Enclosures and predators

[Jacqui]

Outside enclosures for any tortoise would be a challange here. First snow is early October and breakup is April/May. You definitely couldn't let them hibernate outside. Even in summer you would need extra heat, our soil temp is pretty low. The interior has hotter summers so it would be slightly different there but still too cold for too long. A climate controlled greenhouse would rock but you would still have to either bring them in for at least 4 months in the winter or spend a fortune heating the greenhouse.

So you pretty much have house tortoises? With vary limited time outside in natural sunlight correct? Doesn't sound like a lot of fun. I myself dislike when the winter comes. I like it a lot better when as many as possible can be outside.

I live in an old house (well over 100 yrs), so electrical outlets were a premium...not to mention you had to be careful if too many lights and/or heaters would go on at the same time. Just finally last year got lots and lots of new outlets. For example my dining room went from four plugs to now 24 of them...and on more fuses so no popping of the fuses any more.

Must mean you have to really love reptiles to have them up there.

How is it with finding greens and stuff? Just thinking there would go a lot of the free supply of weeds, grasses, and blooms from my yard.

 

[Rees2]

Cats are normally nothing that will harm a Russian.

I desagree with you there I have seen videos on Youtube of tortoises getting thrashed by cats.Oh and my cat also tried to kill my tortoises luckly I was able to to get my cat away before she harmed Humpfree.

 

[Jacqui]

I have seen those too. I have also saw the ones where the torts go after the cats as well.

Normally however cats only swat and play with a tort. They don't normally chew on them nor eat them. That is what I meant by harm. Most commonly the cats would rather curl up with them.

But your right Rees, there is always a chance a cat could harm your tort. That's one reason I put the "normally" into my statement.

Hatchlings would be another story, but common sense would say no hatchling should be out without lots of protection. They are so small and soft, they are a food source for everything.

My advice is that anybody who has a tort outside, should take every measure to protect them. You need to be proactive and plan in advance for problems. Just because you never see coons or whatever, doesn't mean they aren't there. They normally don't leave warning messages. They just come in and swooped down upon your shelled ones and will kill everyone they can find. Once they know you have good "taste like chicken" torts raised on prime greens, they will do everything in their clever persistent power to get to the rest. Same basic story with all the other predators.

You are also hearing more and more of the human predators coming after torts. This is going to be happening more and more, especially as the value of torts go up. This animal is much harder to protect against.



While I am thinking coons...
Warning, just because you have your torts inside your home, will not stop a coon. If you leave doors open or have a petdoor, coons will come into your home and go after your torts. Several stories this year of that happening. Just another thing to keep in mind.

 

[halfnelson]

Outside enclosures for any tortoise would be a challange here. First snow is early October and breakup is April/May. You definitely couldn't let them hibernate outside. Even in summer you would need extra heat, our soil temp is pretty low. The interior has hotter summers so it would be slightly different there but still too cold for too long. A climate controlled greenhouse would rock but you would still have to either bring them in for at least 4 months in the winter or spend a fortune heating the greenhouse.

So you pretty much have house tortoises? With vary limited time outside in natural sunlight correct? Doesn't sound like a lot of fun. I myself dislike when the winter comes. I like it a lot better when as many as possible can be outside.

I live in an old house (well over 100 yrs), so electrical outlets were a premium...not to mention you had to be careful if too many lights and/or heaters would go on at the same time. Just finally last year got lots and lots of new outlets. For example my dining room went from four plugs to now 24 of them...and on more fuses so no popping of the fuses any more.

Must mean you have to really love reptiles to have them up there.

How is it with finding greens and stuff? Just thinking there would go a lot of the free supply of weeds, grasses, and blooms from my yard.

From May to early Sept. you could take them outside in the yard to graze if the weather is nice. I only have box turtles but if I had a tort that needed to graze I would probably go for one of the barley grass sprouting systems that are popular with horse owners. Have you seen those? Most people up here use an old refridgerator w/racks inside to hold 5 or 6 large plastic trays. You don't plug in the fridge, it's just to hold the trays. In each tray you pour a cup full of barley, and you have to set up some kind of watering system. You like start one tray a week and grow the barley until it's 3 or 4 inches tall. Horse owners then pull out the mat of barley sprouts and feed it to the horses. For torts you could just set the whole tray in their enclosure. Wheat grass and other seeds could be mixed w/the barley to creat a custom feed.

 

[Jacqui]

No I had not heard of the frig and the barley. Dang would hate to keep up with my three horses that way. Think tho I might look into that next summer. We have a couple of old refrigerator bought to hibernate turtles in years ago just sitting around. Might make a nice treat for my ancient mare, when she can't get out to graze.

I love the information and just simply the knowledge gained from sites like this. May not have a lot to do with torts, but sure can apply to everyday life or just make you stop and think about the different environments we each live in.

 

[halfnelson]

No I had not heard of the frig and the barley. Dang would hate to keep up with my three horses that way. Think tho I might look into that next summer. We have a couple of old refrigerator bought to hibernate turtles in years ago just sitting around. Might make a nice treat for my ancient mare, when she can't get out to graze.

I love the information and just simply the knowledge gained from sites like this. May not have a lot to do with torts, but sure can apply to everyday life or just make you stop and think about the different environments we each live in.

It's supposed to be very cost effective. Instead of feeding, say, one pound of barley grain you sprout it and wind up with 4 pounds of sprouts. For small torts you could just do sprouts in a jar in your kitchen.

 

[shay_]

i live where we have lots of racoons. they love torts/turtles.
racoons are very clever so if you do keep ur tort outside bring him/her in at night ,cuz racoons are stubborn animals and will try anything to have an easy meal ... better to be safe than sorry

 

[halfnelson]

I'm making slow progress on my new turtle home, mostly because I'm a bad carpenter and am learning as I go. It will be three 2 ft X 6 ft plywood terrariums w/drop down plexiglass fronts, stacked sort of like bunk beds. I added a 1X4 strip on the front so they are not looking straight out through the plexiglass. The bottom one will be on sliders on the floor, the second one will be on a shelf 2 ft above the floor and the third one will be on a shelf 4 feet above the floor. Each will have a humidity box, water tray, basking area and the top 2 holding females will have 6 inch deep pans of soil set in holes in the floors for egg laying. The rack with the shelves is made from 2x3s and can be taken apart so it's easier to move. I'm adding handles to both ends of the plywood boxes because moving the old turtle table was a pain, there was nothing to grab onto. Thoughts?

 

[Rees2]

If it was labbled killer tortoise the tortoise had a reason it was deffending its nest.

 

[halfnelson]

???? Huh?