- Joined
- Jul 16, 2014
- Messages
- 29,057
- Location (City and/or State)
- South Eastern Florida (U.S.A.)/Rock Hill S.C.
I have a month old R/Footed tortoise that I've been housing in doors. Gradually, I started letting him spend more and more time outside in my screened patio area that has a tortoise run in it. I sectioned off an area and made it baby "safe" for him. I left him out for 2-4 hours per day for some sun and exercise. Saturday, I checked on him. It was raining and he was inside of a flower pot. My wife and I went to dinner and when we came home maybe 1.5 hours later, baby Hercules was missing! I could see exactly how he got out. Through a tiny slit just big enough to go through. I hadn't previously seen it and unlucky for him, it was an exit into the back yard and not just into the main pen. We got busy. Daylight was going away and we search on hands and knees through the whole yard and even through neighbors yards in case he had made it all the way to the fence line. In my mind, I couldn't see him navigating that grass areas. He's too small. But there is a brick pathway that circles the whole back yard and exits in the front yard on one side and my large tortoise pen on the other. I stayed on the path and searched until the sun went down and then for an hour more with a flash light. By this time, I figured that a passing bird or something must have seen him stumbling down the path and took him. I was very unhappy. At about 11:00 at night, my dog let me know that he had to go outside. I took a flashlight and to my amazement and relief, I found Hercules on the garden path sitting there getting warm, I suppose. He was only about half a foot away from the escape spot! I am convinced he was headed back to his flower pot and maybe Romaine that he thought was still there. This weekend I'm dismantling and redesigning the patio pen just for him.
