Juvenile burrow - keep it or collapse it?

[hayleyscomet]

I have a tortoise, approximately 5" long, who has been in my care for about a year. His name is Rubert:



Up until now, he's lived indoors (with occasional supervised trips outside to nom on grass). Last week, I built him an outdoor enclosure in my back yard so he could be outdoors unsupervised:



My intention was to leave him out there for a few hours each day, and bring him back in at night. Rubert, however, had other plans. He very quickly dug himself a very nice little burrow:



And now it's been 4 or 5 days and I haven't seen him! I live in central Florida; it's been highs of 90s in the day and lows in the mid 70s during the nights, so I'm not terribly concerned about the temperature, but I AM worried that I haven't seen him! I check for him often in the middle of the day, and if he is coming out to eat, it's not at the same times I'm looking. I read some other threads here and found the suggestion of pouring water with a hose down the burrow to get him out, and I tried that - but the soil is so sandy that the water just sinks straight down, and doesn't actually flood the burrow at all, so it had no effect. (I was able to determine that the burrow goes straight for about 2 feet by how far I could stick the hose in; I assume at that point it turns.)

So my question is: Is he okay in there? Should I just leave it be? Or am I right to be worried that I haven't seen him, and try to collapse the burrow and dig him out? Thank you in advance for your advice!

 

[Yvonne G]

If it were me, I'd get him out of there and fill in the burrow. BUT you MUST provide a shelter where he can cool down and feel safe. He'll need a snug shelter, in the shade where he can go to cool off. An inverted flower pot won't do. By all means, dig him out!

 

[hayleyscomet]

Update: he's alive, at least! Of course, less than an hour after posting for help, I saw him come out... I looked out the window and saw his head was poking out just at the entrance of his burrow. I went outside to grab him but the noise of the door must have startled him and he retreated again. I am QUITE relieved to have seen him!

What is the advantage of an artificial shelter over a natural burrow?

 

[Yvonne G]

You always have access to him.

If I allowed my tortoises to have a burrow, when September rolled around I wouldn't be able to gather them up to hibernate.

A natural burrow is quite a good way for them to pass through the hot summer days, however, they are very good at not coming out, and you may have to leave them in there when the weather cools off.

 

[Tom]

I let mine burrow in summer, but your climate is very different than mine. I'm not sure if it is okay or not, since I have no experience raising tortoises in FL.

Here is how I solved the problems of burrowing while maintaining the benefits of burrowing:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/daisys-new-enclosure.28662/

And Rupert is not a sulcata. You have this posted in the sulcata section.

 

[teresaf]

What type of tortoise is he? Gopher tortoise look like sulcatas when small. They're also illegal to own unfortunately.

Also, it looks like burrow goes under something? Someone here had a sulcata that dug it's burrow under their house and I hey couldn't get him out....scary