Daredevil.. worried tort mum

[Gembolina]

Hi All,

I'm wondering if anyone can help me out with Shelby, he/she is 10 months old and has been with us now for about 6 weeks, settled in nicely, eating, weeing and pooing as should be.

The problem I have is that he/she has decided to become a daredevil over the last few days. He has managed to tip himself over 5 times in the last 48 hours, always in the same side/corner of the tabletop, also without any obstacles in the way, I have watched it happen and it's basically from trying to climb the wall... Luckily it's at the cooler end of the tabletop so not under any direct heat but I have 2 major concerns...

1. He doesn't seem to be able to tip himself back upright.. currently on coco and topsoil sub so wondering if I can add something in with a little more hardeness/texture.. I have added some flattish stones around the size of my fist around the cooler area (just the top of each showing through the sub) to see if that helps but so far no good.. I'm concerned the more things I add to the house the more obstacles there are to play/climb on.

2. My daughter and I are due to go away for a week soon so hubby is taking over care, only problem is that he isn't in for a lot of the day - from early morning till late afternoon.. Should we go to the extent of leaving both heat and UV lamp off whilst he's not here just in case?

Sorry for the long message, I'm going out of my mind with worry about whether he's going to be ok, I'm also worried he's going to do himself some harm or worse

Thanks in advance

Gemma

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Try placing a rock in that corner so that it can't climb straight up right there.
Secondly, make sure that there is never a heat source overhead near an area that your tort has been known to flip over.

 

[Alexio]

Have you seen any viedos of tortoises who have flipped over and then righted themselves?
If not go on YouTube and search for tortoise flips it's self over.
Essentially what they do is dig a little sideways rut for themselves that they slowly work themselves into. You may have too large or too heavy of objects that there having a hard time moving. I have a marginated tortoise around the same age I have seen turn himself back over so it's possible even for little ones. I use cypress mulch and that seems to work well for digging/ burrowing.