NATURAL BURROWS

[CELLMASS]

i have found a way to make my tortle burrow his own buisness. i started with a dirt mound, and his "house". for a while his house was just a small box flipped over with an entry hole cut out. but then i thought, this little handful likes making messes.

so what if i cut out another hole on the opposing side of the entrance, and placed his house against the dirt mound? so i did.

i cut it and placed against the mound, put dirt over his house to make it look like a igloo made of dirt.

a week later i checked up on it and was amazed how fast he dug, he literally dug and hit a tree root. he made a left and kept on digging. he didnt dig horizontal, the dig was downward at like a 30 degree angle.

just thought i'd share, im bored.

im curious on how your guys' tortle does his burrow or where he rests his head at night?

 

[Yvonne G]

If your tortoise lives outside, I really think a natural burrow is a great thing for a tortoise. The only down side is by the time Autumn rolls around the tortoise has had plenty of time to make that burrow quite extensive and it's hard to get him out of it for the winter! I used to have a natural burrow for my desert tortoises, and I tried to block the entrance in the fall when I could catch them all out at the same time. I really had to be on my toes to catch the right time. Another thing with a natural burrow if you have more than one tortoise...sometimes you get someone who wants to sit in the opening, successfully blocking the rest of them inside.

Your burrow idea sounds like it works out well for your tortoise. I like your inventiveness!

 

[CELLMASS]

thanks emy, you know ive only had my tort for 3 months. i never went threw an entire season with him. what should i be expecting when he needs to hibernate?

 

[franeich]

He wont hibertate if he is a sulcata. You better start reading up.

 

[DAC8671]

I don't know if I'm glad or not that Ralph has never dug to burrow. Heck, he's never dug PERIOD. If it's a very natural thing, then I'm not so pleased. But then again, if he's comfortable enough with the surroundings I've given him and he does not have to dig then I'm pleased.

Wonder how to tell if a 5 1/2 yr old tort is happy? Hmmmmmm. (kind of a sarcastic question and kind of a real question.)

 

[Yvonne G]

thanks emy, you know ive only had my tort for 3 months. i never went threw an entire season with him. what should i be expecting when he needs to hibernate?

I'm sorry, Russell: I really need to read the subject line before I make a comment. I didn't realize we were in the Sulcata forum! You'll need to get your little guy set up indoors in the fall. Need to keep him warm over the winter. I have a sulcata that lives outside, however, he has a heated, insulated shed. Thank goodness he has never decided he wants a burrow, because they can dig to CHINA!!!!

---

Wonder how to tell if a 5 1/2 yr old tort is happy? Hmmmmmm. (kind of a sarcastic question and kind of a real question.)

If he's eating well, wandering (marching) around the habitat with a purpose and generally looking/acting normal, then you can assume he's happy! And be glad he hasn't dug a burrow. That means that the hide you've provided for him is meeting his requirements.

 

[CELLMASS]

I don't know if I'm glad or not that Ralph has never dug to burrow. Heck, he's never dug PERIOD. If it's a very natural thing, then I'm not so pleased. But then again, if he's comfortable enough with the surroundings I've given him and he does not have to dig then I'm pleased.

Wonder how to tell if a 5 1/2 yr old tort is happy? Hmmmmmm. (kind of a sarcastic question and kind of a real question.)

its already way hot out here, like 100 degrees and the hottest part of summer hasnt even started. he likes his burrow. were does yours live?

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Debbie, I'm with you Bob doesn't know he can dig, he's never tried. I've dug out a wallow and I fill it with water every morning. It's big enough now that I am beginning to think Bob could drown. It's gotten deep and wide...

 

[luvsulcatas]

I don't think it has ever occurred to Fred that he can dig. We have him on top of our sewer berm so he could really get lost in there if he digs a hole!

 

[Laura]

Now that you have encouraged that, it may be really hard to get it to stop. Start planning your heated winter quarters Now.. and get the tortoise used to using that instead of the burrow.. Mine started digging before they had extra hides and I flooded it, when they werent using it then blocked it with bricks.. once they got used to thier new home, they stopped wanting to dig.
Hard to heat a burrow.. and they flood and collapse as well.
Where do you live?

 

[CELLMASS]

i live in arizona. i didnt know a burrow was such a big deal.

the lady i got my tort from said he lives outside year round with no help from her. my tort is about 2 years old. i really want him to take a natural path in everything he does. including grazing on his native grass and sleeping in his own burrow. im thinkinkg that wont make him pyradim.

 

[DAC8671]

Cellmass~ I'm in San Diego, CA

 

[Yvonne G]

i live in arizona. i didnt know a burrow was such a big deal.

the lady i got my tort from said he lives outside year round with no help from her. my tort is about 2 years old. i really want him to take a natural path in everything he does. including grazing on his native grass and sleeping in his own burrow. im thinkinkg that wont make him pyradim.

Well, what is the winter weather like? If it doesn't get down below 50 degrees then it would probably be ok for him to winter outside in his burrow. But if its cold and it rains, he might get sick. Remember: warm/wet = ok cold/wet= BAD!!

 

[motero]

Burrows here in the hot parts of arizona are great. Lots of people keep there sulcatas out side year round with out heat in the winter, just burrows. The burrow my Sulcatas have is about 6 feet long and 4 feet deep. I have measured temps and the burrow is about 15 degrees warmer on the coldest nights. We get maybe one or two frosts in an average winter. 32 plus 15 makes 47 degrees. When the torts can come out and sun and get warmed up each day I think they will be fine. My torts are just a year old so this coming winter they will be back inside under the heat lamps. Next year depending on there size they will stay out in their burrow. Water is still an issue, you need to make the entrance to the burrow on high ground and some thing like a board to give the entrance cover from the heavy rains should be fine. Maybe some other Arizona keepers will enlighten us further.

"As adults, they can safely handle body temperatures as low as 45 degrees at night as long as they are able to heat up into the 70's during the day" Quote from the Tortoise Supply web site.

 

[Tom]

"As adults, they can safely handle body temperatures as low as 45 degrees at night as long as they are able to heat up into the 70's during the day" Quote from the Tortoise Supply web site.

I have to agree with this, but that "AS LONG AS" really needs to be EMPHASIZED. Further, I don't think THEY need to get in the 70's, I think the OUTSIDE temp needs to get into the 70's AND be sunny. This will allow them to get up near 100 degrees through basking.

I have to add that this is all very risky behavior and I don't recommend it. Our captive environments are in no way "Natural" and I have personally had animals that I raised from babies, and dearly loved, DIE this way. These are tropical animals. Bring them indoors or build them a proper heated shed of some sort for winter.

 

[RV's mom]

Burrows here in the hot parts of arizona are great. Lots of people keep there sulcatas out side year round with out heat in the winter, just burrows. The burrow my Sulcatas have is about 6 feet long and 4 feet deep. I have measured temps and the burrow is about 15 degrees warmer on the coldest nights. We get maybe one or two frosts in an average winter. 32 plus 15 makes 47 degrees. When the torts can come out and sun and get warmed up each day I think they will be fine. My torts are just a year old so this coming winter they will be back inside under the heat lamps. Next year depending on there size they will stay out in their burrow. Water is still an issue, you need to make the entrance to the burrow on high ground and some thing like a board to give the entrance cover from the heavy rains should be fine. Maybe some other Arizona keepers will enlighten us further.

"As adults, they can safely handle body temperatures as low as 45 degrees at night as long as they are able to heat up into the 70's during the day" Quote from the Tortoise Supply web site.

RV has dug her own burrow to her own specifications. I live in Phoenix with a small back yard. She has the run of the entire back yard and had thankfully dug in the middle of the yard - - away from the fence and house. The entrance is perhaps a 30* angle and then curves sharply right and drops more. We have no idea how deep it is. She continues to dig and improve her home. Right now with temps soaring past 110 she sleeps at night in the yard, and later goes below. During the day she is on the patio behind a tarp and wall. I have to think it is cooler than her den. We keep the opening covered with a thin piece of curved plywood that we can move forward to protect from rain, or back to allow sunlight down to warm the entrance in the winter. Yes, she did dig facing southward, so winter sun does stream easily down to the turn in the tunnel. In the winter at night we place towels over the ends of the plywood to keep in heat - there is a light we put in a ceramic jack-o-lantern - just enough to keep the frost away. Here in the desert our earth is highly mineralized - very tough to dig, and resistant to soaking and collapse. We don't tempt fate tho - do not walk across where we think her burrow is.. the main portion of tunnel I'd be most afraid of tho rests under the plywood. no way to walk over that. Hope this helps some.

teri

---

we do plan to get a (?) pig mat - heated pad and a dog igloo for the patio come winter time, to try to keep her at more even temps. We've had her on the back porch under heat lamps in the winter but she is simply not happy. I have to think it is because the cold coming up through her plastron is colder than the heat coming from above.

teri

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Bob is about 80 pounds and I would NEVER allow him to be outside in the cold temps you are talking about. Just because they can stay in those cold temps, doesn't mean they should. That's just not good tort keeping in my mind. They shouldn't have to sleep in the cold like that...Bob can go outside in those cold temps during the day, but I wouldn't expect him to sleep in them at night.

 

[Yvonne G]

Here in the Central Valley of California, our winters get fairly cold...no snow, but freezing most nights. Average winter temps are 50/30 day/night. One of the guys in our club had three adult sulcatas in his back yard. They dug a burrow bigger than a human and a tunnel longer than you could see to the bottom. What the guy did was excavate a large area around the mouth of the burrow. Then he cut off the top of one of those big apartment-sized dumpsters that you see in alleys. They're large, round bins with a swing-up top. The truck grabs them and dumps them. You know what I mean? So, he cut it more or less in half around the middle, leaving about 2' down from the top. He placed this over the excavation and built up the dirt around the outside edge of it. Oh, and he cut a doorway into the side for the tortoises to use. Inside this area, he set up one of those DeLonghi oil-filled electric radiators. Securing it so the tortoises couldn't knock it over. He kept those tortoises like that through 4 winters that I know of and the tortoises didn't suffer at all. They would come out and graze then go back into the burrow.

Our winters are wet, but not overly so. I'm guessing that the burrow was deep enough that the earth stayed warm for them, plus the added warmth from the heater at the beginning of the burrow.

I don't know what the rainfall is in Africa or how cold their winters get, but one thing to remember is: warm/wet = ok cold/wet = BAD

 

[RV's mom]

. The truck grabs them and dumps them. You know what I mean? So, he cut it more or less in half around the middle, leaving about 2' down from the top. He placed this over the excavation and built up the dirt around the outside edge of it. Oh, and he cut a doorway into the side for the tortoises to use. Inside this area, he set up one of those DeLonghi oil-filled electric radiators. Securing it so the tortoises couldn't knock it over. He kept those tortoises like that through 4 winters that I know of and the tortoises didn't suffer at all. They would come out and graze then go back into the burrow.


any way to get a picture of this?
thanks

teri

 

[Yvonne G]

any way to get a picture of this?
thanks

teri

No...sadly, the guy got cancer and had to find new homes for all his animals. He died last year.