My little tortoise has one of of those wooden hiding spot (the ones your can get at petco). Anyways he ALWAYS climbs up it and then when he goes down he always slides down and smashes is face into the ground. At first I was getting worried that he was trying to "escape" his enclosure. I was just about to post something about it here, when I noticed he does the EXACT same thing when he is outside in the backyard. Has anyone ever had this issue?

Anyways me and my boyfriend started to get worried that he might flip (we noticed that he almost did once) doing his little stunts. So my boyfriend (enginereeing major haha) decided to do some work on it to prevent him from going up there. It was working great for a while (but the little one was still "trying" to get up there). So Thursday night I was in the room looking at him when I had to leave for about 30 minutes. When I came back my little turt had flipped and was lying on his back I helped him back over and he seemed very scared (guessing shock). Friday I noticed he was eating very much and by Saturday he wasn't eating at all. I couldn't do anything about it, since it was weekend and was hoping things would get better. On Monday (still couldnt get him to the vet because its NEW YEARS...) he hadn't eaten in two days and he now wouldnt or couldnt open his eyes. Today was the first day I was able to take him to a vet, the ONLY one open in the entire area (I had to drive an hour to get there! i seriously hated holidays this morning while i was trying to find a vet open). I got there and he looked at him, and told me that when it flipped it probably compressed his lungs giving him an infection. He gave my poor guy a shot and told me to come back on Friday for his second one and after that I will be doing it!

He seems a little more active now. But geez its HARD when your pet gets sick in the middle of a holiday weekend... The only nice part was that the vet (a tortoise/turtle lover) loved how commited I was and didn't charge me for the visit!! He also didn't charge me for the antibiotics since he said it was such a small amount!! So my wallet definently loved the bill!

Anyways does anyone have any idea what to do with a hiding spot? I really don't want to go through all of this again....

try something retangular. I use an old plastic baby wipe container I turned upside down and cut a hole big enough for her to get through. Or you could build a wooden box yourself.

I hope your tort makes a full recovery.

Swedeheart I understand completely. My Greeks (adults) love to climb their hides. I finally made one out of Ceramic and in the shape of a box. It doesn’t matter whether they are inside or out they climb. It can be nerve racking. My hatchling hasn’t started climbing as yet I dread the day.
My adults came down with a case of RI and I am just finishing up giving them shots. Difficult enough with an adult-cant imagine giving it to a young one. It helped me to tell myself I was just making them better. How old (what size) is your Greek?
I hope it makes a quick recovery.

This post was last modified: 01-02-2008 11:58 PM by Crazy1.

My one Russian and one leopard climb often and it always has me worried. I am sorry your guy is sick. I just took my sulcata last night for a uri. Be thankful he did not charge you. I had a $181.00 bill. Yuck!

My Russians climb constantly, but my RFs and Leopard don't! Good luck with him! I hope he's okay!

Thanks for all the advice! I'll see what can figure out for him. It was just nerve wracking, cause I knew there was something wrong with him. But I couldn't do anything, every single vet was closed
My hatchling is only four months old. It's creepy giving him the shot. So far I haven;t been able to do it lol My best friends boyfriend is in college to become a vet, so he came over today and did it for me. I feel bad for not doing it, but i'm seriously freaked out by it. I feel like i'm going to hurt him...

I'm sorry about that bill! That was the number I was expecting. My regular vet (where my best friends boyfriend works) I get free visits. So I was all expecting a huge bill! Thank god I didnt!