Indoor enclosure escapee

[rjleigh92]

Hi, my Herman tortoise is 1yr and 3 months old and he is indoor all the time at the moment as it is so cold outside in London. He is literally climbing the walls and I feel awful for him as he must feel so enclosed and I came home to find him on his back where he must have fallen backwards a trying to get out.
We are out all day so get him out at night yo wander around the house - are there any suggestions?
We are moving soon so I will get him a bigger enclosure then, he is currently in the starter tortoise table we got him in. How big an enclosure should he have? We have had him for 4 months now.
Thanks so much.

 

[leigti]

First, to make it safer for him if he does flip make sure the substrate is firm and not totally flat. If there are little hills and bulbs etc. he can use them to help flipped himself back over. It is dangerous for them to be on their back to long. And make the enclosure as interesting as you can, lots of hides in sight barriers and varied terrain. Some people think that if you continually let them out of their enclosure then they will be more apt to try to escape because they know there is a whole big world out there. A size recommendation is usually around 4 x 8' for an indoor enclosure. If you don't have that much floor space you could always make double Dekker enclosure with the ramp connecting the levels. Check out the enclosures section for some examples. Once he gets into a bigger enclosure he should quit climbing the walls.

 

[Jodie]

Bigger is always better. Double check your temps and make sure he is not frantic to escape the heat.

 

[ascott]

Hi, my Herman tortoise is 1yr and 3 months old and he is indoor all the time at the moment as it is so cold outside in London. He is literally climbing the walls and I feel awful for him as he must feel so enclosed and I came home to find him on his back where he must have fallen backwards a trying to get out.
We are out all day so get him out at night yo wander around the house - are there any suggestions?
We are moving soon so I will get him a bigger enclosure then, he is currently in the starter tortoise table we got him in. How big an enclosure should he have? We have had him for 4 months now.
Thanks so much.

One of the drawbacks of taking the tortoise out of the enclosure and allowing free run of your larger home is that the tort has now tasted freedom..

 

[Raymo2477]

It's not safe to let the tort roam your home, I've seen posts of torts eating needles and other things while roaming.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

It's not safe to let the tort roam your home, I've seen posts of torts eating needles and other things while roaming.

+1
Not safe.
Not a good idea.

 

[Smartie123]

Hi
I had a similar situation with my Donny with him being alone in doors during the day. To keep him occupied I made different levels in his enclosure by building up the substrate to make hills with ramps and things to climb up and over. When he started to out grow this first table I moved him to a dog bed. It might sound odd but it gave me the space I needed and allows me to make different levels. The best thing is the lower section of the bed allows Donny to look out from the upper levels and see what's going on in the room which seems to keep him occupied and made it easier for me to access him. When he got big enough to climb up and look out of the edge from the lower levels I did get a bit worried. One day I found him on the floor after he had jumped so decided to make him a ramp so he didn't have to jump. I know some people disagree with letting torts run around the house but I keep a close eye on him and when we're not there he has a fenced off area around the bottom of the ramp and enclosure. At first he would come down and explore but now the novelty has worn off he rarely comes down. When I do get him out myself he will wander round until he is done then take himself off back up the ramp into his bed. I've attached some pictures of his house in various stages.