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Still haven't found # 3? I've been hoping she'd be home by now!
Lost: our 3 Red Foot Tortoises. Oviedo, FL
- Thread starter JBF
- Start date
Did you find your last tort yet?
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No☹️. She's still missing. I just went to feed the other two and found Ava trying to dig out! They've never done that before, and I
didn't think it was possible. She was pretty stuck, with just her head out, so I don't think she'd actually get free, but it worries me. We added a secondary fence around their enclosure last weekend as a precaution, and all the walls are practically hurricane proof now. Here is a pic of how I just found her...took me 5-10 min to carefully dig her out.
Wow I've never seen my RF dig. I hope your last torty shows up. Florida's climate is very similar to their natural one so they will survive usually. Don't give up hope, he/she is probably still around.
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Thank you...we keep looking!
daniellenc
Well-Known Member
That’s a gorgeous enclosure very nice!!
MrMarg&me
Well-Known Member
Beautiful enclosure. I hope you find your other tort! It would be very disconcerting to discover a beloved tort attempting to dig out.
Oh, wow! I can definitely feel your pain. One of my RFs went missing in their 1st year! He was just couple inches long! He was gone for 4 WEEKS! And that was in February! In central Texas! It does get chilly here! Temps drop to freezing in winter. Keep putting out her favorite treats and maybe set up little spy camera if you can. I didn’t have one, just saw that some of the food was gone every day. Had no way to know who was eating it though. The members of this Forum kept coming up with ideas and I tried them all. They are not likely to go far away from home, so chances are yours is still around, so keep looking. At least it’s warm out and she’s not tiny so you don’t have to worry about predators as much as I did for my little guy back then. Have fresh food and water dish for her out there and keep checking. Every day! I did that every morning and every sunset, for 28 days, always walking atound with this „pit” in my stomach... don’t lose hope. Pray, meditate, focus positive energy, ask your friends/family to do this same. This stuff WORKS! I’m sending my GOOD-LUCK-FINDING energy and electronic hugs your way. Keep looking! You WILL FIND HER[emoji217]
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Thank you! We love them so much.
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Thank you for the advice and positive energy. I need to keep it up! We were doing all of that for 2 weeks but have gotten discouraged.
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Thank you...it was! Stinker!
Imagine 2 more weeks, in cold weather (had freeze snaps), with tropical tortoise only couple (maybe 3”) inches long who should be kept at NEVER below 80F! Day and night! But people on this Forum kept me going, checking in, praying, sending their good juju, coming up with new ideas, and things to try. As much despair as there was, there had also been a glimmer of hope, daily fuelled by the great people of this Forum. Is the area around bushy? Does it need maybe little trimming? I was going to start turning my entire garden upside down if one day my husband hadn’t seen him marching up the driveway towards the open garage door! After 4 weeks!!!! If the food and water, shelter are there she will have no reason to go far. I think she’s somewhere very close just enjoying playing hooky and not being confined to her pen. Please don’t lose your spirit! Persevere! Your chances of finding her are VERY HIGH!
Ideas: taking flyers over to vet clinics and pet stores in the area, animal
shelters, local wild animal rescue, etc. Tell local kids you’ll throw them pizza party if they find/bring her home. Plaster every lamppost and pole with a flyer wit her picture in real size if poss if not specify how big she is bcs people are clueless of what they are looking for. Pass flyers to all the dog walkers and runners/bikers. Around where you last saw her, get down to the ground level and start combing through the area this way. See what things look like from her vantage point. Try thinking like a tortoise, be a tortoise. Look around and think of where you would want to go check things out. Remember that they have only simple goals in life: to eat, drink, mate, and hide from predators. And hiding is what they do best! So get down on all 4s and start looking, who knows, there maybe a moving rock of her size in tall grass or under some shrub. I don’t think she’s likely to be in large open area, they tend to gravitate to bushy places with lots of different sight barriers. Keep your hope up! You can organize a search party, if you have many friends who are with it and on the ball, get pizza and beer and go canvassing area, with rakes! Know what i mean? Like 20-30 people in a row moving forward slowly looking down under their feet, I don’t know, just brain storming here. We will keep cheering you on and sending our best juju your way, and pray, and send our thoughts and love and electronic hugs, and keep our fingers (and toes!) crossed. May the best FINDING FORCE be with you and please stay in touch[emoji173]️[emoji217]
shelters, local wild animal rescue, etc. Tell local kids you’ll throw them pizza party if they find/bring her home. Plaster every lamppost and pole with a flyer wit her picture in real size if poss if not specify how big she is bcs people are clueless of what they are looking for. Pass flyers to all the dog walkers and runners/bikers. Around where you last saw her, get down to the ground level and start combing through the area this way. See what things look like from her vantage point. Try thinking like a tortoise, be a tortoise. Look around and think of where you would want to go check things out. Remember that they have only simple goals in life: to eat, drink, mate, and hide from predators. And hiding is what they do best! So get down on all 4s and start looking, who knows, there maybe a moving rock of her size in tall grass or under some shrub. I don’t think she’s likely to be in large open area, they tend to gravitate to bushy places with lots of different sight barriers. Keep your hope up! You can organize a search party, if you have many friends who are with it and on the ball, get pizza and beer and go canvassing area, with rakes! Know what i mean? Like 20-30 people in a row moving forward slowly looking down under their feet, I don’t know, just brain storming here. We will keep cheering you on and sending our best juju your way, and pray, and send our thoughts and love and electronic hugs, and keep our fingers (and toes!) crossed. May the best FINDING FORCE be with you and please stay in touch[emoji173]️[emoji217]
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[emoji173]️thank you! She was found today!!!!
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Awesome advice...and luckily the third girl was found today!!!
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The third was found!!! Almost a Mile away! We are so happy!!
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That's the best thing I've heard today! Great news! Are the girls the finders? Tell us how she was located?
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Someone who'd seen the signs found her in a cemetery almost a Mile away! They thought she might be the one, so looked up on Craigslist and saw our ad there, too, and called. We are super lucky!!!
Jay Bagley
Well-Known Member
That's incredible, good job on not giving up. Very happy for you guys.
