Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was changing the substrate (sand/topsoil) in my leopard enclosure and I dumped the new mixture in the cneter in one small pile. By the time I came back with the second load I found they were climbing all over the pile. Truely facinated with the new terrain. I have since left a small hill in the center for them to climb on and often find one or the other proudly sitting on top surveying his domain. Actually they can see outside the enclosure from there. The only danger I coud see from this is the risk of rolling over on their shell but its not that steep. After years of a two demensional landscape has anyone else tried this?

Torts love to climb things. My little leopards aren't so skillful, but my russians will climb rocks and logs for no apparent reason. I've never found a tortoise trapped on its back, so I don't worry too much about them falling off of things.

but no harm was done. My Hermanns tort certainly loves to climb and I have a log with a mini ramp that he roams up and down but I made a bad assumption that he would never fall over the edge and one day when I came back from work he was upside down. He was probably stuck in that position for a couple hours and was a little stressed after I got him back on his feet but was back to his old self in a short time. I have since put a little barrier up so he can't fall over the edge anymore.

I guess the point to this is they do love to climb, just take some precautions if there's a chance he can flip over and you won't be around for awhile.

Fred

"Breaking up" the tortoises line of sight is great for their psychological well being. It gives the illusion of larger space, as counter-intuitive as it sounds, and creates a less stressful environment if there are multiple animals kept together.

Good idea, i say.

I tried it, seems like a good idea to me. I read somewhere that tortoises often seek little hills to nest, and that has not happened here, (they nest at the base of bunchgrasses) but they do seem to enjoy climbing around. Varying the topography is a good way to create and interesting environment and get away from the bare box approach. I try to provide plenty of objects, rocks, terraces, bunch grass tussocks, that a tortoise on its back can hook a leg into and right itself. I say do it, and a lot of Zoos are making similar efforts to enrich the captive environment. Vic

My Russian loves to climb. I let him play in our dry pond that has lots of rocks and obstacles. The only time he ended up on his back was when he was going down the stairs to my family room. He goes down stairs by dropping his front legs over then pushing with his back legs until he tips over the edge and slides to the next step head first.