indoors = cruel

[Katie_07]

ive jsut been talking to a lady
and she basically stated that by me having my torts living indoors is cruel
because they are known to be outdoors in the wild.

fair enough i understand this , but my three are uk captive bred and so therefore havent
lived in the wild

i could understand her having a go if i didnt let them out , but they go out at every possible chance they can get ,
apart from just recently as the weather is so dreadful.

im not being cruel by having them indoors am i ?!

[Caroline McI]

Katie, I often wonder this myself, I wasn't as prepared as I should have been for my first tortoise and am learning quite quickly. I live in a flat and don't have a garden but mine get out as often as I can, and spend hours in the sun, but I do have guilt pangs when I read what a great life some of the owners tortoises are having.

I'll be interested to see what replies you get.

[kaz9t9]

its not ideal, but nor is our british weather

if she right then all 1481 SW members are cruel, not very likely is it?

[Katie_07]

well do undesrstand her point

but its , true what you say.

i figured thought , that technically if you have your torts ouside permanent then arent they technically indoors aswell when there not venturing outside !
so its only the same , except instead of the torts decidingif they want to go out , i just put them outside !

[Pussygalore]

I don,t think you would say it was cruel but as they get beyond being babies I think they do better outside in the summer months, if I,m right an adult tortoise will cover many miles on its travels and this excercise be it hunting to find food, wateretc is what makes the growth rate slow and even and thus a long life, any animal confined to a small area and even a garden is small compared with the widerness is limited in its movement plus has food offered to it is not going to do as well as one which has a large space and natural forage, young small torts do ok in a table enclosure but I would imagine an adult would be to big to permanently stay inside unless it had the run of a conservatory, greenhouse etc a 3ft x 3ft box just wouldn,t be big enough, I don,t think many people really realize how big the animal will get even though it may be a slow proccess to get to that stage, the longest living ones seem to be those which are garden tortoises more or less left to look after themselves which is as close to nature as we can get it in captivity.

[joathome]

I keep my 2 indoors and put them out at every given opotunity, at the moment thats a bit f a joke, i feel guilty as when i go to them Fredd comes hurtling over if to say are we going out now, i know torts originated from the wild but most torts now days wouldnt survive as well as the ones we all care for.

Jo

[super_tort9000]

i keep eric outside but occationally bring him in if its cold and wet to eat and he seems to love it, its normally one of the rare times he's quite active

[sandy]

Keeping a tortoise outside 24hrs with the temperatures we are having at the moment IS CRUEL
to keep them outside. As the temps outside are not the same as the wild.
I do agree if you can get them outside when the sun is shinning or its warm then its cruel to
keep them inside, as they are naturally wild creatures.
There is a big difference between the two.

[Pussygalore]

mine have their heat lamp on for a few hours each day their houses are insulated and hold the temps very well , theres not been a day gone past when they haven,t ventured outside, they were out eating in the rain and felt warm to touch and obviously weren,t bothered by the rain, our temps outside have varied between 65 and 70f and when the sun does come out it feels a lot warmer, so I don,t think I,m being cruel by giving them a choice as they are comming out they are making that choice themselves so obviously aren,t feeling cold or bothered by the weather, they are shut up at night and their houses hold the heat lovely they have plenty of burying material and tuck themselves in for the night.

[Hurley]

Caroline McI-I am in the same situation, I live in a flat so my year old hermann's enjoys live indoors. He seems happy enough and gets out whenever we can. There is a little garden area outside and we go out together so I can keep an eye on him...I feel guilty now!!