havent seen tortoise in a week

[soulmonk]

I have an almost 2 year old desert tortoise I got from a friend who had 2, they were brother and sister. We got LaLa her name, 3 weeks ago. We built a aburrow for her, laid grass, and plaanted her natural food resources. We use to see her everyday, now we havent seen her in 6 going on 7 days. We know she hasnt left her burrow, cause we check everyday to see if she leaves trail marks when exiting. Is this normal, do we need to dig up the burrow to see if she is ok? We live in las vegas, nv and it has been in the low 80s during the day, and about low 60s at night.

 

[ascott]

How deep down does the burrow go? Is the enclosure covered? Do you put food out and is it eaten? My gut says that since you built the burrow you can do it again----If you are certain the tort has not been above ground in that period of time....I would absolutely slowly open the burrow and locate the tort....when you are digging you should do it by hand/small hand shovel moving slowly and not with chopping motions---you don't want to cut a leg or other part off while digging....especially since you say the tort is only 2ish...

 

[Arnold_rules]

Try leaving her favorite food at the entrance to her burrow. I am in Phoenix and mine has been staying pretty much under ground, although he does come out to play king of his burrow. He has a habit of mountain climbing the top of his burrow. He did not eat during the day yesterday, so I laid his meal towards the front of his burrow and it is gone this morning.

If this fails, then start slowly hand digging until you can find her in her burrow. More than likely everything is OK, they spend 95% of their time in their burrows.

 

[Tom]

Have you got a thermometer with a remote probe? If not, go get one at WalMart or Target or a hardware store ($8-10) and stick the probe down in the burrow where the tortoise is. Let us know what the temp down there is. At this time of year the ground is pretty cold still. You might need to bring her up and let her warm in the sun.

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't leave my desert tortoises out 24/7 until they are about 4 years old, or 4 or 5 inches from front to back. Your little 2 year old desert tortoise is way too small to be outside and un-protected from birds. Does your habitat have a screen or netting over it? If no, he may have been carried off. A 2 year old desert tortoise would be about 3" front to back and small enough to be carried off by a bird or a raccoon or whatever.