Tortoise flipping upside down :(

[Crohnsaholic]

Hey guys, my baby redfoot has been flipping upside down on his back twice the past 2 days. It only happens when he is in his water dish. Not sure why this is happening, I just want to fix it.

 

[coreyc]

post some pic's of your enclosures maybe he is falling off something an landing on his back how deep is his water dish?

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Our hatchlings do it also, they flip over climbing on each other or in/out of the water dish.

 

[Yvonne G]

The only reason I know of is that the water dish's sides are too straight up and down and the baby tips over backwards when he's trying to climb out.

I haven't seen your water dish, so I don't know if that's the reason or not, but adding a layer of small pebbles inside the bottom of the dish usually helps.

 

[Crohnsaholic]

yeah the edges of the water dish do go straight up, so you're suggesting I add a substrate to the bottom so that he isn't going straight up?

 

[dmmj]

you can add rocks to it or get a different water dish, I mainly use potted plant saucers, but mine are all adults.

 

[Crohnsaholic]

you can add rocks to it or get a different water dish, I mainly use potted plant saucers, but mine are all adults.

I have spare rocks that I can use that I used in other tanks, so i'll try that first

 

[Whinhill]

I use catering trays for baby red foots to prevent this happening. Works well for us.

 

[mikey meyer]

You no, I have a baby box turtle and I was keeping him in a little cage and everytime he would try to get out he would flip on his back but he's to small to flip himself back over. But then I moved him to a bigger cage and he doesn't try to get out anymore because it's bigger, so now he doesn't flip over anymore. Is your tortoise trying to get out? And how big is your cage? If it's too small you might want to try putting your tortoise in a bigger cage and that might help only if it's trying to get out.

 

[Yvonne G]

No, not substrate. Small rocks or pebbles. Not small enough for him to get into his mouth.