Just joined! Tortoise keeps flipping into his back, what else can I do?

JoesMum

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
21,610
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, South East England
Thank you so much for your response. We will no longer move it around and won't put her outside of the run. Unfortunately we can't give her free roam of the whole garden as we have gaps in the fences for hedgehogs to roam and lots of places where she can get stuck or lost. :(

I am looking to get some of the slate you mentioned in your linked post.
Our earth is highly clay based.. is this okay, or would you recommend something else?
Our soil is also clay. It breaks up where it's dry under the shelter. Your tort won't care.

Also, what would you recommend to break up the sight lines of the enclosure ? Other than a bush until we can get that going !
Plants are easiest :) Big rocks and log roll lawn edging are other options.

You rapidly learn that you have only 3 types of plant in a garden: edible, trampled and big enough not to get eaten to the ground or trampled. Looking them up on The Tortoise Table Plant Database for suitability to feed is a good way of deciding what to use.
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/

If you need to encourage tortoise-friendly weeds in the enclosure then you can get seed from the Shelled Warriors Shop
http://www.shelledwarriorsshop.co.uk/

Sorry for lots of questions!

How old is your Joe?
No idea. When my husband got him as a pet in 1970 Joe wasn't full grown and would have been wild caught. CITES wasn't around in those days.

Sadly, devastatingly, we had to have Joe put to sleep a couple of months ago as he had a tumour. After 47 years with the family, over 30 of them with me, it's hard to come to terms with. :(
Oh ! And what other food would you suggest ? She's quite fussy !
They're all picky. They know what they like and they like what they know. At that size, this tort really needs to be grazing as much as possible. Keep the lawn cut, but let the weeds like clover, plantain and dandelion grow. Buttercups aren't recommended due to toxins, but I am not the only owner of a Greek that knows their tort ate them... I never picked them for him, but he did like to bite off the flowers if he found one.

A hungry tortoise will eat and, at the size of yours, can go several weeks without food as long as they're soaked and/or seen drinking from a water dish. I had several terracotta saucers scattered around for Joe to drink from.

I found that when the plants were growing well Joe may eat very little of what I offered. He was too busy eating clover, etc. In hot weather the eating might be before I got up though.

Weighing an outdoor tort every couple of weeks to keep an eye on weight is a better indicator of whether or not its eating than actually seeing it eat!

Looking up plants that you grow or that you can buy in a supermarket on The Tortoise Table Plant Database (linked earlier) is the best way of deciding what to feed. Just be strong; they can behave like a toddler determined to eat only chips and chocolate. Don't give in :D

Think that's the last question I have for now ! Haha :rolleyes:
No problem :)
 

stevenf625

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2016
Messages
118
I think your enclosure looks great.
Maybe the height of your the enclosure is the problem. Your tort looks big enough that she could claw at the chicken wire roof once she gets vertical against one of the side walls. It thats the case its easy to imagine how she might fall over backwards.
 

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