Help please! (wants out of warm box, but too cold)

[Pecos Bill]

Question here.

So I have two adult redfoots and ones a male and one a female and they are in their hide because of the cold here on the gulf coast right now. My female keeps trying to get out and walk around even though they have fresh water and food daily in a 4’ by 8’ heated hide. Both are right at 8” and I was wondering if maybe she was trying to get out to lay eggs I don’t want her to get egg bound but I don’t want her just out in the cold rain we have right now for no reason. Both the male and female look too small to be breeding but I’m probably wrong the male has slight wafting on his shell but it isn’t very con-caved yet. Should I keep her in the hide or maybe put thick dirt in a large tote and see if she wants to lay eggs. Never done this before just don’t want her to have a health problem thank you for any answers

 

[Tom]

They should never live as a pair. That is probably the primary issue. She needs her own enclosure and heated shelter. She is in a living hell right now unable to escape the unwanted attention of the male.

What is the daily high where you are right now? Even on cooler winter days, they can come out, forage, and then go back into the heated hide.

 

[Pecos Bill]

They should never live as a pair. That is probably the primary issue. She needs her own enclosure and heated shelter. She is in a living hell right now unable to escape the unwanted attention of the male.

What is the daily high where you are right now? Even on cooler winter days, they can come out, forage, and then go back into the heated hide.

They are probably the only two that might be sexually mature but there are 16 of them in total the rest just are around the 6 inch mark and I let them out anytime it’s over 55 and not raining but I think the ground might be too hard for her to dig into even if she wanted to lay eggs I read they don’t like to lay around rocks and the soil here on the Texas coast is very rocky

 

[KarenSoCal]

Are all the torts in the same enclosure? How many heated boxes do you have?
Do you have any idea what your male/female ratio is?

The point Tom is trying to make is that your female is probably not carrying eggs. The reason she wants out is because the male is wanting to mate and won't leave her alone. She wants away from him!

If you can put her in with other females, that might work.

@ZEROPILOT will be on in the morning. He will have recommendations for you.

 

[wellington]

Yoi have 16 RF in a 4x8 area? That is way too small for that many of them. A 4x8 is the minimum for one Russian which is much smaller then even a juvie RF.
Then as others said already, if you have males and females mixed, the stress of the female not being able to get away could cause the females to get sick or death. Likely she doesn't want to lay, without that much stress she doesn't live in a condition she would want to lay. You really need to change living conditions asap.

 

[Pecos Bill]

Yoi have 16 RF in a 4x8 area? That is way too small for that many of them. A 4x8 is the minimum for one Russian which is much smaller then even a juvie RF.
Then as others said already, if you have males and females mixed, the stress of the female not being able to get away could cause the females to get sick or death. Likely she doesn't want to lay, without that much stress she doesn't live in a condition she would want to lay. You really need to change living conditions asap.

It is hardly ever cold here in Texas on the coast and no I have two heated hides the same size I separated them last night I didn’t think they were big enough to be a problem and I have never seen them breeding. This is not a encloser that is 4 by 8 just a house they can go into as well they have a screened in area that is 12 ft by 52 ft

 

[ZEROPILOT]

It is hardly ever cold here in Texas on the coast and no I have two heated hides the same size I separated them last night I didn’t think they were big enough to be a problem and I have never seen them breeding. This is not a encloser that is 4 by 8 just a house they can go into as well they have a screened in area that is 12 ft by 52 ft

As far as the going back into the cold weather at night, some just do that.
She may not be trying to lay. She may just not be very smart.
(Boy am I going to catch some Hell over that remark)
I've always had at least one RF that decides that it's better under a cold plant then inside a warm night house.
It might be necessary to block the door at night to prevent it. In my case, it's a rubber door flap and I put a cement block in front of it.

 

[wellington]

It is hardly ever cold here in Texas on the coast and no I have two heated hides the same size I separated them last night I didn’t think they were big enough to be a problem and I have never seen them breeding. This is not a encloser that is 4 by 8 just a house they can go into as well they have a screened in area that is 12 ft by 52 ft

No I understand its'not an enclosure. But it read as if you had 16 RF close to breeding size in one 4x8 enclosure. That would cause stress. Specially if any are males bothering the females, fighting against each other or even a female being dominant. I get it now i think. You have two hides 4x8 and you are using both of them for the 16 RF.
I know you don't get cold there very often. I would count on that changing. The weather is really crazy all over and more southern states are getting colder and snow.
As ZEROPILOT pilot said, close them in at night so they can't get out and get cold. Most of us always lock them in at night every night so there is no risk of harm from night time varmits.