Free Roaming Torts?

[MovieActor]

Does anyone else let their indoor tort roam freely during the day?
I have a 6 inch leo that roams my apartment almost daily (supervised).

 

[Tom]

I think most of us agree that this is not a good idea. Too many things could go wrong, and in most houses the floor is pretty cool even on a warm day. I like to let mine roam in proper enclosures that are set up just for them.

 

[wellington]

From what I have learned here on this forum, well is a Ditto with Toms post.

 

[MovieActor]

By "free roaming" I mean contained to the dining room. It has heat lamps set up just for her.

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Some tort owners have to do the best we can with the space and resources we have.

 

[taytay3391]

I let Tortue roam in my room while I'm there. And only for a bit. I don't feel comfortable just letting her go. I put a blanket down since we have hard wood floors.

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Tortue on her blanket

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Mine free roam outside......not inside!

 

[shellysmom]

I used to let my box turtle run around inside, back when I lived in an apartment and couldn't get him outside every day. Is outside better? Sure. Is indoor exercise good when outside is not possible? Absolutely, in my opinion. Especially if you have a basking area set up and are supervising.

 

[dmmj]

Mine free roam outside......not inside!

That's an understatement. Could you imagine the aldabs roaming the house?

 

[Masin]

That's an understatement. Could you imagine the aldabs roaming the house?

Took the words right outta my mouth (or typed them...I dunno!)

 

[MovieActor]

I take my Leo out on the by the lake a few times a week, but that's the most outdoor living I can provide for her at the current time.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

Used to allow my 1st tortoise, a Hermann's, free run of my various apts...rigged a basking lamp to my bookshelf so she could always warm up, and placed her custom-made water dish on the floor, in the kitchen, so she could always drink/soak, and I always installed a "doggie door" in the patio door, so she could go outside to sun herself, at will. This was how my grandfather kept her the first 30 or so years after she became a Hall, and for the next 19, after he passed.

As long as you make sure your tort can (1) find the temperature it wants, (2) has access, at all times, to fresh water, (3) finds no hazards to swallow, and (4) you don't mind cleaning up the occasional "out-of-the-water-dish accidents", I feel it's a viable way to share your home with your tortoise.

But each of these items are important to ALWAYS do...

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Mine free roam outside......not inside!

So, you don't utilize any of them for mobile foot-rests or coffeetables?

 

[MovieActor]

Used to allow my 1st tortoise, a Hermann's, free run of my various apts...rigged a basking lamp to my bookshelf so she could always warm up, and placed her custom-made water dish on the floor, in the kitchen, so she could always drink/soak, and I always installed a "doggie door" in the patio door, so she could go outside to sun herself, at will. This was how my grandfather kept her the first 30 or so years after she became a Hall, and for the next 19, after he passed.

As long as you make sure your tort can (1) find the temperature it wants, (2) has access, at all times, to fresh water, (3) finds no hazards to swallow, and (4) you don't mind cleaning up the occasional "out-of-the-water-dish accidents", I feel it's a viable way to share your home with your tortoise.

But each of these items are important to ALWAYS do...

---

So, you don't utilize any of them for mobile foot-rests or coffeetables?

---

Thanks Terry!

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

Used to allow my 1st tortoise, a Hermann's, free run of my various apts...rigged a basking lamp to my bookshelf so she could always warm up, and placed her custom-made water dish on the floor, in the kitchen, so she could always drink/soak, and I always installed a "doggie door" in the patio door, so she could go outside to sun herself, at will. This was how my grandfather kept her the first 30 or so years after she became a Hall, and for the next 19, after he passed.

As long as you make sure your tort can (1) find the temperature it wants, (2) has access, at all times, to fresh water, (3) finds no hazards to swallow, and (4) you don't mind cleaning up the occasional "out-of-the-water-dish accidents", I feel it's a viable way to share your home with your tortoise.

But each of these items are important to ALWAYS do...

---

So, you don't utilize any of them for mobile foot-rests or coffeetables?

---

Thanks Terry!

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Just be sure to "tortoise-proof" your dwelling.

 

[Nixxy]

Mine free roam outside......not inside!

You'd need to live in a Football stadium, for them to roam inside.

I let mine roam from time to time. Not very extended periods, but still.

 

[Madkins007]

As a rule of thumb, but not a real law, their primary housing should meet all their needs- spacial as well as environmental. This reduces the stresses and minor but real risks of disease, injury, drafts, eating the wrong stuff, etc. I am not even a big fan of indoor nighttime housing and daytime roaming if it is at all possible to keep them outside.

If you DO shift them, it is important that the secondary space be appropriate, safe, and have a purpose that cannot be met in the primary space for some reason.

 

[taytay3391]

My tort lives inside, day and night. She's right by the window, open the shades every morning. She enjoys her tort table which stays at the right temps and has all necessities. I do though take her outside when I have time and it's nice out. She kinda just sits there for a bit then walks around until she tries to burrow. To be honest I think she likes her coco table more. Shes not miserable inside and I don't get why everyone always bashes inside living. Yea she may naturally live in the wild and roam but she's a pet... She's been domesticated. She gets groceries and calcium supplements and handled. She's no longer wild.

 

[Masin]

My tort lives inside, day and night. She's right by the window, open the shades every morning. She enjoys her tort table which stays at the right temps and has all necessities. I do though take her outside when I have time and it's nice out. She kinda just sits there for a bit then walks around until she tries to burrow. To be honest I think she likes her coco table more. Shes not miserable inside and I don't get why everyone always bashes inside living. Yea she may naturally live in the wild and roam but she's a pet... She's been domesticated. She gets groceries and calcium supplements and handled. She's no longer wild.

Her instincts and requirements are still there regardless of her being in the wild or not. She's still a wild animal in my opinion, just ones we've been granted the right to live along side in our homes and lives.

 

[Tom]

My tort lives inside, day and night. She's right by the window, open the shades every morning. She enjoys her tort table which stays at the right temps and has all necessities. I do though take her outside when I have time and it's nice out. She kinda just sits there for a bit then walks around until she tries to burrow. To be honest I think she likes her coco table more. Shes not miserable inside and I don't get why everyone always bashes inside living. Yea she may naturally live in the wild and roam but she's a pet... She's been domesticated. She gets groceries and calcium supplements and handled. She's no longer wild.

There are a few things you don't seem to understand.
1. No one is "bashing" inside living. Almost all of us rely on our indoor housing for at least some of the time with most species and most climates.
2. What we ARE doing is recommending and promoting "outdoor" time as it is HUGELY beneficial for them.
3. They do not get their much needed UV through a window, but the sunlight through glass CAN be psychologically beneficial. However, people must be very cautious with putting enclosures near windows. Many tortoises have died as a result of the greenhouse effect over heating their enclosures. You may not have this problem in your particular enclosure, but others who are reading should know to be cautious.
4. Indoor lighting, even when done in the most excellent way possible, is a compromise at best. Electric heat and light is very drying and desiccating and we recently had a post demonstrating the thermodynamics of an overhead bulb vs. actually real outdoor sunshine on a tortoises shell. Thermal imaging was used to show the differences, and it was pretty astounding to actually see it.
5. Tortoises need lots of room to roam. This is actually a necessary part of digestion as locomotion helps to move things through their intestines. In most indoor housing situations, the enclosures are relatively small. Even a 4x8' table is relatively small given the distance a wild one would cover in a day. Outdoors it is much easier to make a very large and interesting enclosure with lots of room to roam, hide out, graze, burrow, and bask in the warm sunshine.
6. Tortoises are not domesticated. Domestication takes 100's of years and many many generations. We are nowhere near that with captive tortoises.
7. Grocery store food is not the best thing for them. Every effort should be made to try to find them weeds, leaves and foods that are better for them.

I hope this helps to explain why so many of us promote outdoor housing so much.

 

[taytay3391]

There are a few things you don't seem to understand.
1. No one is "bashing" inside living. Almost all of us rely on our indoor housing for at least some of the time with most species and most climates.
2. What we ARE doing is recommending and promoting "outdoor" time as it is HUGELY beneficial for them.
3. They do not get their much needed UV through a window, but the sunlight through glass CAN be psychologically beneficial. However, people must be very cautious with putting enclosures near windows. Many tortoises have died as a result of the greenhouse effect over heating their enclosures. You may not have this problem in your particular enclosure, but others who are reading should know to be cautious.
4. Indoor lighting, even when done in the most excellent way possible, is a compromise at best. Electric heat and light is very drying and desiccating and we recently had a post demonstrating the thermodynamics of an overhead bulb vs. actually real outdoor sunshine on a tortoises shell. Thermal imaging was used to show the differences, and it was pretty astounding to actually see it.
5. Tortoises need lots of room to roam. This is actually a necessary part of digestion as locomotion helps to move things through their intestines. In most indoor housing situations, the enclosures are relatively small. Even a 4x8' table is relatively small given the distance a wild one would cover in a day. Outdoors it is much easier to make a very large and interesting enclosure with lots of room to roam, hide out, graze, burrow, and bask in the warm sunshine.
6. Tortoises are not domesticated. Domestication takes 100's of years and many many generations. We are nowhere near that with captive tortoises.
7. Grocery store food is not the best thing for them. Every effort should be made to try to find them weeds, leaves and foods that are better for them.

I hope this helps to explain why so many of us promote outdoor housing so much.

I get what you're saying but when everyone says it they're so intense like my turtle is going to die because I don't do it YOUR way.

---

There are a few things you don't seem to understand.
1. No one is "bashing" inside living. Almost all of us rely on our indoor housing for at least some of the time with most species and most climates.
2. What we ARE doing is recommending and promoting "outdoor" time as it is HUGELY beneficial for them.
3. They do not get their much needed UV through a window, but the sunlight through glass CAN be psychologically beneficial. However, people must be very cautious with putting enclosures near windows. Many tortoises have died as a result of the greenhouse effect over heating their enclosures. You may not have this problem in your particular enclosure, but others who are reading should know to be cautious.
4. Indoor lighting, even when done in the most excellent way possible, is a compromise at best. Electric heat and light is very drying and desiccating and we recently had a post demonstrating the thermodynamics of an overhead bulb vs. actually real outdoor sunshine on a tortoises shell. Thermal imaging was used to show the differences, and it was pretty astounding to actually see it.
5. Tortoises need lots of room to roam. This is actually a necessary part of digestion as locomotion helps to move things through their intestines. In most indoor housing situations, the enclosures are relatively small. Even a 4x8' table is relatively small given the distance a wild one would cover in a day. Outdoors it is much easier to make a very large and interesting enclosure with lots of room to roam, hide out, graze, burrow, and bask in the warm sunshine.
6. Tortoises are not domesticated. Domestication takes 100's of years and many many generations. We are nowhere near that with captive tortoises.
7. Grocery store food is not the best thing for them. Every effort should be made to try to find them weeds, leaves and foods that are better for them.

I hope this helps to explain why so many of us promote outdoor housing so much.

And thanks for telling me what I don't understand all knowing sir.

 

[Tom]

Many times they DO die, or get horribly disfigured, by people who keep them exclusively indoors. We see it all the time, and its very easy to prevent if we just take the time to type up a few words and educate people who have not learned otherwise yet. It is the memory of these sad cases that compels me to try and HELP other people.

I intended you no insult, and I am far form "all knowing". If I knew everything already, I would not need to be constantly adjusting enclosure parameters and trying new things in an effort to learn.