food in case he came out. Nothing was touched and then today I noticed that all my recycled plastic bottles were scattered all over again. When I checked it out he was right in the middle of it warming up in the sun. Wow he wasn’t even in his area at all since I put up his fence.

 

[bouaboua]

Yes he did like his place before, but I felt that it was too small because it looked like his shell was getting deformed or shaped like the pipe.

This is what his place looked like before I extended it. (I removed all the tortoise statues since)

Below is a video from the first summer he lived in it showing the inside and he is much bigger now. One thing I want to point out is that when I first built it, I had dirt halfway up the pipe all the way through to the end. When I just dug it all up, I noticed that he moved all the dirt from the last 2 ft toward the entrance so that he was sleeping on the rounded portion of the pipe.

What a nice burrow. Very nice.......

 

[Arnold_rules]

Yes he did like his place before, but I felt that it was too small because it looked like his shell was getting deformed or shaped like the pipe.

This is what his place looked like before I extended it. (I removed all the tortoise statues since)

Below is a video from the first summer he lived in it showing the inside and he is much bigger now. One thing I want to point out is that when I first built it, I had dirt halfway up the pipe all the way through to the end. When I just dug it all up, I noticed that he moved all the dirt from the last 2 ft toward the entrance so that he was sleeping on the rounded portion of the pipe.

Believe or not, he really might not like all the room he now has. When a DT digs a burrow for themself, it is usually just about the same size as their shell with just enough room for turning around, they prefer a run down small shack to a palatial mansion. Plus, since it is a drum and sealed on the bottom/side laying on ground, your tortoise doesn't have the benefit of humidity coming from the soil. It is a great design, just think you might want to make it little more tortoise friendly by putting some soil into the 55 gallon drum or even cutting portion of the side to allow your tortoise to lay on soil.

 

[JohnnyB65]

Thanks, I did fill it half way up with dirt before setting in the tube and actually the dirt helped hold the tube from sliding in while I filed in around the tube.

Here you can see how much dirt I put into the drum at first before the tube:

And then I added more dirt while filling in the bottom of the tube:

This past weekend I decided to add even more dirt and shoved it in all the way down the tube to the drum. I then used a long 2x4 board to push more dirt into the 55gal drum and also added more dirt into the tube bringing it about halfway up in the tube. I think he really liked the extra dirt because the next time he came out, he looked like he was working hard redecorating the place.

 

[JohnnyB65]

Oh I also forgot to mention that since the tube slops downhill, I added a small drain at the bottom of the tube filled with rocks just in case we ever get a heavy rain that spills into the tube.

 

[ascott]

Yes he did like his place before, but I felt that it was too small because it looked like his shell was getting deformed or shaped like the pipe.

This is what his place looked like before I extended it. (I removed all the tortoise statues since)

Below is a video from the first summer he lived in it showing the inside and he is much bigger now. One thing I want to point out is that when I first built it, I had dirt halfway up the pipe all the way through to the end. When I just dug it all up, I noticed that he moved all the dirt from the last 2 ft toward the entrance so that he was sleeping on the rounded portion of the pipe.

OMGosh....my side hurts...the sound effects are FRICKEN AWESOME....love the thumping from side to side sound....my son is asleep on the couch and the dogs next to the couch...I almost woke the lot of them up by laughing so damn hard....fantastic....