Sulcata borrow

[Brookn178]

around June i rescued a sulcata tortoise from a family member who hadn’t been caring for him properly, he’s around 4/5 years old and i think his growth was slowed down from lack of water and food (I inserted a picture of his size compared to my hand as a 5’2 woman lol) anyways!! He hasn’t borrowed since I got him in the enclosure in my backyard, (it’s around 25 feet long and 12 feet wide) but recently started borrowing in the area of the enclosure with no grass and has dug really steep and underneath the barrier (the wood you see in the pictures) should i be worried about him getting stuck and unable to get out or him digging so far i cant see where he is at? Should I fill it in and encourage borrowing elsewhere? I have many questions about borrowing and that’s about the only thing I lack information/knowledge on. I inserted pictures but they were screenshots from a video after I realized I couldn’t post a video so please excuse the quality. Also! It’s about a half a foot to a foot deep across.

 

[Tom]

I see a couple of problems. First, they should never be living on sand. I realize that is what you have there in FL, but dirt would be better. Sand impaction is likely in that environment. Do your best to keep the tortoise's food free of sand as much as possible. Truck in some clean fill dirt to replace that sand in the tortoise enclosure.

In your climate, the frequent heavy rain is likely to fill that burrow and make it collapse.

Burrowing is good for hot weather, but not so good for winter weather. I would fill that burrow in and block that area with a sheet of plywood for a while, and make the tortoise sleep in its heated night house. You have an insulated heated night house, right?

Encourage the tortoise to dig a burrow and live underground next spring. I repeat this cycle annually. I let them start using the burrow in June, and close it off and make them sleep in their night boxes in October. You can build a cover, or possible use an anchored umbrella to keep the rain out. Given the winds that come with your tropical storms and hurricanes, building something heavy and sturdy is more likely to hold up in your area.