Tortoise Keeps Trying To Escape

[skmackley2]

All day all I hear him is scratching at the walls , trying to get out, everyday I let him play on my rug and outside supervised with no chemicals or bad stuff on the ground, but he keeps looking unhappy, I feed him the right food, bathe him every other day, but I dunno?

 

[luvpetz27]

He probably loves it outside and wants to go back out!! A lot of people have the same problem with their tortoises. My box turtles do the same thing. I keep them outside all day and bring them in at night. In the morning they will scratch if I am not fast enough for them!! lol
Anyway they can have an outdoor enclosure?

 

[peasinapod]

How big is his enclosure? Does he have an outdoor pen? He most probably wants more space. The easiest way to provide this, is to build a big, safe outdoor enclosure. That way you can leave him outside for longer and he'll be able to walk/exercise more.

 

[WamBamCam]

What is your enclosure made of. Maybe he sees his reflection and thinks its another tortoise?

 

[GBtortoises]

Tortoises are wild animals. Terrestrial animals that are used to having acres to roam in the wild not just a box or a room in a house. If they're healthy and the environmental conditions are right, they're usually very active. Tortoises don't "play" they forage for food, shelter and ways to be secure and safe which in captivity often means escaping their current conditions. Regardless of you feeding them the right food and bathing them every other day they're still wild animals and they're still going to seek their environmental needs. They're not puppies or kittens and you aren't ever going to train them to be. They're only as loyal as long as the hand that feeds them has food in it each time they see it. Any other given time they don't acknowledge that someone is caring for them and would just as soon be outdoors and free. Those are simply the facts.

 

[peasinapod]

I kept Peter inside for ~1.5-2 weeks this spring because it was so cold. I only took him inside because the temperatures (almost) went below freezing (we had snow in march and amost in april as well). He had maybe 1.5 square meters, with a heat lamp and a hide etc. Those were two miserable weeks, he would try to get out almost every second he was awake. He would just stop to take a quick break underneath his lamp. I never ever want to have to do that again, that's why I'm buying a cold frame to be able to keep him outside whenever he's not hibernating. When I see how active he is I couldn't imagine keeping him in a tortoise table, but that's just my opinion.

 

[skmackley2]

My enclosure is just been built its made our of wood, and it's 100cm (length) x 55cm (width) x 20cm (sides) he can't get out and he runs around active in it, we just finished indoor table for him, I don't know when we can do an outdoor enclosure, plus it's wales-UK- so it always rains and cold and freezing at night maybe in day, but there is sunshine and some warmth?

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What is this cold frame? Does that mean I can keep him in this outdoor enclosure all day, plus winter?

 

[peasinapod]

It is like a small greenhouse. It helps me keep him outside during spring and autumn, wehn it would normally be too cold to keep him outside. There will be a heat lamp as well inside.
But I think I do have more sunny periods in Switzerland than in Wales, and I have a hermann's tortoise which (I believe) are more cold-resistant than russians.

The problem is, that a good cold frame is quite expensive, at least where I am from. Although I am buying it from Germany I will be paying 500 euros, in Switzerland I would have to pay even more.

A big outdoor enclosure during the summer would already be the right thing. But as your baby is still small, you have a bit of time before you need to buy something huge. There are lots of different outdoor enclosures on the forum for young tortoises. Just inspire yourself.


https://www.google.ch/search?q=frü...ildkröte&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&tbm=isch

The link looks strange but should work, just click on images and you'll see lots of coldframes.

 

[skmackley2]

It is like a small greenhouse. It helps me keep him outside during spring and autumn, wehn it would normally be too cold to keep him outside. There will be a heat lamp as well inside.
But I think I do have more sunny periods in Switzerland than in Wales, and I have a hermann's tortoise which (I believe) are more cold-resistant than russians.

The problem is, that a good cold frame is quite expensive, at least where I am from. Although I am buying it from Germany I will be paying 500 euros, in Switzerland I would have to pay even more.

A big outdoor enclosure during the summer would already be the right thing. But as your baby is still small, you have a bit of time before you need to buy something huge. There are lots of different outdoor enclosures on the forum for young tortoises. Just inspire yourself.


https://www.google.ch/search?q=frü...ildkröte&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&tbm=isch

The link looks strange but should work, just click on images and you'll see lots of coldframes.

Small greenhouse cool! But what's not cool is the price yeah wales is not brilliant on weather! Don't herman's grow big and need to be microchipped? Yeah he's tiny! Okay! by the way your URL didn't work, but I'll type in on google images - tortoise cold frame !

 

[peasinapod]

Peter is fully grown and is 18cm "big", and I do not need to microchip him in Switzerland.

If you type in "Frühbeet Schildkröte" (just copy-paste) you'll find a lot of good examples as well.

 

[skmackley2]

They look easy to make ? How come you don't microchip them in Switzerland ??

 

[peasinapod]

There are lots of turtorials on how to do a coldframe yourself (at least in german, I do not know about english). Making one yourself will cost less than just buying one.

We just don't microchip them. It just isn't the law here.

 

[skmackley2]

So your saying you pay 500+ for one of these?? Oh damn, does microchip cost a lot? Why do you have to in UK, plus I don't have money to buy one at the moment because this baby horsefield isn't over pretty, it's cute but doesn't have the red foot or Herman look? I was thinking about adopting of someone off here but it looks like everyone is from US, and I don't like shipping?

 

[peasinapod]

I pay 500 for a quality coldframe, there are way cheaper ones, but msot of them don't let UV through, are drafty and won't last very long. With this one I have a 10 year warrancy. But a lot of people seem to do fine with a summer outdoor enclosure and an indoor enclosure for worse weather. Hermann's, especially easterns should be more cold and damp resistant than russians.
Before buying an additional tortoise I'd make everything ready for the one you have at the moment. Redfoots are a tropical species, keeping them in Wales will be even harder than a russian, and they grow bigger too.

It would be pretty much impossible to ship a tortoise from the US to Wales.

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Structuring your indoor enclosure could help also. Young tortoises like to hide a lot. They will feel uncomfortable in a wide open space. Add hides, safe plants ect.

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[skmackley2]

I pay 500 for a quality coldframe, there are way cheaper ones, but msot of them don't let UV through, are drafty and won't last very long. With this one I have a 10 year warrancy. But a lot of people seem to do fine with a summer outdoor enclosure and an indoor enclosure for worse weather. Hermann's, especially easterns should be more cold and damp resistant than russians.
Before buying an additional tortoise I'd make everything ready for the one you have at the moment. Redfoots are a tropical species, keeping them in Wales will be even harder than a russian, and they grow bigger too.

It would be pretty much impossible to ship a tortoise from the US to Wales.

I suppose, if it is good quality, by letting through UV do you mean sun light through the glass? Yeh they're usually drafty, probably not , 10 years is good! Do you have any pictures to show me what yours looks like? I was thinking that but it's wales, it'll probably rain in 2 days or tomorrow?! Herman's I thought are harder than Russians :/ but I got good humidity Nd heat at the moment in my table? What do you mean by making everyone ready, it is. Russians and Redfoots are the same-ish, they're both arid/tropic species, as long as I have good heating and stable humidity it shouldn't be a problem keeping them? It doesn't matter about size here, I know but they ship tropic fish from Tokyo to here? And they got to have a heat supply or else they go Doo-Lally!

 

[peasinapod]

AW: Tortoise Keeps Trying To Escape

Mine still needs to arrive. It will probably still take a while until I can post pictures of it. I am just saying, that if you do not have a lot of money at the moment, I wouldn't buy another tortoise. You would have to buy everything twice and you already have a growing tortoise. And russians and redfoots have COMPLETELY different requirements. Providing the right humidity and everything for redfoots seem to be quite a challenge. Just look at Tom's threads and you'll se that it isn't easy.



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[skmackley2]

Mine still needs to arrive. It will probably still take a while until I can post pictures of it. I am just saying, that if you do not have a lot of money at the moment, I wouldn't buy another tortoise. You would have to buy everything twice and you already have a growing tortoise. And russians and redfoots have COMPLETELY different requirements. Providing the right humidity and everything for redfoots seem to be quite a challenge. Just look at Tom's threads and you'll se that it isn't easy.



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Oh right, yeah probably, I think I'm just gonna stick with my 1 for the moment! Tom's got lots of threads