tortoise on her back...for the greater good

[wosman]

Hi everyone

This may sound like the dumbest question you'll hear today, but I just have to know the answer.

So as a student there are days I'm on campus for a solid 12 hours and I'm nervous that the tortoise flips herself over and is stuck under the heat lamp for an extended period of time. It hasn't happened yet, but every few months she has this fit to try and climb out of her enclosure which results in her falling on her back.

Resilient as she is, she managed to flip herself over 90% of the time. My question is: would it be safe to put her on her back under the heat lamp to see if she can flip herself over? If she is unable to flip herself over after 1 minute then I will need to think harder about some sort of precautions to ensure she doesn't fall on her back in that spot.

I would rather not try this 'experiment' if there is a risk of hurting or traumatizing her.

 

[Yvonne G]

I wouldn't do it. Just make sure there's no reason for her to get turned over under the light. It usually happens when they try to climb something.

 

[ascott]

There is no way to assure that the flip over experiment will be duplicated each time she may flip....she may not have the same footing every time...so if you did flip her and lets say she flipped her self back over...there is no telling it would happen again in the future....just my thoughts....

I would try to make sure that you have done what you can to assure she has no tipping hazards and then even then they sometimes can just get themselves in weird spots....

I would not perform the controlled flip experiment as I do not really see it as an effective test for any future events, you know? IMHO

 

[wosman]

^ hmm good points from both of you.

I may just add little ramps made of her substrate, so instead of falling on her back she just slides onto her belly when trying to escape.

 

[kimber_lee_314]

You can do what I do .... I worry when the lights are one while I'm gone at work all day, so I leave the lights on at night. I turn them on around 7 PM and then off at 7 AM. Then they sleep all day while I'm gone. This has worked pretty well for me and I feel so much more comfortable having the lights and heat on while I'm home. Hope that was helpful!