Tort trying to climb walls of enclosure?

[rsmit02]

Hi all,

My 5 inch male RT has been home a few month now and was very settled + happy in his zoo med tortoise enclosure. However we kept him in the bedroom and he dug and scrapped the wooden sides a lot kept us awake so 2 days ago I cleaned him out, actually switched his bedding from soil/sand to repti bark + moved him to our downstairs playroom. For about 24 hrs after I moved him he just did laps of his enclosure trying to climb up the walls almost frantically, now he is hidden in the back dug into a corner not having eaten any breakfast (he is usually a pig) The room he is now in is the same temp the same noise and light level. The only difference is my dog an inquisitive poodle can now see in and sits watching the tortoise, and the tortoise can hear the dog bark more (not at him but at the mail man etc)

Does he just need time?

Ruth

 

[Laurie]

Don't worry too much about noise...tortoises do not "hear". Sometimes it just takes him some time to adjust. Why did you change his substrate from soil/sand to reptibark? I'm just curious, I used reptibark when I first got my tort. It wasn't really ideal for him to burrow in. I'm not a fan of sand either, but I would think soil/sand would be preferable to reptibark. I am currently using coir in my indoor enclosures and just plain dirt outside. They seem to love digging in it!

 

[ascott]

While tortoise do not hear as we do....they are very intune with vibrations... Old Man Humphry here, has his summer yard out near the front porch and his yard is relatively close to where our dog can see cats and such and will begin to bark crazy--Humphry will come out and take a peek see and then go back into his hide....of course, he has become use to it and does not do the peek see as often as I believe he has become use to the sound...but there is a certain bark that will get him out every time...lol...

Kinda like he has his own guard dog in the background...lol

 

[Laura]

Russians do that.. he may need more time to adjust as well..

 

[MarianneL711]

Hudson does that too. Climbs the walls and clunks against the glass even though I painted it so he can't see through. Usually when I put my hand in there he climbs onto my hand because he just wants out for a while. I let him walk around the apartment til he wears out (or I do lol) and put him back. This morning though, he started at like 5:30am and I just ignored him. Then when I put his food in he practically ran to it so in this case I think he was just hungry. Also I think when there's a bad storm coming he gets nervous and does it. My very astute deduction is: They just do that. LOL. Also I used that bark crap when I first had him and it's awful. He hated it because he couldn't really burrow in it, it smelled, and there were bugs always getting attracted to it. I use the coconut coir (loose) and mist it and he really likes digging in that. I'm still pretty new at this too but I can tell when my little buddy is happy lol.