BernieL
Member
Our Russian Pete has handled the Coachella heat remarkably well, in part because he has a selection of shaded areas, and because we set a little sprinkler near his favorite 'burrow' to give him hourly 1 minute cooldowns. He's seemed to like that, ate well, but did a lot (e.g., 14+ hours) of sleeping during the past eight weeks of extraordinary heat. Every so often he'd come out, move slowly around small sections of our 1/4 acre yard, then return--either on his own or by climbing into a box which I offer him, and, if he accepts, and walks in, use to move him. I'll let him down near his burrow, and he'll either climb out and have a bite, or more likely, go back to the burrow and go to sleep.
A few days ago our temperature dropped from the normal 110-112 to around 100 degrees, and the humidity went up from about 30% or 40% to 70-80%. When that happened his appetite went down quite a bit, and he moved to the far side of our property, where he hid under a bush for most of two days. The next day we got a regular storm, which here meant maybe 3/4"-1" of rain (about a third or fourth of our annual total) and some moderate winds. We made a couple of dry shelters for him, but though he went in for the day he was very lethargic, didn't want to eat, and eventually crawled under a blanket, where he stayed for about 10 hours.
Today it's been sunny, with cooler weather (about 85-90). He got out from under the blanket, and though he still wasn't hungry, he began galloping (well, not galloping, but you know) around our entire property, moving as fast as he ever does, mostly at the perimeter wall, looking up the whole time, and occasionally reaching up with one or both of his fronts to try to pull himself up (the stucco wall is five feet, so getting out was not possible). I checked on him every half hour or so after, but he showed no interest in food or moving back to the area of his burrow, or anything else except constantly moving along, checking the wall. But then one time I went out I found him on his back next to a section of wall. I think it's pretty clear he'd pulled himself up to face the side of the wall, standing on his back feet, then accidentally tipped over onto his back. I righted him, offered to move him back to the burrow, but he took off again, moving fast to the wall, looking up almost frantically, occasionally trying to pull himself up with one or both fronts. Fortunately he never came close to tipping himself over again, but I checked on him every 15 minutes after that, and he eventually made his way back to the burrow, where I assume he collapsed from exhaustion (I would have, had I gone through what he did). I offered him food or transport 2-3 times but he wanted nothing to do with either.
I've seen several threads that talk about moods, but am wondering whether this unusual weather frightened him, that he associated it with the place he lives (but not what's on the other side of the fence), and that his brain figured if he could only get out of it he wouldn't have to deal with it again. If that's what's going on I suppose that's pretty smart (if futile), but who knows?
I wonder if any of you have thoughts. As always, your kind inputs are appreciated.
A few days ago our temperature dropped from the normal 110-112 to around 100 degrees, and the humidity went up from about 30% or 40% to 70-80%. When that happened his appetite went down quite a bit, and he moved to the far side of our property, where he hid under a bush for most of two days. The next day we got a regular storm, which here meant maybe 3/4"-1" of rain (about a third or fourth of our annual total) and some moderate winds. We made a couple of dry shelters for him, but though he went in for the day he was very lethargic, didn't want to eat, and eventually crawled under a blanket, where he stayed for about 10 hours.
Today it's been sunny, with cooler weather (about 85-90). He got out from under the blanket, and though he still wasn't hungry, he began galloping (well, not galloping, but you know) around our entire property, moving as fast as he ever does, mostly at the perimeter wall, looking up the whole time, and occasionally reaching up with one or both of his fronts to try to pull himself up (the stucco wall is five feet, so getting out was not possible). I checked on him every half hour or so after, but he showed no interest in food or moving back to the area of his burrow, or anything else except constantly moving along, checking the wall. But then one time I went out I found him on his back next to a section of wall. I think it's pretty clear he'd pulled himself up to face the side of the wall, standing on his back feet, then accidentally tipped over onto his back. I righted him, offered to move him back to the burrow, but he took off again, moving fast to the wall, looking up almost frantically, occasionally trying to pull himself up with one or both fronts. Fortunately he never came close to tipping himself over again, but I checked on him every 15 minutes after that, and he eventually made his way back to the burrow, where I assume he collapsed from exhaustion (I would have, had I gone through what he did). I offered him food or transport 2-3 times but he wanted nothing to do with either.
I've seen several threads that talk about moods, but am wondering whether this unusual weather frightened him, that he associated it with the place he lives (but not what's on the other side of the fence), and that his brain figured if he could only get out of it he wouldn't have to deal with it again. If that's what's going on I suppose that's pretty smart (if futile), but who knows?
I wonder if any of you have thoughts. As always, your kind inputs are appreciated.
