Scratching

[Ilovetorts123]

My tortoise is roughly 3 and is a Russian Horsefield, he is kept indoors because the UK is very cold in a vivarium, he alway goes to the same corner in his vivarium and tries to carry on walking but it makes a horrible scratching sound. I'm not worried he will scratch right through the wood but I was wondering if there is anything that can stop him doing this? Or if anyone's tortoise does this too?

 

[Yvonne G]

The main reason tortoises dig in the corners is because they are trying to get out. You need a pretty big indoor habitat in order to keep a Russian tortoise contented.

Also, at night, most tortoises go to the spot where they are going to sleep, then they proceed to dig and rearrange their 'den', making it comfortable for sleeping.

But I'd be willing that the first explanation I gave is the one for your tortoise.

 

[ascott]

You can try to place a good hide there for the tort....perhaps a plant canopy?

 

[Ryongsyong]

The main thing to be taken from this is that when he's doing this the reason will be that he's not very comfortable, and wants something to change. Discovering what that is depends on the circumstances around when he does it, and also how the vivarium is set-up at the moment. It might be that he can't dig down into the substrate very well. What kind are you using? If it's a woody-type, it's difficult to get properly underneath it and covered, which they like to do in order to feel safe. When we first got ours he would do that too, as we were using the dodgy (and dangerous!) wood-chip substrate that the pet shop gave us. Because it wasn't "sticky"-enough, all he would ever do is just push it away from the corners, sink down to the bottom of the vivarium, and then carry on trying to dig as he wasn't actually underground, but because it was just solid wall nothing would change. We could see he wasn't impressed. After that, we changed to a nice mix of soil and sand, got a half log for him to go into, and then built up the substrate mix in there to completely fill it at the back so that he could go into that bit and dig to his content, and the soil wouldn't be displaced outwards because it was being held in by the insides of the log. Once he realized he could do that, he stopped trying to dig or scratch anywhere else and hasn't ever done it since. We make sure we never take him out of the log manually; if we want him to come out we will coax him out, but we never want him to feel that that area is anything other than "his" place and that he's safe there from wandering hands.

Also, the time they're doing it is important too. If it's in the evening, then the above will probably be the reason, as he's looking for somewhere that feels safe to sleep. If it's during the day, he wants to get out and explore, so if it's possible, let him . They love to play around and once they get to know you they'll be chasing you around all over the place, whenever you're walking somewhere, unlike other tortoises who jump into their shells the moment they see a human. Once they realize that you're the one that the food magically comes from, they'll be all over you, looking up with that cute and pleading face . And once he's satisfied, I'm sure he'll give you a peaceful and scratch-free day.

 

[Ilovetorts123]

Thank you, that's helped a lot, he has terranium sand with limestone in it I think, and the scratching is mainly at night and in the morning, we can't let him out because in the UK it is just too cold

 

[Ryongsyong]

I live in the UK too, and yes, it would be far too cold for them to be outside at the moment. Ours is indoors as well. We let him come out and run around on our floor though, when we're supervising, as we have the heating on very high and seal the doors and other places to stop drafts, and we have an outside UVB/heat basking lamp too. He seems to really enjoy it and chases us around the room.

If it's at night and in the morning it sounds then like it might be more to do with his sleeping arrangements. Where in the night does he sleep? In that corner? Does he have a hide-type thing that he can go underneath instead? They like to feel that they're completely under the soil before they're happy, but we've found that even if that's not completely possible, they do tend to be satisfied with something like half a log that they can sleep underneath; as long as it feels dark and enclosed and safe, really, they don't seem to mind too much, and then if the soil's piled up inside there, he'll just dig into that a bit and doesn't scratch any more, even though we can see his legs sticking out .

If your set-up is already like that, and the tortoise is going inside the hide and still scratching away, it could instead be that maybe the soil's a bit dry and he's trying to dig down to where he thinks it might be more moist, or vice versa. It's just a case of experimenting to find out what it is that is bothering him. If only they spoke English .

 

[Ilovetorts123]

Thank you, you have helped so much