Russian hiding outside

[mira_kaylee]

so, I've been taking Ayden (male Russian, not sure about the age exactly but he's 5"inches long) outside on the warmer days (high 60's to mid-70's F) to my backyard and letting him run around, and he'll at first just sit there. After a few minutes he'll start heading for the tree line. once he finds that he can't get into the trees because of the blockades that i've put up until i can construct my outdoor pen, he will just go start digging into the yard. How can he get uvb from the sun if he's always hidden away, and why doesn't he seem to enjoy being outside? He seems to take after me and be kind of a homebody (as in he loves his indoor pen and seems to dislike very strongly leaving it) no matter how many times i take him outside (which has been more than 10 times, though i don't remember exactly how many) and he also doesn't ever eat any grass or anything else that grows outside. What is wrong? I doubt that it's just because I'm too awesome for him to want to leave my presence *joking*.

 

[Jacqui]

For some tortoises, it does seem like they are stressed with the constant going in and out. It's why personally, I prefer having them just stay out once they can. Of course there are some, who seem to genuinely enjoy those brief outings. I think we often have this mistaken thought that we have to be in a direct path to the sun in order to get the rays. Not true. Even in the shade and even on cloudy days, those rays are out there bouncing around.

For a small tortoise, being out in the open can feel I am sure to them, like they have a target painted on their carapace shell. Hiding gives them a feeling of safety I am sure.

I think of taking them outside as more for the benefits from the sun, fresh air, and more room to move around and get some exercise. I guess I don't really care if they eat out there or not, as they can eat inside. That's just my thoughts.

 

[mira_kaylee]

I feed Ayden plenty inside his pen too, that's not a problem, but I would literally have an anxiety attack if I left Ayden outside all the time....in Missouri, opossums and racoons and stray dogs and cats are so common that I'd be terrified of him getting eaten and I know from experience (my mom keeps chickens, rabbits and ducks and she locks them up at night in a well secured pen. i know, also more unfortunately from experience, that chickens can inflict a lot more damage than my tort can, so if a rooster can be eaten by any one of those animals while it's inside the pen then I'm sure that my tort could also befall the same misfortunate end) that most of those animals can break into a cage if they're hungry enough....I let Ayden outside for a few hours whenever it's warm enough each day but I'm outside with him the whole time to keep an eye on him and make sure that nothing bad happens to him...I didn't know that they didn't have to be exposed to the sun to get uvb rays, thank you for letting me know, I'll stop trying to keep him from digging down under the ground for the most part while he's outside lol.

 

[Jacqui]

I use to get my worse sunburns on cloudy days. Hey I understand about all the problems with keeping tortoises... and poultry outside. Been there done that with poultry.

 

[mira_kaylee]

yah....she had this rooster one time that attacked people :/ it was awful. Roosters can be really mean, it slashed my leg up pretty bad and two days later a racoon got into the pen and tore up everything in the pens (we had two chicken pens) including the nicer chickens. Every time i see a picture of someone with a tort outside in a pen i'm like "a raccoon took down that monster of a bird, what will it do to a tortoise that just hides from it?" and even if nothing bad ever happens to someone elses tortoises i'd still never do that to Ayden...just because my luck it would happen to me and then i'd be horribly sad because Ayden was gone AND because i'd feel like i knew better :/