Jelsup
New Member
Hi there I have a 30 year old sulcata Toritosie named Tony, Weighing in about 45# I adopted him a year ago from a reptile expo, he must have lived in some pretty bad previous conditions because he has a lot of heat lamp damage on his shell. Where I live in Northern California he can be outdoors from May - November once it drops lower than 50 F degrees if there’s no heat lamp in his tortoise house he has to come inside. Due to him living in such tight closures in his previous habitat it pangs me to have to isolate him so I he allow him to roam 2.5 acres of prime land, this entire area is fenced and in closed with 6inch square fencing that’s 8 feet tall/ I have made sure to secure the bottoms of the fencing and the weeds have helped me by binding into the fencing- I watch him pace the fence line often and when I see him trying to push through I usually put a cement brick in his way and he moves on . He has plenty of different grasses to live on, plus when I do my summer garden the pumpkin watermelon / squashes/cucumbers are all for him. I have done a far amount of research on diet and I understand it’s better for them to graze on outside grasses etc And veggies/ fruits should be treated like “treats” ( once in a while). I also created him a shallow pond that is cemented and full with fresh water - he rather burrow under one of my huge planter boxes until he reaches water and then just sit in that mud pit. He likes creating his own burrow holes and they are quit impressive he’s scattered them throughout the 2.5 acres -plus I created him a tortoise house as well. (Even though he rather sleep In his home made 2-3foot Deep burrow he creates) He is VERY fast , it’s like he has hydraulic’s the way he can move. Hah.. My land is not completely flat - it has its ups and downs and plateau‘s in which iv watched him scale more times in one day than a human would do..
My dilemma ....
This is my first summer with him and I have already had him escape 4 times- the first time it was my fault for not doing a proper fence and not realizing they can walk over a foot and half of cinder block plus I found out if you put a solid color at the fence line (like black tarp or even just a cardboard a tortoise will not try to push through on the area bc they can’t see past it)- the second time he escaped someone left the front gate open and he waited until no one was watching- he is VERY intellectual I mean they are prehistoric so they’ve learned to survive somehow. but he learned within a day how we use the gate to exit and so forth, at the time I found him at our neighbor hood pond so I decided maybe he escaped bc he was in search of a water source so I made him anotherbig pool like area(nothing deep only an inch or two) I also began to feed him “treats” meaning watermelon pumpkins squashes Daily’ ( I try to stay away from acidic veggies and fruits I heard it’s too much acidity for them) He was getting a whole
Pumpkin in which he would eat the whole thing in half a day! I began basically bribing him with treats thinking maybe it’ll keep him from wanting to escape! Btw these animals are natural born grazers that is there main mission in life. So he will eat all day if he wants too.
the third time was my husbands fault for one of the mastiffs broke down the front gate in the middle of the night and he did not fix it immediately and Tony did a late night escape. The latest and last escape he actually finally managed to flex the fence squares wide enough to inch through (picture attached) something I didn’t think was possible but bc it was also at night I was not around to stop him or turn him around. What’s crazy is he has yet to try and dig under the fence which is super possible for him. I am Very blessed that my neighborhood has been kind enough to always post on social media when they find him and luckily I have gotten back Farley quickly every time. But I know his luck will run out soon and they’re will be a time no one posts they find him - plus my neighborhood probably thinks I’m a horrible animal owner always letting him get out. So I really need some insight and advice .. is he escaping because he’s in search of a female? Or is he searching for different food?Does he just want to go on adventures?? Or does he just plain hate me??? I have invested so much time money and love for me to give up on this guy. And he truly is an amazing creature. Any advice would be great, I will post pictures and some videos if it allows! Thank you in advance!
My dilemma ....
This is my first summer with him and I have already had him escape 4 times- the first time it was my fault for not doing a proper fence and not realizing they can walk over a foot and half of cinder block plus I found out if you put a solid color at the fence line (like black tarp or even just a cardboard a tortoise will not try to push through on the area bc they can’t see past it)- the second time he escaped someone left the front gate open and he waited until no one was watching- he is VERY intellectual I mean they are prehistoric so they’ve learned to survive somehow. but he learned within a day how we use the gate to exit and so forth, at the time I found him at our neighbor hood pond so I decided maybe he escaped bc he was in search of a water source so I made him anotherbig pool like area(nothing deep only an inch or two) I also began to feed him “treats” meaning watermelon pumpkins squashes Daily’ ( I try to stay away from acidic veggies and fruits I heard it’s too much acidity for them) He was getting a whole
Pumpkin in which he would eat the whole thing in half a day! I began basically bribing him with treats thinking maybe it’ll keep him from wanting to escape! Btw these animals are natural born grazers that is there main mission in life. So he will eat all day if he wants too.
the third time was my husbands fault for one of the mastiffs broke down the front gate in the middle of the night and he did not fix it immediately and Tony did a late night escape. The latest and last escape he actually finally managed to flex the fence squares wide enough to inch through (picture attached) something I didn’t think was possible but bc it was also at night I was not around to stop him or turn him around. What’s crazy is he has yet to try and dig under the fence which is super possible for him. I am Very blessed that my neighborhood has been kind enough to always post on social media when they find him and luckily I have gotten back Farley quickly every time. But I know his luck will run out soon and they’re will be a time no one posts they find him - plus my neighborhood probably thinks I’m a horrible animal owner always letting him get out. So I really need some insight and advice .. is he escaping because he’s in search of a female? Or is he searching for different food?Does he just want to go on adventures?? Or does he just plain hate me??? I have invested so much time money and love for me to give up on this guy. And he truly is an amazing creature. Any advice would be great, I will post pictures and some videos if it allows! Thank you in advance!