Kylee L.
Well-Known Member
no disrespect taken, I had a tort die on me very shortly after I got him so I over think everything.I don't mean any disrespect, really, but I just drove 800 miles with a 40+lb male Sulcata. He did not poop or pee, he was in a hard rubber black tote with a fastened lid. He didn't make any sound of scratches, or banging. When I unloaded him at Y's he immediately found the first patch of grass and started grazing. I don't think he acted stressed or unhappy. I also brought my 12 yr old adopted cat who had never been on a car trip. He was fine. Great at Y's house and again on the road home. I brought back 2 box turtles, first thing I did when I got them home was set them up. They didn't act strange or nervous. I cannot be the only crazy person in the world who does not hesitate to travel with animals. I always travel with animals.
So just to please me, how do they not travel well, look? Am I so empty headed and unconscious that I don't realize how damaging I am to sensitive animals? I really want to know how you are seeing stressed out animals. I brought back 3 box turtles and one tortoise from Texas 5-6 years ago. A 2 day trip and not one of those animals acted stressed out. My cat and I did get stopped at POE and held for 8 hours while the Texas County Mounties tried to accuse me of tortoise smuggling. Ha, my cat and I were evidently trying to smuggle a common Sulcata tortoise and more common box turtles according to the police. Jerks
that'd understandableTortoises are very much creatures of routine and habit. They have very good memories in the sense that they live by programming into their memory their territority - over here is water in the rainy season. Over there that plant grows in spring. Here the grass is good. This is the place best to rest in midday. Over there is the best night hide. If you study them when you pretty much leave them to do their own thing (Don't handle and desensitize them a lot) you will start to see there is even a consistent pattern to their daily routine. My galapagos, for example has now gotten used to his newer outdoor enclosure. He pretty much comes out of the night house every day at the same time. Turns to his right and follows the same path around to the same section to graze for a while. Then goes under his favorite daytime hide in the pumpkin patch, and rests for an hour or so. Then comes out and grazes for another few hours working his way the same path to another section of the enclosure. He always checks out the stand of testudo mix in another section of the enclosure before going back into the night house for the evening.
IF they are moved, they don't know where all "their stuff" is. They live and their whole world is their relationship to "their stuff" If they cannot find it, they are stressed. Long term, low-grade stress is probably the number one killer of tortoises in captivity after dehydration.