Terrible 1s

[cemeterytoad]

Increasing your enclosure size will probably help, also leaving a path clear to walk along the wall (Fig flipped himself trying to move furniture so he could complete his traditional walk along the perimeter to his liking). If you have a square or rectangular enclosure and he seems to flip more in corners, adding blocks in the corners to make a more octagonal shape can help, basically making his curve along the corner smoother instead if one sharp turn he can get stuck at. Make sure your substrate is the right material, depth, and moisture content for a baby of your species- Fig also flipped himself trying to kick some annoying substrate out of his shell/armpits. Keeping the substrate suitably damp helped with that. Also try not to tease them with anything they might think is food but can't reach- a lot of flips seem to happen in desperate attempts to reach for some tantalizingly-colorful snack-lookalike (plants they can't reach, colorful decor or furniture, i.e. Fig will go mad for anything red since his favorite fruits and flowers are red, and I had to look from his point of view and move a poster because he was obsessed with trying to get to the red). The baby flipping stage is nervewracking but Fig grew out of it with some help from me.

 

[cemeterytoad]

I also made my own hides for Fig, they are rectangular plastic tubs from the dollar store turned upside down, with a doorway cut into two opposite sides so it forms a tunnel of sorts. I like this option because the tubs are cheap, easy to make/clean/replace, and they have square or nearly square sides so it's too steep and smooth to get any footholds. He can also move them around very easily since they're so light, he used to have half-log tunnels for hides but he would climb and flip himself on those, plus he got wedged sideways inside one once before I realized how much he had grown. Fig does so much better with DIY plastic hides than with the ones sold for reptiles.

 

[TaylorTortoise]

I was having problems with my Greek when I moved him to a new enclosure and hadn’t wet down the base layer of his substrate. I wet it and pack it down and it gives him great footing. He was flipping 6-8 times a day but now he’s flipped once in three weeks.

You think the packing down helped decrease the flipping? Found my guy flipped over again this morning. Watched from the cam, had my spouse flip him back over. I dont know if its the rearrangements that need to be done, or what. He has an outdoor enclosure that is pretty big. I find him pacing back and forth in the outdoor enclosure and less of that in his real enclosure indoors.

 

[TaylorTortoise]

I was having problems with my Greek when I moved him to a new enclosure and hadn’t wet down the base layer of his substrate. I wet it and pack it down and it gives him great footing. He was flipping 6-8 times a day but now he’s flipped once in three weeks.

You think the packing down helped decrease the flipping? Found my guy flipped over again this morning. Watched from the cam, had my spouse flip him back over. I dont know if its the rearrangements that need to be done, or what. He has an outdoor enclosure that is pretty big. I find him pacing back and forth in the outdoor enclosure and less of that in his real enclosure indoors.

 

[Cathie G]

Ok and well... Sapphire and I have a game we play every day he's in his outdoor enclosure. He hides and I seek because he needs to come in for the night.😉 so much for the 1s🙃😁 I have 15 years of the 1s. This pic is named Where is Sapphire 😁