# Need some help regarding a Leopard that likes the cold!



## geofftech (Jan 28, 2021)

Ok, have a very healthy 4 year old - Charlie. Gotten so big he has his own room now and is a free-range tort around the house. He loves being outside so hates the winter. Recently he's taken to surfing the patio doors even though it is winter and there's snow on the ground. I thought as soon as I open the door he'll turn around when he felt the cold. NOPE. He shot out there fast! Wanted to walk in the snow! 
I know they need heat throughout the day but he seemed genuinely delighted getting to go outside. It's happened 3 or 4 times now and I wanted to see if anyone had thoughts on this? Again, only on sunny days and for no more than 5-10 minutes. I have a call in to his vet but wanted to ask the hive mind here as well.
Thoughts?


----------



## William Lee Kohler (Jan 28, 2021)

IGNORE THE TORTOISE?! He doesn't know what's good for him?. The cold WILL kill him in short order.


----------



## Aloysius Taschse (Jan 28, 2021)

A free range tort around the house? I don't think that's a very good idea. 

Maybe he just likes going outside but hasn't felt the wrath of being outside for too long! Most people don't start getting cold after a few minutes outside due to the heat inside them. Eventually it radiates out and the tortoise is cold and unhappy. Not a good thing.

Maybe a nice project would be to build him a room that's like being outside? With plants and a day and night cycle with a burrow? That tortoise sounds very unhappy with the current arrangement. Make sure to give him lots of time outside during the summer! ?


----------



## ZEROPILOT (Jan 28, 2021)

William Lee Kohler said:


> IGNORE THE TORTOISE?! He doesn't know what's good for him?. The cold WILL kill him in short order.


Yep.
A few torts in my Redfoot group will walk out of their heated houses and sleep in the cold, damp bushes at night if I don't block the doors.
They truly don't know what they're doing sometimes


----------



## Tom (Jan 28, 2021)

geofftech said:


> Ok, have a very healthy 4 year old - Charlie. Gotten so big he has his own room now and is a free-range tort around the house. He loves being outside so hates the winter. Recently he's taken to surfing the patio doors even though it is winter and there's snow on the ground. I thought as soon as I open the door he'll turn around when he felt the cold. NOPE. He shot out there fast! Wanted to walk in the snow!
> I know they need heat throughout the day but he seemed genuinely delighted getting to go outside. It's happened 3 or 4 times now and I wanted to see if anyone had thoughts on this? Again, only on sunny days and for no more than 5-10 minutes. I have a call in to his vet but wanted to ask the hive mind here as well.
> Thoughts?


Free ranging around the house is a terrible idea. This almost always leads to one or more of several disasters. You need to keep your tortoise in a large enclosure with the correct temperatures and conditions.

You can find pics, even here, of people letting tortoises walk in snow. Its a bad idea. They don't understand cold. They just get too cold and it can have deadly consequences.


----------

