Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just got 4 baby tortises a week ago. 2 are trying to climb out of the tub they live in and / or climb on each other and end up on there backs.

They also appear to be sleeping standing up on 2 legs against the wall of there tub.

This happens a couple times a day when we are home. I suspect this has to happen when we are at work. But when we come home they are always on there feet. Can these babies get back on there feet on there own? I would think they could die if they were on there back for a long time.

Any info ?

RDOI

Just make sure you have enough stuff in the enclosure that they can reach something to turn themselves over if they end up on their back. My hermanns used to flip himself over all the time, probably still does. But, he has enough stuff in his cage that he can push himself back up.

2 lamps for a small cage?

Air conditioning. The room is cold.

I use to lamps but one is a mercury vapor bulb for uvb and heat and one is a 250 watt ceramic heat imitter, I'd scrap the florescent bulb, my torts love the mercury vapor bulbs, they seam to be more active and healthier.
keep in mind though the bulbs I use cannot be set on top of the screen mine suspend over the table. and I use a thermostat on the ceramic so it is not useualy on when the merc. bulb is on. they switch on and off at night on timers.

The flo. bulbs work fine for me. They are more than close enough to the tort. I need to have a screen over the top or my cats would be napping with the tort and box turtle. Once I have a house and have bigger enclosures I will probably switch to murcery vapor bulbs, but for the flo bulbs work fine.