Hermanns Hatchling climbing the walls

[Raskham]

Afternoon all

My first and only tortoise, 6 month old Bradley, has gotten over his initial haze of sleeping all the time apart from eating. But now he is climbing the walls of the enclosure.

Itis a tall wooden wall so he wont get out but I am concerned about him flipping all the one and just the behaviour in general. Does this mean he is bored? I think I have made an interesting environment for him with rocks, shaded areas and tunnels(although he is confused about how to use it-see pic)

Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

Sounds like a pretty normal Hermann's hatchling What I would suggest is putting small rocks around the areas where he really likes to climb, or maybe even putting some sort of mulch all around the borders of his enclosure. That way, if he does get himself flipped over, he will be able to right himself.

My baby hermann's went through a couple of similar phases, I would always find him on his back, perfectly fine, just waiting for me to come by and pick him up... he wasn't even really trying to right himself, it was more of a "welp, this sucks, but mom will be around soon..." kind of thing, such a lazy little guy

 

[JoesMum]

Sounds very normal.

He will flip himself over, but with practice he should learn to flip himself back... or not to do anything so darn stupid in the first place. In the wild, learning to flip back is an essential life skill.

Let him have rocks to climb over and practice on. The rocks will also give him something to use while he levers himself upright. Try to keep the area around the water bowl and under the basking lamp clear of flipping opportunities as time spent upside down in these areas is most dangerous.

 

[PALOALTO]

Just wondering...how much time do I have until it may be life threatening? (if he turns on his back) I am away for most of the day...

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

Just wondering...how much time do I have until it may be life threatening? (if he turns on his back) I am away for most of the day...

It depends on where he gets flipped over. If he's under a heat lamp, you have VERY little time, probably less than an hour. In the water bowl, minutes. That's why it's a good idea to put the heat source and water dish in the middle of the enclosure since they are usually flipping over by the walls. If it's neither of those places, they can last a while and usually manage to get themselves back up assuming they have something to get a foothold on like the mulch or a rock.