Will chickens attack baby tortoise?

[GingerRene]

This is several questions really.
It's 80*F now and will be 90*F by mid day. 80% humidity. I am considering inclosing a baby pool in chicken wire and leaving my baby torts out to enjoy the sunshine. I am home today and plan on doing indoor chores. What do you think?
Second. I have a chicken coop and I could put them in the pin with the chickens to protect them from any other animals but I'm not sure if the chickens would attack them or not. Anyone know about this?

 

[Maro2Bear]

Greetings. Definitely don’t add your torts in with the chickens. Chickens like to run about and scavenge for their food, picking here & there for morsels of food. They might easily peck peck peck on your torts eyes or feet, etc. The second reason why u don’t want to do this, is that chickens defecate all over the place. You don’t want your tirts to be snacking on chicken fecal material.

So, go with screening in the pool. Make sure you provide shade & water. Some food too.

 

[GingerRene]

Greetings. Definitely don’t add your torts in with the chickens. Chickens like to run about and scavenge for their food, picking here & there for morsels of food. They might easily peck peck peck on your torts eyes or feet, etc. The second reason why u don’t want to do this, is that chickens defecate all over the place. You don’t want your tirts to be snacking on chicken fecal material.

So, go with screening in the pool. Make sure you provide shade & water. Some food too.

Good points! I will make the screens for the pool.

 

[MenagerieGrl]

Yes, I agree with @Maro2Bear, I have chickens and would NEVER consider putting the two together. Too many things can go wrong...Give your buddy their own protected area....

 

[GingerRene]

Yes, I agree with @Maro2Bear, I have chickens and would NEVER consider putting the two together. Too many things can go wrong...Give your buddy their own protected area....

I have considered making a wooden pin for them on the ground that has a screened in cover, but I worry about fire ants. Do you have experience with these? Do they bother babies?

 

[MenagerieGrl]

Hum, I have NO experience w/fire ants, But I would think you would want to exclude them from the Tortle enclosure, with some sort of barrier. I've read post's here in the past where folks had the same prob, and were given advice on how to mitigate the issue....

 

[Maro2Bear]

You definitely dont want fire ants anywhere near or crawling over your baby tort. They’re nasty!

 

[GingerRene]

You definitely dont want fire ants anywhere near or crawling over your baby tort. They’re nasty!

I think what I have to do is put fire ant killer out, then wait a few weeks for it to 1) kill the ants and 2) dissolve and not harm the torts

 

[Tom]

This is several questions really.
It's 80*F now and will be 90*F by mid day. 80% humidity. I am considering inclosing a baby pool in chicken wire and leaving my baby torts out to enjoy the sunshine. I am home today and plan on doing indoor chores. What do you think?
Second. I have a chicken coop and I could put them in the pin with the chickens to protect them from any other animals but I'm not sure if the chickens would attack them or not. Anyone know about this?

Definite "NO" on the chickens. They will likely kill babies.

Also, baby sulcatas should not be outside all day in any climate. Its not good for them. I've done several side-by-side experiments with this, and the same result every time. The baby do far better when kept mostly indoors in their warm humid closed chambers until they get some size on them. One hour of sun per inch of tortoise two or three times a week is plenty.

You can spot treat fire ants instead of poisoning the whole yard. Amdro ant granules work great. Pour some direct on any fire any hill you can find. Start where you want your enclosure to be and radiate out from there. Do this on your entire property and then keep pushing them back. They carry it underground, so just don't let the tortoise have direct access to the actual pesticide product.

 

[GingerRene]

Definite "NO" on the chickens. They will likely kill babies.

Also, baby sulcatas should not be outside all day in any climate. Its not good for them. I've done several side-by-side experiments with this, and the same result every time. The baby do far better when kept mostly indoors in their warm humid closed chambers until they get some size on them. One hour of sun per inch of tortoise two or three times a week is plenty.

You can spot treat fire ants instead of poisoning the whole yard. Amdro ant granules work great. Pour some direct on any fire any hill you can find. Start where you want your enclosure to be and radiate out from there. Do this on your entire property and then keep pushing them back. They carry it underground, so just don't let the tortoise have direct access to the actual pesticide product.

Thanks!