Please help. Hypo redfoot disappeared!

[tctpa523]

This past thursday the weather got cold again. When I was bringing my groups inside I realized that one of my hypo yearlings was gone. I tore apart my enclosure, to no avail. I house my juveniles in 1/4 inch plastic coated wire mesh cages to protect them from predators until they are large enough to live unprotected with my sub adult and adult groups. They stay there for usually 3 years or until they are too big for a raccoon to carry off. At no point was the enclosure left unlatched, so I am doubtful that it was taken by any predator of the 4 legged variety. I have been checking my video surveillance, but so far I haven't seen any activity around that enclosure. I still have more than a weeks worth of footage to go through but I wanted to get the word out to everyone on this forum and ask you all to please keep your eyes open for any single hypo yearlings being sold on here or fauna. Ive looked also, and thus far all the hypos Ive seen for sale are not the one I'm missing. Mine was from Jeff LaBorde, JJ the first (I have JJ the 2nd also.) Of course the one that disappeared was the first I ever bought and my favorite. I will be filing a police report as soon as I finish viewing the security footage. Thank you all for your time. Photos to follow

 

[tctpa523]

The one that disappeared is the one on the left.

 

[tctpa523]

Again, the one on the left. Any help is appreciated!!

 

[Pearly]

I am so sorry this happened! I'm going through this same thing only on small/low tech/low budget scale. We only had 2 RF babies for pets with no plans for breeding. One of them, littlecherryhead went missing couple of weeks ago, and is still missing. I think filling police report is the only thing I haven't done in attempts to find him. Police report in fact didn't even cross my mind, but then mine is not nearly as expensive as yours. I only paid for him around 100 bucks when we got him as tiny hatchling. He would have been a yearling around April, so the monetary "value" is not even comparible with yours. Perhaps I should consider doing it though just to add one more avenue to the search. I'm being told those babies can hide very well and survive for wuite a while. I still keep the heat lamp at night out where I last saw him and put out fresh food and water for him whic some-"body" has bern eating! But for life in me, i can find him. Hypo has been a dream of mine ever since i saw the pictures of hypo babies. I sure do hope you gind yours. Do you think he might have dug himself in somewhere? You know how those babies like to hide. I've been down on all 4's looking close to the ground. Things sure do look different from down there. Don't give up! Your little hypo may have been sitting in one spot just happy that he was successful in hiding so well. Wishing you best of luck in your search.

 

[tctpa523]

And one more.

 

[naturalman91]

where are you located? we may have other members close by that can help you keep a eye out IF they were stolen and someone is trying to sell.

pictures of the enclosure that it was in may help to because people could give theyre advice on where looks like a nice hiding spot

 

[Pearly]

And one more.

Your torts are gorgeous!!! Anf this hypo baby is a dream! Love hypos!

 

[tctpa523]

I am so sorry this happened! I'm going through this same thing only on small/low tech/low budget scale. We only had 2 RF babies for pets with no plans for breeding. One of them, littlecherryhead went missing couple of weeks ago, and is still missing. I think filling police report is the only thing I haven't done in attempts to find him. Police report in fact didn't even cross my mind, but then mine is not nearly as expensive as yours. I only paid for him around 100 bucks when we got him as tiny hatchling. He would have been a yearling around April, so the monetary "value" is not even comparible with yours. Perhaps I should consider doing it though just to add one more avenue to the search. I'm being told those babies can hide very well and survive for wuite a while. I still keep the heat lamp at night out where I last saw him and put out fresh food and water for him whic some-"body" has bern eating! But for life in me, i can find him. Hypo has been a dream of mine ever since i saw the pictures of hypo babies. I sure do hope you gind yours. Do you think he might have dug himself in somewhere? You know how those babies like to hide. I've been down on all 4's looking close to the ground. Things sure do look different from down there. Don't give up! Your little hypo may have been sitting in one spot just happy that he was successful in hiding so well. Wishing you best of luck in your search.

I really wish that were the case. Once I noticed it was missing, I pulled the enclosure out of the ground, checked every particle of dirt, removed everything else, and basically tore it apart. I even filtered the soil to look for scutes, if by some freak occurrence the animal had died and decomposed, there would have been some evidence of this. The group had only been back outdoors for a little over 2 weeks. Then I started reviewing the security footage. I'm about halfway finished with that, but I have pretty much ruled out predation, or accidental death or escape. There was no way for the tortoise to climb out, and even if a snake had fit through the mesh and eaten a tortoise, it would have been trapped by the bulge while it digested. Raccoons could possibly have opened the enclosure, but It would have been impossible for them to close and latch it again. I almost wish it had been that, because at least I'd know for sure what happened. As it is, I'm afraid to put any of my young groups back out until I figure out how this happened. I really think someone hopped my fence and snatched it, but I'm confused as to why only one disappeared. I would think that if one were to risk grand theft charges, they would have taken all 4 hypos, the hets, and the cherryheads in that enclosure. It looks like something kids would do, in that only the one animal disappeared. Has anyone ever researched having your animals chipped? Probably wouldn't be worth it for most of my herds, but at $2k a pop, I would do it for my hypos. The worst part is, that this particular little guy/gal was my favorite in that group. The other hypos in my group were part of a group I bought later in the year, but JJ the first was the first hypo I could ever afford, and was the crown jewel in my collection!!! I'd even give some sort of reward for the safe return of the animal, no questions asked. On the flipside, I will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law if I can find out who took it, and it is not returned. At the end of the day I just want my animal back.

 

[Pearly]

I really wish that were the case. Once I noticed it was missing, I pulled the enclosure out of the ground, checked every particle of dirt, removed everything else, and basically tore it apart. I even filtered the soil to look for scutes, if by some freak occurrence the animal had died and decomposed, there would have been some evidence of this. The group had only been back outdoors for a little over 2 weeks. Then I started reviewing the security footage. I'm about halfway finished with that, but I have pretty much ruled out predation, or accidental death or escape. There was no way for the tortoise to climb out, and even if a snake had fit through the mesh and eaten a tortoise, it would have been trapped by the bulge while it digested. Raccoons could possibly have opened the enclosure, but It would have been impossible for them to close and latch it again. I almost wish it had been that, because at least I'd know for sure what happened. As it is, I'm afraid to put any of my young groups back out until I figure out how this happened. I really think someone hopped my fence and snatched it, but I'm confused as to why only one disappeared. I would think that if one were to risk grand theft charges, they would have taken all 4 hypos, the hets, and the cherryheads in that enclosure. It looks like something kids would do, in that only the one animal disappeared. Has anyone ever researched having your animals chipped? Probably wouldn't be worth it for most of my herds, but at $2k a pop, I would do it for my hypos. The worst part is, that this particular little guy/gal was my favorite in that group. The other hypos in my group were part of a group I bought later in the year, but JJ the first was the first hypo I could ever afford, and was the crown jewel in my collection!!! I'd even give some sort of reward for the safe return of the animal, no questions asked. On the flipside, I will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law if I can find out who took it, and it is not returned. At the end of the day I just want my animal back.

I think I saw a thread on chipping somewhere on this forum. It may have been on dogs/cats though... Not sure. My missing baby was a gorgeous marbling cherryhead and I don't think he was "tortnapped". I live in conservative Texas subdivision where majority of residents don't differenciate between tortoise and turtle... Plus cherryhead would score as much $$ in "re-sale" as your hypo. Still if Tucker (my missing tort) was yours would you file police report? I sure hope your JJ turns up soon.

 

[Anyfoot]

I really wish that were the case. Once I noticed it was missing, I pulled the enclosure out of the ground, checked every particle of dirt, removed everything else, and basically tore it apart. I even filtered the soil to look for scutes, if by some freak occurrence the animal had died and decomposed, there would have been some evidence of this. The group had only been back outdoors for a little over 2 weeks. Then I started reviewing the security footage. I'm about halfway finished with that, but I have pretty much ruled out predation, or accidental death or escape. There was no way for the tortoise to climb out, and even if a snake had fit through the mesh and eaten a tortoise, it would have been trapped by the bulge while it digested. Raccoons could possibly have opened the enclosure, but It would have been impossible for them to close and latch it again. I almost wish it had been that, because at least I'd know for sure what happened. As it is, I'm afraid to put any of my young groups back out until I figure out how this happened. I really think someone hopped my fence and snatched it, but I'm confused as to why only one disappeared. I would think that if one were to risk grand theft charges, they would have taken all 4 hypos, the hets, and the cherryheads in that enclosure. It looks like something kids would do, in that only the one animal disappeared. Has anyone ever researched having your animals chipped? Probably wouldn't be worth it for most of my herds, but at $2k a pop, I would do it for my hypos. The worst part is, that this particular little guy/gal was my favorite in that group. The other hypos in my group were part of a group I bought later in the year, but JJ the first was the first hypo I could ever afford, and was the crown jewel in my collection!!! I'd even give some sort of reward for the safe return of the animal, no questions asked. On the flipside, I will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law if I can find out who took it, and it is not returned. At the end of the day I just want my animal back.

Sad to hear this.
As far as chipping goes, the torts have to be a certain size before they can be chipped, and then they can be scanned to prove the tort belongs to you. The tort still has to be found first.
Something that stuck in my mind that Yvonne once said. "Get a photo of every one of your torts with a family member in the photo". This will prove its yours if evidence is ever needed.
Hope you find your tort.
Do you live near pearly?

 

[tctpa523]

I'm in south florida. As far as the photos go, I can definitely prove with the metadata, that these are my animals, and when and where the photos were taken. I can also tell anyone when and where and from whom they were purchased, These were well photographed animals, I just kept the photos mainly to myself as to avoid setting myself up for a scenario like this. I post on here occasionally, but usually only photos on my normals or my cherryheads. I have put the word out locally, so hopefully someone hears something. One last photo...

where are you located? we may have other members close by that can help you keep a eye out IF they were stolen and someone is trying to sell.

pictures of the enclosure that it was in may help to because people could give they're advice on where looks like a nice hiding spot

I will tell everyone that is absolutely not in the enclosure. I took the enclosure apart piece by piece, and even sifted the substrate to check for pieces of shell. It is definitely gone. There was no way it could have gotten out on its own. Thank you for the input though.

 

[N2TORTS]

Hate to hear this .....keep looking . Try putting a heat source out at night , to see if the tort will re-treat to it . How are your neighbors? .....( I hate to ask ) look for local ads. Unless they plan on keeping it, trying to re-sell would be tuff ...... there are not too many in the country as opposed to other identifiable species. Does your security have night vision?......
" Good thoughts your way" ......

JD~

 

[wellington]

Wow, hate seeing these kinds of threads. Wishing good luck your way to find it

 

[allegraf]

Hopefully your video will reveal what happened and if a person was in fact to blame. I'm really sorry, this is every keeper's fear.

 

[Pearly]

I think I saw a thread on chipping somewhere on this forum. It may have been on dogs/cats though... Not sure. My missing baby was a gorgeous marbling cherryhead and I don't think he was "tortnapped". I live in conservative Texas subdivision where majority of residents don't differenciate between tortoise and turtle... Plus cherryhead would score as much $$ in "re-sale" as your hypo. Still if Tucker (my missing tort) was yours would you file police report? I sure hope your JJ turns up soon.

Damn spell checker! I meant: cherryhead WOULDN't score as much $$ as hypo in the black market

 

[Pearly]

Well, I want to tell you: DON't LOSE HOPE! When you have little time to read, check out my Lost baby cherryhead thread. My baby was found yesterday!!!!!! He was gone for 4 weeks! That thread has record of all the ideas for search efforts. I'll tell you for sure, I would have not sung this happy tune today if it hadn't been for the folks on this forum. I never stopped looking, put 100w CHE at nigt and 100w basking bulb at daytime over the "nest" I had made at the place I last saw him nice thick pile if cut vegetation). I was putting out his favorite food and fresh water every day... I was willing to have daily fight with my husband over racking up our power bill "wastefully"... But I came back here every night and always got some encouragement or new idea from someone who has been there before me. You know my Naughty Boy didn't look like having had immensely suffered during his 4 weeks of bumming out there. I really think he survided few near freezing nights thanks to the heat source out there. He is only 3inches long! Frankly I was preparing to finnd his dead body somewhere in my garden. Anyway, don't lose hope. I used to live close to Ft Lauderdale and gardened there (tried to rather!). If your soil is this same porous soft sandy/ashy type of soil, it would have been easy to bury a little. My babies never burry themselves deep, just enough to have their back fully or almost covered. Maybe your hypo is sitting hiding in that sandy soil. Keep us posted, keep hoping and keep looking. Don't give up!

 

[Pearly]

Any news on your lost baby?

 

[Tom]

I'm in south florida. As far as the photos go, I can definitely prove with the metadata, that these are my animals, and when and where the photos were taken. I can also tell anyone when and where and from whom they were purchased, These were well photographed animals, I just kept the photos mainly to myself as to avoid setting myself up for a scenario like this. I post on here occasionally, but usually only photos on my normals or my cherryheads. I have put the word out locally, so hopefully someone hears something. One last photo...

I will tell everyone that is absolutely not in the enclosure. I took the enclosure apart piece by piece, and even sifted the substrate to check for pieces of shell. It is definitely gone. There was no way it could have gotten out on its own. Thank you for the input though.

Did you finish reviewing the footage? Any updates for us?

Can we see a pic of the enclosure?

 

[allegraf]

Pins and needles! We want justice! What's on the tape?

 

[tctpa523]

I've been through more than 8 days worth of footage. As of yet, nothing. I too would like to at least know what happened conclusively. I still have about a week of footage to watch. It takes 80 minutes to view a 24 hour period. It's probably going to be the weekend before I can finish out this little project. I got through 2 days on monday and had to stop when I started to doze off. I will keep everyone updated. So far all I've found out is that the neighborhood opposums use my fence as a superhighway, and that my cat is SUPER lazy... As in, about to lose his health insurance lazy, but I digress... Thank you all for your interest. I will let you know when I find anything out.