Why does he keep burying himself

[ben_e71]

Both hermanns tortoises out in their outdoor enclosure. One half is stones the other topsoil with loads of weeds and plants in.

My grumpiest tortoise has taken to totally burying himself in the soil and not coming out. A couple of times we have found him and put him back in his house. But within hours he burys himself again.

I am not concerned because he cannot get out. But I am concerned that e is always buried. This has taken over from his previous habit of always staying in his house.

The run has lots of sun and shade. Lots of weeds to eat and water. He had worming paste last week as his count was up near 9000. But his chum is also high on worm count and he's active eating and in and out of house.

[K&N]

he is just reacting to the conditions around him, he does what is best for him
the weather might be too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry for him so he goes where he feels it's best.
if your tort is healthy I would just let him be.

i'm more worried about my torts because they DON'T burrow! but that's because they can only spend time outside sp rarely because of the bad weather we've had here (Finland) this summer.

[animalmad]

are you worming with panacur, im sure he/she will need 3 to 4 doses every 10days and then after 2 weeks from the last worm count i would use wormcount.com to make sure he is parasite free. might be feeling very lethargic with all those worms inside. bathing regularly in warm water would be useful to clear the system out of the dead worms

[ben_e71]

Thanks. Got to find him first <rolls eyes>

[ben_e71]

Back from two weeks away and a friend has been in checking on the torts. I thought the two weeks away where he would be left with minimal intervention, plenty of food (living weeds) and water would allow him to normalise to the outdoor enclosure.

However, it appears he has spent the whole two weeks buried.

Not really sure what to do now. Do I bring him in and back onto tortoise table and give this summer up as a bad one. Do I once again block off the soil area and keep him just in the stones areas. Do I just leave him alone. I do find it hard to believe that permanent burying is normal behaviour.

When I do get him out he feeds and drinks fine.

[yuna1971]

It's not exactly been a full on heat wave outside,(apart from a couple of freak days) so I'm sure some torts are noticing this change. Their behaviour can slow/pick up pace in terms of the weather conditions sometimes.
Also if your torts are small..outside might be a big adjustment. It's a big area..a lot different to a comfy table. Their reaction could be nerves, awe of their new surroundings.
Ground level even on warm days is going to be cooler at their level, then how we feel it at our level.
But IMO, it's not that warm out at mo. Do you have a heated cold frame ?? If not it might just be a bit cool for them. Hence the burying.
I'm presuming you've had them a while?? If you've only just got them...settling in can cause the hiding away/burying down behaviour. xx

[TillyTortoise]

Ideally you need a kennel/greenhouse with a basking spot inside it.

[ben_e71]

They have a kennel. Have wondered about putting a Perspex roof section init to add light and asking potential.

[Daryn]

I wouldn't move him back and fourth they know what they need instinctively I would say, Ive been playing around building an outdoor enclosure lately and trying to get it right before the tort comes, Im a bit fussy lol, I completely covered my enclosure but unfortunately its still not warm enough so Im having to go along the basking light route as well. If they have this somewhere in the enclosure at least they will have the option to go under it and warm up or bury themselves, it takes the guess work out of it. Good luck and keep us posted.

[ben_e71]

well they will be dye to come in in a few weeks anyway so maybe a rethink on Tortoise world....

this is what it looked like when I started



but now the soil is a mass of weeds I think a replan for next year ...