Near drowning

[Crazy1]

Two of my yearling DT I have found upside down in the water dish, one of them on two different occasions. The last one he wasn't moving and I had to turn him so he was facing the floor and a little water ran out of him. He began breathing again and I am watching him closely I was just glad it was while I was home. I have since taken out the water and will have to offer it to them while I am watching. The dish was shallow and I have never found them in their food dish upside down which is the same size dish. I can’t figure out what is up. Is this a suicidal pact with these two or what?? They are my most active two always checking things out maybe they were practicing the backstroke???(humor cause it scared me so bad )
Any help will be appreciated.

 

[Iluvemturts]

Oh My Goodness you had to be a wreck.....I agree about taking the dish out of the enclosure for now.
Sometimes they just do that....

 

[Cam]

do they kind of cruise around together?
could they has been walking too close together and tripped over each other?

How scary!
(Dumb question...how big is a yearling DT?)

 

[TestudoGeek]

Two of my yearling DT I have found upside down in the water dish, one of them on two different occasions.

You can try something I've seen on some pics over at some other forum: small stepping stones inside the weater dish.

That way it won't by solid straight and they can still drink/investigate as they want with no risk of drowning. Just be sure to bath them twice(?Thats what I do) a week.

PS - found my tort upside down this morning to, but out of the water. he/she managed to turn himself over after a few tries (had a big rest afterwards lol)

 

[Crazy1]

My upsidedown yearling is about 70 grams. and about 2 3/4 inches long. quite a little thing still. No cam they seem to be able to do this all by themselves. Not sure how other than be in a rush and just flip at the side of the dish.
Testudo geek, great suggestion. I will try that. I don't so much mind if they like spending time on their backs as I do when I find them doing it in the water or under the heat lamp. Seem to have the problem solved where the heat lamp is concerned. And now with Gestudogeeks help hopefully I will solve the water problem. Thanks guys.

 

[Cam]

If you do the soil/sand mixture could you sink the water dish? (like an in ground pool?) Or maybe the step up is better so they don't drag in a bunch of substrate.

 

[Crazy1]

Cam they are in a soil sand mixture and the water dish was sunk into the mixture so they don't have to climb. I even tried a small water dish sloped so they don't have to climb over any type of lip to get in or out. They do have a lip at the sides and this is where I think he was at that caused him to flip. Funny the other two do not-at least so far- have this problem.
I am going back to the round bowl and sink it into the substrate (soil/sand mix) and put a few small flat rock in it so if they do flip their head will be out of the water. Will see if that works -but only when I am home. I am soaking them 3 time a week until then and only under my watchful eyes.

 

[Cam]

Wow! They are bound and determined to flip, or they are like our oldest child...bless his heart...always tripping over something

 

[TestudoGeek]

Crazy1,
Today when I arrived home I got a scare similar to yours. I walked into the kitchen, and as I glanced the enclosure I noticed something odd next to the eating slate. To my amazment I soon realized it was my tort fliped upside down, completely motionless...

I quickly picked him up and fliped him straight. He felt a little cold (fortunately this happened on the cold side of the enclosure...) so I gave him a warm bath, and he soon recovered.

He must've been there for quite sometime. At least he seamed really tired... He had a huge pile of poop next to him ... Really though I'd lost him for a moment there.

Amazing how these little creatures can be so fragile. There was a slope in the substrate right next to his eating slate. He must've fallen on his back while eating or something and since ther were no stones there and the ground was loose, he just sat there, the poor fella.

 

[cvalda]

One of our boys flipped upside down under the basking lamp today! EEEEEK! Luckily my son saw it right away! The same silly boy boosted himself over the edge of his enclosure today and took a 3 1/2 foot nose dive to the floor! MEGA EEEEEEEEEEEEK! He seems okay, but time will tell. I've had to stick some extra boards up around the edges now to keep him in! Hopefully he doesn't convince the little girls to double stack themselves so he can use that as an extra boost to try again.

 

[Jentortmom]

One of our boys flipped upside down under the basking lamp today! EEEEEK! Luckily my son saw it right away! The same silly boy boosted himself over the edge of his enclosure today and took a 3 1/2 foot nose dive to the floor! MEGA EEEEEEEEEEEEK! He seems okay, but time will tell. I've had to stick some extra boards up around the edges now to keep him in! Hopefully he doesn't convince the little girls to double stack themselves so he can use that as an extra boost to try again.

WOW!!!! what a drop. Lets hope he doesn't convince the girls to attempt the same escape. They are little buggers, very curious and love to explore.

 

[jlyoncc1]

Well I am happy to hear all of the flippers and escapee's are ok. While away for thanksgiving I told my friend to check them at least 2 times a day because I was worried about someone being upside down. I seem to have this problem only with my sulcatas. Sure enough, the first day I was away, she came over in the afternoon and one was looking at the ceiling.

 

[Cam]

Good grief! I am glad that everyone has had a happy ending!

 

[Crazy1]

TestudoGeek so glad to hear your little one is ok and landed on the cold side and was able to be warmed with a nice soothing warm soak.

Kelly, I’m so glad your little one is ok. I’m just not sure what gets into them. You may have to attach bungi cords to them.

Jen and yours too, I guess your tort lying on its back would give it a better view of the ceiling

But don’t they realize that this could be hazardous to their little lives let alone what it does to us.

Seriously I guess this is a more common problem than I thought. I am glad everyone is ok. So far since I placed the rocks in the water and the dirt higher on the sides of the hide no one has flipped so far. I almost feel I should set up a camera so I can watch then 24/7. But I guess parents just have to let their little ones explore and pray for the best. (but I still am watching them like a hawk)

 

[cvalda]

LOL! And would you believe me if I told you he's trying to pull the same sky-diving act today?!?! Luckily the boards are much too high now! But he won't give up!

 

[Nay]

If I read this a year ago I would've just thought they were all by accident. But something happened this past summer that has convinced me otherwise. I always put my 2 russians outside for the summer, and this year I put them in our side flower garden, where we had a kinda picket fence with pickets on both sides, I would check them and it seemed they were fine, I put some cinder blocks on the edges that I though they might be able to burrow under. Well of course I couldn't find one after a few hours and went nuts, I had a friend over and my husband and my son looking for 2 hours. We did finally find him and I thought lets see if he can show us where he got out. Well that little bugger went up to the fence (and it was also lined with stones even though it's buried in the ground.) He stood up on his hind end, turned sideways and fell out. I just couldn't believe my eyes!! and he repeated it!!! No one I meet(cept you guys, of course) think turtles have any personality, they all say it's like watching baseball. Well I like base ball and I love turtles!!! Na

 

[TurtleTown@Cal]

When I had all my babies this happened. So I hung a piece of plexi glass low over the water dish (shallow dish for short tort) such that they could not climb on top of each other and flip.

 

[Crazy1]

That’s and Good Idea too. Thanks TurtleTown@Cal. I put some rocks in the water dish so that if they flipped their head would stay above water. It worked, so far no one has flipped in the water. Now that I figured it out I have found homes for all four and they are being adopted this Friday. I'll be sad to see them leave but glad they are all going to great homes.

 

[Jacqui]

Congrats on finding them new homes!!

I bet all the flipping over is much like a child learning to walk and all the falling they do. Seem to hear a lot less of adults falling on their backs...except when trying to scale enclosure walls. Hard being tort "parents" isn't it?...lol

 

[Crazy1]

Congrats on finding them new homes!!

I bet all the flipping over is much like a child learning to walk and all the falling they do. Seem to hear a lot less of adults falling on their backs...except when trying to scale enclosure walls. Hard being tort "parents" isn't it?...lol

OK the little guys are gone. They were given to two homes that took two torts each. And I miss them. But it does give me a little more free time to spend with My three and Decorating for Christmas.
Yes i guess they are kind of like kids learning to walk but I also found that they were somewhat undernurished and their shells were a little soft so Once they regained their domes they flipped back a lot easier. But they also got a lot more active too. I wish good luck to their new parents.