I'm adopting a new girl!!

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james

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chelonologist said:
emysemys said:
I know that Chronologist is an expert working with desert tortoises in the field, but I really don't think its a good idea to allow a captive desert tortoise dig a burrow and hibernate in it. There isn't as much rain in the desert as there is around the rest of California. Remember the cardinal rule: Warm/wet = ok......Cold/wet = deadly to tortoises!!! Even if the burrow doesn't flood, osmosis pulls water into the soil of the burrow and it becomes wet. My desert tortoises have a burrow, but in late September I block off the entrance to it so they can't go into it anymore. They also have a cinder block house and that's what they have to use until its cold enough to box them up and put them someplace where it will stay dry all winter.

Yvonne

Very good point, Yvonne - I like the idea of blocking the burrow before the onset of winter. I'm thinking about how wet soil can get here during the winter, and I can recall digging holes to a depth of four feet or more and the soil is moist all the way down! Definitely not good for a tortoise to be in a burrow that moist during the cool of winter. But desert tortoises love to dig burrows, and I would encourage everyone to give their pet tortoises the opportunity to excavate and inhabit their own burrow during the warmer months.

this is a great example of all ego's aside.
 
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