This happens over and over and I'm at a loss to explain it.
A person brings a tortoise home, a new-to-you tortoise. The tortoise roams around the yard/habitat eating and inspecting and seems to settle right in. He goes into the shelter in the evening by himself. The next day he doesn't come out, doesn't eat, just sits there seemingly pouting.
I get it that tortoises have to settle in to make sure they're in a safe place, but why did they walk around eating that first day?
Last week I took in a 50lb sulcata. They set him down in my back yard, said their goodbyes and took his picture, all the while the tortoise is walking around, eating grass and acting like he's in the best place in the world. That evening he took himself through the vinyl strip door, into the shelter, without having been shown where the shelter is. That was the last I saw of him for three days. He never came out. Finally, on the fourth day, I brought him out. He turned around and went right back into the shelter.
A person brings a tortoise home, a new-to-you tortoise. The tortoise roams around the yard/habitat eating and inspecting and seems to settle right in. He goes into the shelter in the evening by himself. The next day he doesn't come out, doesn't eat, just sits there seemingly pouting.
I get it that tortoises have to settle in to make sure they're in a safe place, but why did they walk around eating that first day?
Last week I took in a 50lb sulcata. They set him down in my back yard, said their goodbyes and took his picture, all the while the tortoise is walking around, eating grass and acting like he's in the best place in the world. That evening he took himself through the vinyl strip door, into the shelter, without having been shown where the shelter is. That was the last I saw of him for three days. He never came out. Finally, on the fourth day, I brought him out. He turned around and went right back into the shelter.