[Davuu]

Strange topic i know but currently I'm being driven up the wall by Squirtles antics! he has the run of the entire garden, which is tortoise proofed, he has different areas to explore, plants, hides, tunnels, water etc etc! but.. lately has has taken it into his head that my fence must be destroyed!

He has already uprooted my little white picket fence I had round a flower border, now he is attacking my main fence! he has spent the best part of 3 hours today going up and down my fence ramming it and clawing at it with his feet.

he's been doing the same every time i put him outside, ignores his food, plants, the rest of the entire garden and goes straight for the fence! I'm more concerned he will hurt himself as he really goes for it. I already had to treat a sore on his leg where due to his fence ramming his shell caused a little rub on his leg.

Ive moved him, I've put new things in the garden for him to investigate, even his favourite food, but it all gets ignored in favour of killing the fence.

so i wondered if there was anything i could spray or plant near the fence which tortoises don't like the smell of?

 

[purplepixie]

Strange topic i know but currently I'm being driven up the wall by Squirtles antics! he has the run of the entire garden, which is tortoise proofed, he has different areas to explore, plants, hides, tunnels, water etc etc! but.. lately has has taken it into his head that my fence must be destroyed!

He has already uprooted my little white picket fence I had round a flower border, now he is attacking my main fence! he has spent the best part of 3 hours today going up and down my fence ramming it and clawing at it with his feet.

he's been doing the same every time i put him outside, ignores his food, plants, the rest of the entire garden and goes straight for the fence! I'm more concerned he will hurt himself as he really goes for it. I already had to treat a sore on his leg where due to his fence ramming his shell caused a little rub on his leg.

Ive moved him, I've put new things in the garden for him to investigate, even his favourite food, but it all gets ignored in favour of killing the fence.

so i wondered if there was anything i could spray or plant near the fence which tortoises don't like the smell of?

If they can see through any fence, they want to be the other side.
Have you tried putting something along the bottom of your fence so he/she cannot see through it?
Nothing will deterred them once they can see the other side.

 

[SueBoyle]

Strange topic i know but currently I'm being driven up the wall by Squirtles antics! he has the run of the entire garden, which is tortoise proofed, he has different areas to explore, plants, hides, tunnels, water etc etc! but.. lately has has taken it into his head that my fence must be destroyed!

He has already uprooted my little white picket fence I had round a flower border, now he is attacking my main fence! he has spent the best part of 3 hours today going up and down my fence ramming it and clawing at it with his feet.

he's been doing the same every time i put him outside, ignores his food, plants, the rest of the entire garden and goes straight for the fence! I'm more concerned he will hurt himself as he really goes for it. I already had to treat a sore on his leg where due to his fence ramming his shell caused a little rub on his leg.

Ive moved him, I've put new things in the garden for him to investigate, even his favourite food, but it all gets ignored in favour of killing the fence.

so i wondered if there was anything i could spray or plant near the fence which tortoises don't like the smell of?

There is nothing that will repel him which is not harmful. I'm presuming he has either got through the fence once before or there is still a way of seeing to the other side. If so, he will not give up on this behaviour as to him 'if he can see through it, it's not there!' I have many tortoises free range in my garden but none of them try to attack the fence, so there has to be a good reason for this, that needs to be corrected. Sorry not to have been more help.

 

[Davuu]

The fence is a regular panel fence and borders next door, you can't see through it. It's been the same fence there for 7years and never bothered him before. He's recently been getting his raging make hormones and uprooting plants/his hides and the occassional shell ramming when putting food in, so I put his fence killing down to this, as it's previously never bothered him .

I did look to see if there were any holes in the fence he could see through but couldn't see any. I bought some tall green edging and made a secondary fence to stop him getting to the other one but he worked out he could push it over and that was the end of that!

I'll have to come up with another plan! I do wonder what the neighbours think when they can hear strange noises the other side of the fence!

 

[FLINTUS]

Do you have other animals? e.g. dogs? Do you have other animals visiting your garden?

 

[Davuu]

Do you have other animals? e.g. dogs? Do you have other animals visiting your garden?

I don't have any other animals, he's my only child as far as I'm aware theres no other animals that visit the garden, we used to have a cat problem but that vanished last year and haven't seen any evidence of cats for quite a while! thats not to say they aren't sneaking in! they're just not leaving any evidence I can see! (or smell ) and we used to have a visiting hedgehog, but alas mr hedgehog met mr car one night

we have a camera out the back but that hasn't picked up on anything like foxes that might visit.

So I dunno :/

Its possible he can smell/sense something, I know next door hasn't been very well at all... not sure if he can sense it? completely random long shot

ill have to resurrect his outdoor pen, though I'm not sure that will solve the problem as I feel he will just pace up and down trying to get to the fence, but rather give it a shot than see him upset

 

[FLINTUS]

I don't have any other animals, he's my only child as far as I'm aware theres no other animals that visit the garden, we used to have a cat problem but that vanished last year and haven't seen any evidence of cats for quite a while! thats not to say they aren't sneaking in! they're just not leaving any evidence I can see! (or smell ) and we used to have a visiting hedgehog, but alas mr hedgehog met mr car one night

we have a camera out the back but that hasn't picked up on anything like foxes that might visit.

So I dunno :/

Its possible he can smell/sense something, I know next door hasn't been very well at all... not sure if he can sense it? completely random long shot

ill have to resurrect his outdoor pen, though I'm not sure that will solve the problem as I feel he will just pace up and down trying to get to the fence, but rather give it a shot than see him upset

That rules out that one then.
Is the fence rotting by any chance? Mould or algae etc.?
Personally, I would remove him from there for a month, set up a different temporary enclosure outside, and then put him back in a month later to see what happens.