Seldom Thomas
New Member
Hi everyone, I’m new here. My wife and I adopted a 5 year old Russian tortoise last winter- he’s been outside in his garden all summer and fall and went under for the long haul sometime in mid November. He was very actively into mid fall, super healthy, grazing around the garden enjoying life. We are on the Delmarva peninsula in southern Maryland where winters tend to be pretty mild and the water table can be high. This is his first winter out although in the spring he spent about 3 weeks buried in the dirt upon introduction to his outdoor life. My wife and I fear that he could escape the enclosure. The fence has 9 inches of hardware cloth buried along the enclosure. The clamshell path has plastic weed liner under it so he can’t dig in the clam shell. He ended up digging down right by the 6x6 between the dirt and the clamshell path where there’s about a 3’ distance to the fence (clamshell path is 3’ wide). I have a few questions. Anyone had tortoises pop up mid winter or should I expect him to bed down till spring (it’s supposed to be nearly 60 degrees here this Christmas although nights are in the 30s)? Do they tend to come out of the same hole they dug in from? Any chance he could get stuck under the plastic weed liner not being able to find his way? My wife has a lot of trust in him, but the whole thing has been unnerving to me. Should we dig him up to check on him? Should I build another perimeter fence outside of the fence in case he dips under the clamshell, under the hardware cloth, and pops up in the grass into the open world?
Thank you!
Sam
Thank you!
Sam