Hibernation disaster.

[Suze65]

Originally Posted by pagan queen

It just makes me even more amazed that Herbie lived so long in the wild without any harm coming to him.

I do wonder how the tort will rub his face, and any food will have to be cut small as they use their front legs to hold and pull longer pieces out of the mouth.

I would imagine he will need help tearing his food. I would never let mine dig down In the garden to hibernate for all sorts of reasons, that being one of them.
A cautionary tale.

[mark r]

we have farmland behind our house so have rats knocking aobut I only ever have my tortoises outside when someone is about for this very reason.

that and we had a convicted dog thief living 3 doors away till a few months ago and my view if he would take dogs he wouldn't hesitate to take a tortoise

[alley cat]

As awful as this is lets keep it in perspective, my thinking is that there is probably a much more common problem that many owners expose their tortoises to on a daily basis....dogs!

[becciwales]

My torts are in guinea pig cages because I have a dog. (Indoor ones)
When they are big enough to be out, my dog will be in/behind a closed door. I have practised this with my guinea pigs when I had them and my rabbits.

I'm not saying that people don't take risks, nor am I saying for 1 minute that I think the owner is at fault, accidents happen as do things like this, along with torts being stolen, but they do make me decide what I will do differently to keep mine as safe as possible.

[alley cat]

Becci, sorry if you felt you had to justify keeping a dog and tortoises that was not my intention at all, I have a dog that would probably chew a tort given the chance so I too have to take precautions (have you seen the fences around my enclosures, they make Colditz look like a holiday camp!) all I was trying to get across was that we don't hear of a huge number of rat chewed torts although obviously it can happen.

[becciwales]

Oh no, of course not. My dog too would chew a tort I'm almost positive of it, I hope to never find out though! :-/

Something I posted on another thread seemed to make the owner of stolen torts think I was judging them when I said I wouldn't leave mine out incase of this happening. I just wanted to clarify that because I say I wouldn't do it, it's often because of these stories and losing my rabbits to rats (3 of them, 1 at a time) I felt so bad for not realising they were peeing in the shed and poisoning my rabbits, I just wanted to say that I'm not judging others for making mistakes, but people do learn from them. x

[Pussygalore]

I think its probably quite a high number of torts that are boxed and left in a shed or garage that are 'eaten' by something, we simply don't hear about them as their owners aren't on a forum. I know I have spoken to quite a few who have mentioned that they remember loosing a tort in that way, its surprising how many used to have a tort when they were younger and sad how many didn't live through hibernation. I think even the Blue Peter tort was replaced several times but not announced on the tv, does anyone know whether rats would be a problem in the wild? or are they more a domestic problem. Do wild torts have burrows for hibernating ? when we've been to Spain the ground seems so dry and hard it would be very hard to dig down far and I'd imagine the soil, if any, wouldn't be very deep. Maybe they use exhisting burrows or holes? I'd also imagine that a tort over here would be able to go much deeper and if well covered would be fairly safe, maybe most of the attacked torts are boxed or don't have the depth of soil to dig in, also how do they know it was rats is there something else under ground that could do that? hibernation is a long time so could it have been done over a few months by something else.

[lonelylayla]

Originally Posted by Pussygalore

I think its probably quite a high number of torts that are boxed and left in a shed or garage that are 'eaten' by something, we simply don't hear about them as their owners aren't on a forum. I know I have spoken to quite a few who have mentioned that they remember loosing a tort in that way, its surprising how many used to have a tort when they were younger and sad how many didn't live through hibernation. I think even the Blue Peter tort was replaced several times but not announced on the tv, does anyone know whether rats would be a problem in the wild? or are they more a domestic problem. Do wild torts have burrows for hibernating ? when we've been to Spain the ground seems so dry and hard it would be very hard to dig down far and I'd imagine the soil, if any, wouldn't be very deep. Maybe they use exhisting burrows or holes? I'd also imagine that a tort over here would be able to go much deeper and if well covered would be fairly safe, maybe most of the attacked torts are boxed or don't have the depth of soil to dig in, also how do they know it was rats is there something else under ground that could do that? hibernation is a long time so could it have been done over a few months by something else.

Must admit, I wondered if it was something other than a rat. If tort had dug down outside, I would have thought it was his back end that would be at most risk, as opposed to front leggies In a box, of course, tort would be "on the horizontal". Living by farm land, old stone barns etc, we are routinely troubled by rats mostly after chickens food, or scrap bird seed. Some years ago we did have a problem with then getting in to an aviary and picking off the young birds as they left the nest - before they could fly properly. Having said that, we've also had foxes and a badger inflict mortality of chickens and ducks. It is a wild world out there. Sorry about this bit but would not have thought maggots would have been successful under ground s
Believe in their natural homelands they would use burrows etc and there must be predators out there too

[sandy]

Originally Posted by alley cat

As awful as this is lets keep it in perspective, my thinking is that there is probably a much more common problem that many owners expose their tortoises to on a daily basis....dogs!

I agree this is one rat attack, and might well be the only one. How many successful hibernations happen outside. You have to think with your heads not your hearts.
Its very sad its happened, but dog attacks kill far more tortoises.

[becciwales]

Originally Posted by Pussygalore

I know I have spoken to quite a few who have mentioned that they remember loosing a tort in that way, its surprising how many used to have a tort when they were younger and sad how many didn't live through hibernation.

I think it was common in the 50's, 60's and 70's, I've said before my mum had 2 torts when she got married, they were left to their own devices in the garden really, the Great Dane nor Dobbie ever attacked them and they were put in a wooden hibernation box in the garage to hibernate, they just didn't wake up one year, but that had been a long standing practice for about the 10 years they had them, they were fully grown when they had them, her neighbours as a child and I think my Mums Nana had a tort tied to the line post so it didn't wander off! No wonder they didn't survive and now have stricter laws!

But the weather was more definite then, the summers were hot and the winters cold, as bad as we've had weather wise, we haven't had a bitterly cold winter have we?

I wonder could it be another burrowing animal rather than a rat as the front legs would be in first wouldn't they? (As Lynne said)

And, as said, not everyone is on a forum, plus, would you advertise the fact that this had happened to something in your care?