Russian Tortoise Flipped

[hunterk997]

Earlier today my tortoise was attempting to climb out of her enclosure in a corner, and flipped herself. I was there and quickly flipped her right side up. I was wondering, is a russian tortoise more or less likely to die from just being flipped over to long in an indoor enclosure? I always check on her, bug I worry i won't get there in time. She has a stone pile, plants, walkways of stone, so I think she would be able to un-flip herself but I don't know.


Sent from my Ipod using the tortoiseforum app

 

[JoesMum]

Russians climb a lot. They love it. They also flip and it is dangerous for them if they are over too long.

You can minimise risk by capping corners so they don't look like escape routes. By making sure your enclosure is as big as possible... A bored Russian in a small enclosure is more likely to get into trouble. And by having lots of plants, rocks, etc that he can use to try to flip himself back.

The sooner he learns to flip back the better in my opinion, so do let him try.

 

[russianbutters]

I was worried the first time I saw butters flip over but I waited a bit to see if he could flip himself back. He did in about 5 seconds and now I feel much better about it. Next time I would just wait to see how fast she can get back. If you watch her do it you'll feel better about it!


1.0.0 russian tort Dr. Arthur Reginald Buttersworth "Butters"