# How to stop tortoise from digging?



## tortoisenana (Oct 19, 2017)

Hello, My Sulcata is 1.5 years old and about 2lbs. My question is how can I stop him/her from digging? He/she is not digging along the perimeter but out in the middle of his/her yard.


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## Tom (Oct 19, 2017)

tortoisenana said:


> Hello, My Sulcata is 1.5 years old and about 2lbs. My question is how can I stop him/her from digging? He/she is not digging along the perimeter but out in the middle of his/her yard.



When your tortoise starts digging, pull it out of the hole, fill in the hole, and cover the area with a couple of cinder blocks like Austin suggested, or some plywood, or a large planter, or something to physically block that area for a while.

You can't really stop them from digging. That is what sulcatas do. Wild ones spend 95% of their lives underground. If you offer a good shelter, and cooler areas to retreat to, then the digging urge can be reduced significantly, but if you are in a hot area, and your tortoise doesn't have enough shelter or a cool area to go to during the heat of the day, it will have to dig to escape the mid day heat. I like to let them live in burrows during warm weather, and then cover the burrow in late fall and make them sleep in their heated night boxes until late spring when it warms up again.

Show us some pics of the yard and we might have some ideas for you.


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## tortoisenana (Oct 21, 2017)

I have two and they get along great (for now), they have two hides, one heated, one not. One digs under the big

plant the other one doesn't dig at all. Here are some pics


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## Tom (Oct 21, 2017)

The shelter in the pic looks pretty big, and the door entrance is way to open. Not too cozy for an animal that likes to squeeze into a hole just big enough to fit its body for safety and security. You might try something sized a little smaller for the time being.

Your tortoises are not getting along great. They might not be overtly trying to kill each other with biting and pushing, but it is very stressful for them to live as a pair. They don't like it. It could be that your one is digging to get away and feel protected from the other one. They feel safest when they are underground. All of mine that I've raised from hatchlings start acting like wild beasts when I let them burrow. At my approach they expel all their air, making a loud hissing sound, and shoot backwards down their burrows as if they are being pulled by some sort of giant ratchet strap. Its the fastest I've ever seen a sulcata move. Since your tortoise cannot escape the territory of its competitor, it might be trying to dig in for safety and security. Predators or other territorial tortoises can't get them from the front, and the front is the only thing exposed when they are backed into a burrow.

I'll bet if you separate them and offer some smaller hides with smaller entrances, the digging will stop.


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## tortoisenana (Oct 21, 2017)

Thank you. I appreciate your advice. I will do some rearranging and see what happens.


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## Tom (Oct 21, 2017)

Another little thing I noticed in the pics: Its hard for them to drink when the water dishes are on top of the ground like that. I use a little hand spade and dig out a shallow depression under each bowl so that the rim is almost level with the surface. Its much easier for them to use their water bowls that way.

And my compliments on the type and number of water bowls! I love those crawfish platters for water bowls. I buy them by the dozen. I've always bought the blue because its for water, but your pic made me wonder if they might be more attracted to the red and drink more? Have you noticed anything like that?


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## tortoisenana (Oct 21, 2017)

The hide on the right of the picture is heated, the other one not. The reason I say they are getting along is that they sometimes are together and sometimes not. I am outside with them almost all day. I bring them inside at night because we have opossums and raccoons and owls and who knows what out here on the farm. I have never seen any aggressive behavior, no ramming, biting, shoving or hissing. But I don't speak tortoise so maybe I may just not know there is an issue. I also have three Hatchlings about 2.5-3" that share another area (Madison Square Gardens). because it is square).


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## Grandpa Turtle 144 (Oct 21, 2017)




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## Tom (Oct 21, 2017)

tortoisenana said:


> The hide on the right of the picture is heated, the other one not. The reason I say they are getting along is that they sometimes are together and sometimes not. I am outside with them almost all day. I bring them inside at night because we have opossums and raccoons and owls and who knows what out here on the farm. I have never seen any aggressive behavior, no ramming, biting, shoving or hissing. But I don't speak tortoise so maybe I may just not know there is an issue. I also have three Hatchlings about 2.5-3" that share another area (Madison Square Gardens). because it is square).



Juveniles don't usually "fight". The signs are much more subtle. Where a dog might snarl or growl, and a cat might arch its back or puff its tail, our tortoises have a frozen expression on their face and can't change their body posture due to the rigid shell. It makes identifying aggression or stress more difficult. Do you ever see them follow each other? Sleep side by side or face to face, or "cuddle"? Sit on the food? All of these things are subtle aggression. Even a look from across the enclosure with the head held high can be telling the other one, "GET OUT OF MY TERRITORY!!!" This is stressful on both of them. The dominant can't seem to drive the submissive out of his territory, and the submissive can leave. Best to just not keep them as a pair.

Groups of juveniles, like your other three, are usually okay together. Group dynamics are different than pair dynamics. Pairs are just much too personal. Once there is a group, the hostility level goes way down and any remaining hostility is dispersed amongst the group instead of directed at one individual all the time, day in and day out.


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## tortoisenana (Oct 21, 2017)

They climb right into the water bowls and splash around. They seem to like them better than the plant saucers even though they are slicker. My little ones in picture below. The white thing in the middle is a thermometer.


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## tortoisenana (Oct 21, 2017)

They do follow each other when I call them to give them food and I find them together in either hide sometimes. Sometimes they are in different hides. I have not noticed one leading the other or them inside the hides in any order that might suggest they have a hierarchy of any kind. I will watch more closely until I get more concrete blocks to separate them.


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## tortoisenana (Oct 21, 2017)

Will I ever be able to put all five together?


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