chelslpn
Member
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2014
- Messages
- 36
Hello everybody
I have a RT named Goku that I got about 6 weeks ago, and I think he is (slightly?) stressed out. He lives in an enclosure I made out of a bookshelf that is in my bedroom and for the most part he's been a pretty calm dude... keep in mind no one is home on week days before 4 o'clock and I usually come home to find him basking and just looking around the room in general. I try to take him outside a few days a week for about 30 minutes to an hour to soak and/or wander around the yard (I supervise the entire time as I am in the process of building an outdoor enclosure.) For the past week or two, he's started digging in the late afternoon... and scraping the floor/walls... for a few hours. I know tortoises like to dig & RT are known for looking for escape routes but he does it incessantly... and with a lot of force, like he's stressed. He usually does it even more when I bring him back inside after a soak/walk. I kind of understand that... he just had an entire yard to roam in and now he's wondering why he's in a box with 4 sides. Sometimes he comes back in, and is happy to just find a comfy spot and bask for a few hours. Lately though, he has been scraping and scraping regardless if he goes outside or not. I try to distract him, or pick him up and move him elsewhere and he looks terrified all of a sudden. Keep in mind, he hasn't been the friendliest around me so far... won't eat out of my hand, sticks his head in if i get to close, hates being soaked (except for one really hot day, he sat in his basin relaxing the entire time I was swimming in the pool haha), won't eat if he knows I'm looking at him,generally doesn't care too much for me in general, sometimes he's nosy and likes to watch me walk around the room... and refuses to eat anything other than butter lettuce. go figure. But it seems as if, instead of getting more used to me and not seeing me so much as a predator... he's going backwards. And if I try to handle him to show him I'm friendly, it seems worse. Is there anything I can do to relieve his stress? Let him go outside more or less? Pay more or less attention to him? Temps and humidity are normal ..I live in south florida.. It's hot. He has his uvb light... a hide... decent sized enclosure. What else can I do to make him feel more safe in his home?
I have a RT named Goku that I got about 6 weeks ago, and I think he is (slightly?) stressed out. He lives in an enclosure I made out of a bookshelf that is in my bedroom and for the most part he's been a pretty calm dude... keep in mind no one is home on week days before 4 o'clock and I usually come home to find him basking and just looking around the room in general. I try to take him outside a few days a week for about 30 minutes to an hour to soak and/or wander around the yard (I supervise the entire time as I am in the process of building an outdoor enclosure.) For the past week or two, he's started digging in the late afternoon... and scraping the floor/walls... for a few hours. I know tortoises like to dig & RT are known for looking for escape routes but he does it incessantly... and with a lot of force, like he's stressed. He usually does it even more when I bring him back inside after a soak/walk. I kind of understand that... he just had an entire yard to roam in and now he's wondering why he's in a box with 4 sides. Sometimes he comes back in, and is happy to just find a comfy spot and bask for a few hours. Lately though, he has been scraping and scraping regardless if he goes outside or not. I try to distract him, or pick him up and move him elsewhere and he looks terrified all of a sudden. Keep in mind, he hasn't been the friendliest around me so far... won't eat out of my hand, sticks his head in if i get to close, hates being soaked (except for one really hot day, he sat in his basin relaxing the entire time I was swimming in the pool haha), won't eat if he knows I'm looking at him,generally doesn't care too much for me in general, sometimes he's nosy and likes to watch me walk around the room... and refuses to eat anything other than butter lettuce. go figure. But it seems as if, instead of getting more used to me and not seeing me so much as a predator... he's going backwards. And if I try to handle him to show him I'm friendly, it seems worse. Is there anything I can do to relieve his stress? Let him go outside more or less? Pay more or less attention to him? Temps and humidity are normal ..I live in south florida.. It's hot. He has his uvb light... a hide... decent sized enclosure. What else can I do to make him feel more safe in his home?