New Tortoise Hide (Cheap and Effective)

[tortoise-kid]

My Red Footed Tortoise, Noam, was growing to big for the largest half log hide at Petsmart. So I thought up (this probably isn't original) an easy, cheap, and effective idea.

I had this old piece of wood just lying around so I just leaned it up against my tortoise table wall. It looks and works great.

Any unforeseen problems?

 

[Madkins007]

When I have experimented with hides, I discovered that my torts almost always preferred a hide that was 'snug'. Things like piles of litter and sticks, slabs of bark laying down barely propped up on a corner, tangles of roots, snug burrows, etc. have been consistently selected over 'non-snug' hides like the half logs, boxes, etc.

Wild red-footeds and other species seem to enjoy places where they can wedge in or at least semi-burrow so they feel that they cannot be easily extricated by predators.

My current hide is just a big slab of 'wild' bark, laying across the habitat, slightly propped up on one corner. They wedge themselves under it and create little personal depressions in the cypress mulch- each has his own little snuggle, one's is right on the edge and you can usually see his nose. Something i really like about the bark is that the underside is both soft and irregular.

You could simulate this with the wood, if you wanted, by putting it over an inch or so of loose substrate, propping it up a bit on a corner or two, then smoothing more substrate over it to make it more of a 'cave'.

 

[Floof]

If your tort figures out how to climb that wood, you might be in trouble... That is a neat idea, though.

On another note, I agree with Mark. I don't have Redfoots, so I don't know their specific preferences, but this holds true for my Russians and Leopard. My Russians' favorite hide is actually the largest "Turtle Hut" (the resin half log at pet stores) buried at an angle, so one end is slightly above the substrate level and the rest is buried. They'll all cram in and dig into the dirt inside, and simply love it. (Mind you, I wouldn't normally do this with a $20 pet store hide. In fact, I personally wouldn't bother buying a $20 pet store hide. The log came with the torts, so that's what I used... Large plastic flower pots cut in half vertically work perfect for this, too, among other things.)

In the case of my Leopard, one of his favorite hides is actually very close to the one Mark described that he uses for his RFs. It's a piece of cork bark that curves into a very slight semi-circle. I buried it in the substrate so the resulting tunnel is just slightly larger than the dome of his shell, and it's currently one of his favorite places to hide, as it's one of the darkest, tightest hides in the enclosure. His other favorite is his old humid hide, which he's just about outgrown--he can barely fit through the door, and he's almost as big as the inner chamber. But, it's still his favorite, because it's so comically "too small" (or so us humans would think) for him.

 

[ripper7777777]

Hide looks good, I'd fill it with peat moss so they can burrow in, Madkins is right, they like to burrow down and hide, I have one that likes to burrow down, than dig tunnels all through the substrate.

 

[tortoise-kid]

Oh wow it appears that you guys might be right because while he still is using the new one; he appears to be going to his second hide a lot more than usual which is a some what small flower pot that he can get cozy in.

 

[Madkins007]

It is not hard to understand the psychology here. Imagine it is night. Where are you more comfortable and secure feeling- snuggled up in something or lying naked in an open room?

Also remember that the main predator of the adult Red- or yellow-footed torts are jaguars that will try to drag them out and break open their shell at the back end. No wonder they like to be in deep and tight.

 

[tortoise-kid]

Very interesting, thanks for that insight.