sully not liking her night time enclosure

[rayneygirl]

i have my 6 in tortoise in her overnight enclosure in the garage, plastic storage tub, quite large, not the standard one you always see, larger than 64 qts. substrate is soil, has a hide. and a che above to one side. ive checked on her several times every time she is not asleep. why???? shes not pacing or scratching at the sides, shes half way in the hide just not asleep. am i worrying too much? its total darkness. usually she'd be knocked out by now. i don't want her stressing all night, but its not warm enough in her outdoor set up. i turn on the light to go in the garage, maybe thats what is waking her up. am i being paranoid?

 

[wellington]

Yes you probably are, but that's okay, we all understand and have probably been that way ourselves a few times
Just be sure that the temps are warm enough for her and leave her be. I would add a water dish if you haven't, just incase. But if everything is where it is suppose to be she will be fine. She probably hears (feels vibrations)before you even flip on the light.

 

[ascott]

I am not an angler by any means...but do love to sit around the lake and BS while others are

This one time when I was young and in Indiana, we stayed at this house and on the property there was a private lake....way overfull of fish because it had not been fished for years....so if you tossed your line in a fish came up every time...so someone said, hey Angela--even you can catch a fish here (smarty pants)...well, I won't use live bait (cant hurt em, silly I know) so put some cheese on there...I do not ever catch a fish so thought I would toss it in for fun and go back to chatting, well, yup caught a fish, dang it---so luckily the fish only caught its lip on the hook so was able to pull it off and place it in the bucket to make sure it was ok to let go again---I don't eat fish so I was not going to kill it, period, Well, every time I leaned my big head over the bucket that fish would plop on its side and float---like it was dead--then as I would lean back it would swim around again--we did this for about 10 minutes (until the simple human was no longer amused) and then I turned him loose...

Likely every time you "sneak" up on him he already knows you are there and his eyes are open.....perhaps try sneaking in real slow and quiet like (see, simple human becoming amused again) with your cell phone---don't trip or run into anything---and when you get to his enclosure, slowly turn your cell phone light on and peek....maybe you will get a gander at him sleeping...lol

 

[Yvonne G]

I have noticed that sometimes my tortoises' eyes are open at night time when I assumed they were sleeping. I think a tortoise doesn't actually have to close his eyes to sleep, or rest. I've hardly ever seen tortoises with their eyes closed unless they were sick.

On a side note...yesterday, in the middle of the afternoon, I was walking around the desert tortoise pen looking for that errant baby desert tortoise and there were 4 adult tortoises at various locations around the pen in the sun and all of them had their eyes closed! Soaking up the sun and actually sleeping!! Necks stretched out, heads laying on the ground.

 

[ascott]

I think only the prison torts sleep with their eyes open...lol P) all of the torts here sleep with their eyes closed....Yvonne you crack me up some days....

 

[rayneygirl]

you were all right haha, i snuck in with a flashlight and there she was cuddled up and sleeping

 

[SANDRA_MEISSNEST]

mine always have their eyes close when they sleeping at night also during the day when the basking in the Sun and they take a nap they always close their eyes

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here him napping Middle the yard.
also how long you have this new enclosure? I would leave a night light on so that she gets used to it . and she wont feel scared
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[sibi]

I think he's asleep everytime until you come in. Then, like my torts, he'll open his eyes because in his world, you could be the dreaded boogeyman

When I was a teenager, one night my mother walked into my room which awoken me. I waited to see what she was gonna do in the dark. She leaned over me, touched cheeks and gently kissed me. Horrified, i just stared at her in the dark to see what else she was gonna do. She did the same thing to each of my 3 sisters, and then she slipped back into bed. i couldn't sleep the whole night thinking how weird that was. So, the next time you feel like sneaking up on your baby, you may want to remember my story.

 

[Laura]

heat a place for her outside..

is it dark in her night time area?

 

[rayneygirl]

yes its dark in her night time enclosure, its in the garage that retains heat from the day, with a che on as well.