S
stells
Guest
Its with a heavy heart that i post this here... on Sunday i lost 1 and 2 (Horsfield hatchlings)...
I found 2 beside my kids trampoline... but unfortunately he was already dead... it looks like he was trodden on i'm afraid to say 1 was still AWOL.. and with the size of my garden and the size of the tortoise i really didn't hold out hope of finding him...
I feel it is completely my fault for not being vigilant enough... i thought i had taken everything into account when doing their pen... they had wire bottom and top so nothing like this could ever happen... sadly though i didn't think anything of the 2 inch gap which ran across the back where the fence post stuck out abit and wouldn't let me fit the lid flush to the fence... if i had taken the time and effort i could have fixed the problem so easily... but was concentrating more on them going down than up... i caught 3 shimmying the corner at the back and can only think his siblings did the same...
Luckily this morning i put some Romaine in the enclosures... something i do every week whilst they are outside... i went indoors for 10 mins but popped out for a walk up the garden path to look at the animals... to my joy number 1 was sat looking at a piece of Romaine in the Ibera enclosure...
I am very sad that this has had to happen... i have put myself in the firing line here... and some may think i am a bad keeper for allowing this to happen.... but to be honest i really don't care... nobody can think i am any worse than what i do right now...
And if me saying make sure you check everything regularly and if you have any doubts about possible escape... act on it right away and don't be fooled by the smallest of gaps... if that saves another tortoise from the same fate as number 2 then i'm happy to let others know of my stupid mistake...
Here are pics of the enclosure from when it was being built.. so its not brilliant... the problem has since been resolved... all be it a little to late...
If you look at the back of the enclosure you can see where the fence post is and how small the gap is... not even sure it is 2 inches...
Here is how i found 1 this morning.... look to the right of Dandelion (Ibera)... he really did like the look of that lettuce leaf...
Kelly
I found 2 beside my kids trampoline... but unfortunately he was already dead... it looks like he was trodden on i'm afraid to say 1 was still AWOL.. and with the size of my garden and the size of the tortoise i really didn't hold out hope of finding him...
I feel it is completely my fault for not being vigilant enough... i thought i had taken everything into account when doing their pen... they had wire bottom and top so nothing like this could ever happen... sadly though i didn't think anything of the 2 inch gap which ran across the back where the fence post stuck out abit and wouldn't let me fit the lid flush to the fence... if i had taken the time and effort i could have fixed the problem so easily... but was concentrating more on them going down than up... i caught 3 shimmying the corner at the back and can only think his siblings did the same...
Luckily this morning i put some Romaine in the enclosures... something i do every week whilst they are outside... i went indoors for 10 mins but popped out for a walk up the garden path to look at the animals... to my joy number 1 was sat looking at a piece of Romaine in the Ibera enclosure...
I am very sad that this has had to happen... i have put myself in the firing line here... and some may think i am a bad keeper for allowing this to happen.... but to be honest i really don't care... nobody can think i am any worse than what i do right now...
And if me saying make sure you check everything regularly and if you have any doubts about possible escape... act on it right away and don't be fooled by the smallest of gaps... if that saves another tortoise from the same fate as number 2 then i'm happy to let others know of my stupid mistake...
Here are pics of the enclosure from when it was being built.. so its not brilliant... the problem has since been resolved... all be it a little to late...
If you look at the back of the enclosure you can see where the fence post is and how small the gap is... not even sure it is 2 inches...
Here is how i found 1 this morning.... look to the right of Dandelion (Ibera)... he really did like the look of that lettuce leaf...
Kelly