remove furniture?

[james]

in a different thread someone mentioned that lack of calcium can cause your tort to not flip back over too easily. when i went to the vet he was able to squeeze Captains shell and said it was a little soft dut o lack of calcium. Captain is always climbing something. a couple days ago he was trying to do pull ups on his cave and kept flipping over. he was able to right himself after a few minutes, but looked like he was struggling. he did this about 5 times in a 30 minute span. i turned him over the last few times becuase i didn't want him to stress out. should i remove his furniture that he climbs until his calcium level is back up?

 

[Josh]

james, this is ultimately your call. what you really want to avoid is giving him the ability to flip himself over and expose his underside to the heat lamp. your little guy should be able to right himself but if it makes you uncomfortable, don't give him the opportunity. im not sure about what effect calcium will have...maybe someone else can chime in on that.

 

[james]

ya, i've been debating this in my head for a couple days now and figured maybe someone could persuade me one way or the other. it's never been a problem in the past, i just got worried when i read about the calcium thing. lets say he spends 10 minutes a day on his back, not all at once, but accumulative (this is just a guess, i have no clue if he does this more or less, or everyday) would that be enough to cause any problems?

 

[Josh]

it shouldn't be a problem as long as his underside isn't exposed to extreme temperatures. if i were you i would just make darn sure he can't flip over underneath his heat lamp and leave the rest up to him. if you start to come home finding him upside-down and it happens more and more, then you might want to think about removing stuff he can climb on.

 

[Crazy1]

James, I am the one who made the statement about the hatchlings not being able to right themselves due to soft shells. My foster yearlings were pretty flat shelled and soft when I got them. and when I found they were flipping alot and having trouble writing themselves I did build up the dirt around the hide so they would not flip and put smaller stones (big enough they could not swallow them in their water. In the event they flipped in the water bowl. Once their shells started to get hard they had no problem with righting themselves. But as Josh as said it is your call. I might concider placing a square hide one he can not climb on in there for the moment. I know in the wild flipping is part of living for them. But I would be devistated to come home from work and find one of my hatchlings had expired due to this. So again my motto "Better safe than sorry".

 

[james]

i've made my decision. lol. i am going to put in a square hide like crazy1 mentioned. i will have all the climbing he could dream of outside. i usually spend most of his outside time watching him. so he can climb all he wants outside, and i can have the peace of mind when i'm at work. thanks for your input josh and i think it's robyn??? sorry if i'm wrong crazy1! thanks again.

 

[Crazy1]

James, Robyn is correct and your welcome. I am at a job were I have to be focused on what is happening now. So I too chose peace of mind while at work.