Hello All,
I’m new to this whole forum business so take it easy on me please, Hehe!
So I have a 12 year old (7inch) Hermanns tortoise names Marvin, I’ve had him for about 9 years and he’s always been pretty active. We jokingly call him the “Houdini the ASBO tortoise” because he loves destroying stuff and once managed to scale a 2ft brick wall.
For the last 8+ years Marvin has spent his summer days in a large guinea pig run (4ftx6ft) in my parents back garden, we have always been conscious of adding in enrichment items for him but he would still spend 80% of his time marching the perimeter of the run and trying to climb the walls.
I recently bought my own place and the first job was building a purpose built run for the tortoise. It’s 5ft by 15ft (approximately 75sqft) so much larger than his previous gaff, he has an indoor hide, skate area, long grass, short grass, soil, strawberry plants, hostas, dandelions, nettles, a bamboo tunnel, a climbing platform, a sea grass ball, a wooden enrichment food ball, a water pool and dividing walls to break it all up. He has a regular diet of greens, weeds and the odd treat of a tomatoe or cucumber slice, and we do also use tortoise pellets and calcium powder sometime to keep his nutrition correct. And STILL he just walks the perimeter, headbuts the walls and attempts to climb the walls and corners!!!
I don’t know what else I can do for him! It’s upsetting to think that he is unhappy (he has even cut his neck from one of his falling escapades) and frustrating because I don’t know what else I can do.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you guys so much in advance.
McKayla
Proud owner of Marvin (AKA Houdini the ASBO tortoise)
I’m new to this whole forum business so take it easy on me please, Hehe!
So I have a 12 year old (7inch) Hermanns tortoise names Marvin, I’ve had him for about 9 years and he’s always been pretty active. We jokingly call him the “Houdini the ASBO tortoise” because he loves destroying stuff and once managed to scale a 2ft brick wall.
For the last 8+ years Marvin has spent his summer days in a large guinea pig run (4ftx6ft) in my parents back garden, we have always been conscious of adding in enrichment items for him but he would still spend 80% of his time marching the perimeter of the run and trying to climb the walls.
I recently bought my own place and the first job was building a purpose built run for the tortoise. It’s 5ft by 15ft (approximately 75sqft) so much larger than his previous gaff, he has an indoor hide, skate area, long grass, short grass, soil, strawberry plants, hostas, dandelions, nettles, a bamboo tunnel, a climbing platform, a sea grass ball, a wooden enrichment food ball, a water pool and dividing walls to break it all up. He has a regular diet of greens, weeds and the odd treat of a tomatoe or cucumber slice, and we do also use tortoise pellets and calcium powder sometime to keep his nutrition correct. And STILL he just walks the perimeter, headbuts the walls and attempts to climb the walls and corners!!!
I don’t know what else I can do for him! It’s upsetting to think that he is unhappy (he has even cut his neck from one of his falling escapades) and frustrating because I don’t know what else I can do.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you guys so much in advance.
McKayla
Proud owner of Marvin (AKA Houdini the ASBO tortoise)
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