Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My wife has a pet Leopard tortoise and she wants to let it run around more; however, it seems like every time she sets that little guy on the carpet it starts peeing or pooing, is their a way to litter box train these guys. Also how do you sex a tortoise?

Thanks,
Matt

The litter box training is probably impossible with reptiles of any kind.

As for sexing, you can go to numerous tortoise related web sites and read how to do that. Males have concave plastrons and thick-based, long tails. Females have flat plastrons and short stubby tails. However, if you have a Leopard Tortoise, it will need to be around 7-10" long before you even see these signs.

you described your tort as a "little guy," so maybe it's nervous and that's part of the reason it seems to always go? if that's the case, it can lessen the tamer your tort gets, if that's any consolation.

it's not toilet training, but what i do with my redfoot that helps keep my carpets clean is to give her a nice warm long soak 1 or 2 times a week. any pooping she has to do happens then... can't remember the last time i had to clean up anything brown. i did the same thing with an iguana i had when i was in high school, soak her any time i was going to let her run loose so she'd be running on empty.

as far as pee goes, she only seems to do that once she shows down and relaxes. there are a couple places where she gravitates to outside her enclosure -- under a desk, and in this one corner by an endtable -- so i put down newspaper or those wee-wee pads for dogs, and that takes care of that.