# Who shares your tortoise enclosure with your tortoise?



## bioteach (May 19, 2019)

Our Desert Tortoise (Sunshine) had an unexpected visitor. When I entered her enclosure to offer her some Hibiscus blossoms that were out of her reach, there was a baby rabbit in her burrow! It was hilarious watching me chasing the rabbit out, and we are working on a better gate. The rabbit squeezed into Sunshine's space through a gap no larger than two inches. Do Desert Tortoises share burrows with other animals in the wild?


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## Tom (May 19, 2019)

Yes they do in the wild, but it should be avoided in our captive environments when possible. In the desert, many animals will seek refuge in the tortoise burrows to escape hot or cold temperature extremes. You can probably find pics of rattlesnakes sitting next to a burrowed tortoise.


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## dmmj (May 19, 2019)

In the desert or is it dessert? Either way a DT burrow is highly desirable property ( beach house in Malibu desireable) so many ctitters squat in them.


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## wellington (May 19, 2019)

dmmj said:


> In the desert or is it desset? Either way a DT burrow is highly desirable property ( beach house in Malibu desireable) so many ctitters squat in them.


I learned an easy way to remember if its desert or dessert 
With dessert you wouldnt mind having to. So dessert has the two SS. 
Desert, the land, has one S.


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## wellington (May 19, 2019)

My leopards have rabbits in their yard all the time. The rabbits never enter their indoor area though.


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## NorCal tortoise guy (May 19, 2019)

Desert tortoises are called a keystone species because so many desert animals depend on there burrows for a place to hide but yes as said above I would do my best to avoid it in captivity.


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## TammyJ (May 20, 2019)

Talking about sharing space...well, sometimes I suppose slugs and snails find their way into my tortoise enclosure, but I never find any, so I guess their last thought must have been "wrong turn"!


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## Coco Channell (Jul 20, 2019)

My Pixie adopted a baby bunny too. It s so sweet to see them sleeping together and I swear she saves food for her baby bunny. I figured it was because she had babies of her own before and her mothering instincts are taking care of this poor little bunny


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## T Smart (Jul 20, 2019)

One of Harrison’s favorite hiding spots is an old rabbit nest.


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## Coco Channell (Jul 20, 2019)

Sweet picture


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## ZEROPILOT (Jul 20, 2019)

I get Curley Tailed lizards in my enclosure and on occasion, a Cane Toad.


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## ascott (Jul 20, 2019)

bioteach said:


> Our Desert Tortoise (Sunshine) had an unexpected visitor. When I entered her enclosure to offer her some Hibiscus blossoms that were out of her reach, there was a baby rabbit in her burrow! It was hilarious watching me chasing the rabbit out, and we are working on a better gate. The rabbit squeezed into Sunshine's space through a gap no larger than two inches. Do Desert Tortoises share burrows with other animals in the wild?



Rabbit, snakes, lizards, black widows, scorpions and misc critters all will reside with your CDT. It is natural, it is harmless to the tortoise. I would and do always suggest humans never reach into a burrow, without first clearing for any critters dangerous to us, before retrieving or cleaning the burrow or the burrow apron....but there is no reason to worry. Just be certain that the tortoise is the first to dinner table when presenting food. There is tall tale signs of what is eating the food, tortoise or rabbit


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## wccmog10 (Jul 21, 2019)

There have been over 300 species documented using gopher tortoise burrows here in the southeast.


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## T Smart (Jul 21, 2019)

wccmog10 said:


> There have been over 300 species documented using gopher tortoise burrows here in the southeast.



Reminded me of this cool picture.


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## wccmog10 (Jul 21, 2019)

T Smart said:


> Reminded me of this cool picture.
> View attachment 276943



That is a great picture/pamphlet. Thanks for sharing.

I just had a thought- I wonder if anything bigger uses the burrows up here in Georgia. In Georgia the tortoises are a good bit bigger. Your flyer there lists tortoises as weighing 7-9 lbs. here in Georgia I’ve caught several that are 15-20 lbs (it was for research- so we actually weighed them, that is not a guess). 

But I digress. 

In my outdoor tortoise pens I mostly get small tree frogs in the water bowls. Usually squirrel tree frogs. Last winter I had a small anole lizard get into my reptile building, he lived with the tortoise most of the winter.


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## queen koopa (Aug 9, 2019)

I get rabbits and rats in Koops enclosure on going fight to keep rats clear. They do steal koops food and hide it under things!! Can only use certain traps around the property because of our other animals.


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## queen koopa (Aug 9, 2019)

Funny thing about our rabbits though, they would rather eat and rip up the Bermuda grass lawn in the enclosure than eat Koops squash, or the carrots and celery I put out to bait them... Desert rabbits.... odd


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## ZEROPILOT (Aug 10, 2019)

queen koopa said:


> I get rabbits and rats in Koops enclosure on going fight to keep rats clear. They do steal koops food and hide it under things!! Can only use certain traps around the property because of our other animals.


I've trapped rats in my Redfoot enclosure but had to stop because the Redfoot would EAT THE RATS....And some of the trap if it fell into the pen
Nasty stuff


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## queen koopa (Aug 10, 2019)

Ah! Gross! Opportunistic lil fatties.


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## ZEROPILOT (Aug 10, 2019)

queen koopa said:


> Ah! Gross! Opportunistic lil fatties.


They can be downright disgusting


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