I have a question for those of you who maintain the smaller species of Testudo (i.e. hermanni) outdoors where raccoons and possums live.
Do you provide some form of screened protection or do the 'coons not bother them? I have never had any issue with raccoons attacking my tortoises before but then when I was breeding hermanni years ago, there were no raccoons around where I lived. Now I have both 'coons and possums that come into my yard almost nightly but they seem to ignore my adult red-footed tortoises, unless they are nesting. In the case of nesting female red-foots, I have caught 'coons literally catching eggs with their scuzzy little hands as my females are laying them.
Again though, they've never bothered with any red-foot that I've maintained outdoors that have been as small as six inches.
I have heard from friends in the past that a raccoon will indeed take an adult hermanni even though they are not much smaller than the juvenile red-foots that I've kept outdoors for years.
Do you provide some form of screened protection or do the 'coons not bother them? I have never had any issue with raccoons attacking my tortoises before but then when I was breeding hermanni years ago, there were no raccoons around where I lived. Now I have both 'coons and possums that come into my yard almost nightly but they seem to ignore my adult red-footed tortoises, unless they are nesting. In the case of nesting female red-foots, I have caught 'coons literally catching eggs with their scuzzy little hands as my females are laying them.
Again though, they've never bothered with any red-foot that I've maintained outdoors that have been as small as six inches.
I have heard from friends in the past that a raccoon will indeed take an adult hermanni even though they are not much smaller than the juvenile red-foots that I've kept outdoors for years.