# Morticia wants to sleep under the stars



## thatrebecca (Jun 29, 2013)

My juvenile CDT has settled in for the night in a corner outside her burrow. Should I let her stay there, or tuck her in the burrow with her brother? I'm assuming it has something to do with the extreme heat we had today in SoCal.


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## wellington (Jun 29, 2013)

I would assume you should leave her. However, I would also say to keep a close eye on them, as the brother may be bullying the sister and that's why she's not in the hide. Do they have more then one hide? If not, maybe make another one for them.


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## Tom (Jun 29, 2013)

They have to be "trained" or patterned to use their burrows sometimes. You should put her in it every night. Until she learns to go in on her own, and she should have her own burrow. DTs don't usually like to share.


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## EchoTheLeoTort (Jun 29, 2013)

This may be completely idiotic, but I have a friend who lives in SoCal near victorville, and she told me in the desert areas there are coyotes and what not. If you don't have a safe closed in area, i'd put her in the burrow, but if its safe maybe leave her be tonight and figure out how to make her, her own burrow  I can't blame her though, the stars are my favorite natural thing


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## Millerlite (Jun 29, 2013)

I was in the desert not to long ago and saw a desert toetoise roaming around at night, I think they like the cool air. Not saying its safe to keep yours out, mine sleep out of there hides sometimes but I don't have any predators around here


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## thatrebecca (Jun 29, 2013)

Thanks for the input everybody! When the torts slept inside -- which was up until 3 nights ago -- they each had their own enclosure and hide. In the outdoor enclosure, there is only one burrow. We'll build a second one over the next couple days. In the meantime, I put the clay plant pot from her indoor enclosure out there with some orchard bark in it and tucked her into it.


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## Team Gomberg (Jun 29, 2013)

Once she has her own hide train her to use it like Tom said. After a few nights of doing this all 4 of my Russians "got it" and I love that they put themselves away every night 

Heather
Sent from my Android TFO app


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## thatrebecca (Jun 30, 2013)

It's just her temporary hide till we can build a proper one of her own, but Morticia tucked herself in tonight without any help from me.


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## Tom (Jun 30, 2013)

In the wild they would be sleeping deep underground. Surface air and surface temps are not "natural" for them and it can cause all sorts of problems.

This is not a case of tortoises know what's best and trust them to do it. They are in a foreign and unnatural situation and they need our help to stay alive and healthy. If a tortoise was out in the wild away from humans and their interference, I'd say leave them alone. In a backyard, living with another tortoise, daily irrigation, with no real burrows, I'd say we need to help out a little. Just my opinion.

I'm talking to the group here, not just thatrebecca. Just sharing my point of view.


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## thatrebecca (Jun 30, 2013)

I totally see your point, Tom. Morticia found her way tonight, but I had to help out Gomez, who decided to go to bed in a patch of flowers instead of his (palatial by comparison) burrow.


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## thatrebecca (Jun 30, 2013)

Oh for heavens sake! After my triumphant, 'Morticia is in her new burrow' update, she relocated herself back into the old burrow with Gomez. I can't keep up with these crazy torts! 

I'm letting her stay in the big burrow tonight. Charlotte the black widow is back guarding the burrow door, and my husband, who was pressed into duty today making the new hide while I was at work, is refusing to go kill her (Charlotte, that is) at the moment. It appears he has other things to do than obsess about torts. Can you imagine?


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## Tom (Jun 30, 2013)

thatrebecca said:


> It appears he has other things to do than obsess about torts. Can you imagine?



What????? This is like a foreign language. I see some words, but it does not compute. What is this "other things to do..." you speak of? I only understand the part about obsessing over the tortoises...


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## thatrebecca (Jun 30, 2013)

Tom said:


> thatrebecca said:
> 
> 
> > It appears he has other things to do than obsess about torts. Can you imagine?
> ...



I know. It's like an interfaith marriage -- one of us worships the torts, the other acknowledges their existence but has not entirely devoted his life to them. I'm not sure what we'll do at the holidays.


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## thatrebecca (Jul 1, 2013)

Tonight's installment of 'Where is Morticia Sleeping?' The answer: not in her new burrow, but in a sensible- looking place she chose herself, wedged between a rock and the wall, underneath a piece of wood and some grasses. Hate to move her. Harrumph.


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## thatrebecca (Sep 15, 2013)

She's at it again -- our little DT is avoiding her hide at bedtime. She and her brother have had separate enclosures for about a week, and she slept in her hide the first few nights I put her there. Tonight I put her in her hide at the usual time and checked a bit later and she had relocated to a hole she dug against the concrete blocks that make up the wall of her pen. I'm wondering if it's actually a temperature issue, since we've had a couple hot days here and potential bullying is no longer a factor. Here's where she's bedded down. Should we leave her be?


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## Tom (Sep 15, 2013)

Hmmm.... Judgement call. She's not totally exposed to the outside surface air there, but she's more exposed to it than if she were in a proper burrow or hide box. I worry about our cool nights with all the dew right now. She's certainly able to warm up durning the day, but that cold damp air all night cannot be good.

I vote you put her in her "burrow".

On a related note: Over the years I have found it much easier to move the house to where the tortoise wants to be, instead of trying to make the tortoise go where WE want the house. Don't know if that little tidbit is pertinent to this situation or not, but if its an option to move the burrow...


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## thatrebecca (Sep 15, 2013)

Tom said:


> Hmmm.... Judgement call. She's not totally exposed to the outside surface air there, but she's more exposed to it than if she were in a proper burrow or hide box. I worry about our cool nights with all the dew right now. She's certainly able to warm up durning the day, but that cold damp air all night cannot be good.
> 
> I vote you put her in her "burrow".
> 
> On a related note: Over the years I have found it much easier to move the house to where the tortoise wants to be, instead of trying to make the tortoise go where WE want the house. Don't know if that little tidbit is pertinent to this situation or not, but if its an option to move the burrow...



Duly noted. I'll go tuck her in again. The weird thing is, the burrow is literally six inches from this wall. Same temp, same dirt, just six inches away. It's not up against the wall cause that might enable her to climb out using the burrow roof as a step. 

For the life of me I can't figure out why she'd rather have her tush out there than be snug in her hide, which my back still hurts from digging, by the way...

Ah well, this will all be moot soon enough when nights get cooler. I bring her in when our nighttime low is below 70.


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## ellen (Sep 16, 2013)

I used take my tortoises out and pet them for a couple minutes if I caught them sleeping outside of their burrow. Then I would set them in front of the entrance. They promptly scuttled into the burrow afterward.

It was fun for me, a lesson about predators for them, and now they sleep in the very back of their burrow cuddling together every night.  

"If we don't sleep in here, then she's going to coo at us!"


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## thatrebecca (Sep 16, 2013)

ellen said:


> I used take my tortoises out and pet them for a couple minutes if I caught them sleeping outside of their burrow. Then I would set them in front of the entrance. They promptly scuttled into the burrow afterward.
> 
> It was fun for me, a lesson about predators for them, and now they sleep in the very back of their burrow cuddling together every night.
> 
> "If we don't sleep in here, then she's going to coo at us!"



Haha, I love it! Reverse psychology.


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