My Tort Keeps Escaping!

Princess Nova

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Joined
Mar 20, 2018
Messages
35
Location (City and/or State)
Rainier, OR
Hello everyone..

I’m very frustrated about my Russian lately. She has been escaping her (indoor) enclosure and, despite me blocking the pathways, she pushes her way through and then roams around my room..

Long story short, everyone agrees on the idea of glueing walls around the area she is escaping from. My questions are..

1) I have access to plywood, and just wanted to make sure all kinds of plywood are safe for Russian tortoises?
2) Would ClearWeld professional grade Epoxy be safe for my tort to glue the plywood down?? The epoxy says it is nontoxic once cured properly.

I’ll attach some pictures :/ the red area is where she is climbing, from her ramp, out of the box. We are thinking of putting the plywood there.

Thank you all for any help!!

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Lyn W

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Yes I can see how she can easily get out there - Russians are great escape artists.
They are roaming creatures and once they know there's a bigger world out there they want to be in it and won't give up.
I don't know how big your tort is but maybe it's time for a bigger enclosure to wander around in?
I can't help with the glue sorry, but would suggest you hang any lamp or che rather than use that clamp. They have been known to fail and cause fires.
You can also adjust temps by raising or lowering bulbs etc.. and focus the light/heat in one spot rather than spread it at an angle.
 

Princess Nova

Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2018
Messages
35
Location (City and/or State)
Rainier, OR
Yes I can see how she can easily get out there - Russians are great escape artists.
They are roaming creatures and once they know there's a bigger world out there they want to be in it and won't give up.
I don't know how big your tort is but maybe it's time for a bigger enclosure to wander around in?
I can't help with the glue sorry, but would suggest you hang any lamp or che rather than use that clamp. They have been known to fail and cause fires.
You can also adjust temps by raising or lowering bulbs etc.. and focus the light/heat in one spot rather than spread it at an angle.

Yes! She is so persistent.

The lid is actually gone being worked on right now, usually I have the lights perched on top of the chicken wire so no worries there :) I just wanted to double check that everything we were using to fix it was safe.

It would be lovely to get a larger enclosure of course but right now, this is what I have to work with unfortunately. Thank you for the advice :)
 

Maro2Bear

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May 29, 2014
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Glenn Dale, Maryland, USA
Greetings

There are better ways to attach pieces of wood together than epoxy, especially in the area you are looking to do it.

But, if you go thr epoxy route, once it’s hard and dry (24 hours) it’s pretty inert and safe. It’s really not something your tort will crawl over to and eat.
 

Princess Nova

Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2018
Messages
35
Location (City and/or State)
Rainier, OR
Greetings

There are better ways to attach pieces of wood together than epoxy, especially in the area you are looking to do it.

But, if you go thr epoxy route, once it’s hard and dry (24 hours) it’s pretty inert and safe. It’s really not something your tort will crawl over to and eat.

Thank you for your input :) we have successfully attached the walls and so far, so good!
 

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