How We Keep Our Tortoises Safe Outdoors!

[Laughter] this is a leopard tortoise and one day he's going to be absolutely huge but right now he's not even considered a sub-adult he's actually in his juvenile stage which means he's very vulnerable to Predators isn't he beautiful [Music] in general Turtles and tortoises are very vulnerable to predation when kept outside so stick around because in this video I'm going to show you guys all the ways we keep our animals safe year round in The Great Outdoors and you'll be able to use our Amazon storefront the link will be in the description so you can get these exact items yourself this right here is going to be your most versatile way to protect Turtles and tortoises that are kept Outdoors you build a pen and then you put a lid on it and you can make it a locking lid you can see right here that I have latches this is made out of pressure treated wood so it's very heavy so really only an adult is going to be able to easily lift this thing up no raccoon or other animal is going to get this thing open unless you live in an area with bears we don't really deal with that down here but this is very heavy what I also did was I used the right mesh incorporation with this lid and it's very very sturdy metal mesh and the holes are much smaller so that you know even smaller birds can't get inside this thing so this would actually be safe for hatchling tortoises but whether or not you want to go this route is your own choice it's not the way we choose to do everything here and let me show you why a box or rectangle it's very oddly shaped it's massive and it's even got trees growing inside it therefore a lid would never ever work on this since we choose to go the naturalistic route here at Garden State tortoise 95 of the time we have to take other measures to protect these precious animals from predators and in a pen like this the number one thing that's going to save them is something called an electric fence the electric fence is going to be incredibly effective at keeping a lot of predators out of your turtle and tortoise pens the Predator that you're always going to be mostly concerned with especially up here in the northeastern United States is the raccoon this is an intelligent animal a stealthy animal that is so capable of literally wiping out a turtle collection in one night that you really cannot take it lightly make sure you are protecting your animals from raccoons especially at night but some of them get so bold they'll even come out during the day the electric fence really helps to keep them out raccoons don't really tend to jump or hop over things like something like a red fox would they like to climb now granted they can use a tree to get into something but if you have a pen like this where they are almost going to be forced to climb the wall you put the wire up about 15 inches and anywhere between six and eight inches outward and guess what that raccoon cannot get into your pen without getting Zapped by a powerful electric fence and Let Me Tell You Folks sometimes I forget to turn them off and when I get zapped I have everybody laugh traffic because it hurts terribly but make sure you do turn them off especially if your kids or dogs can get near the fence because of course it's not going to cause any real harm to anybody but it is really going to make them squeal and yes I'm a Squealer the electric fence is relatively easy to install and you can look for tutorials online that will walk you through the whole process and folks it really is effective you've got your base unit you've got your insulators then you get usually a 17 gauge wire your ground rod you turn the thing on you're ready to go you can even put it on a timer so that it only comes on at night which is when you're really going to need it and remember always turn it off in the day if you don't have a timer because do we touch the electric fence no plant life is extremely beneficial to a turtle or tortoise's life for many different reasons but it also offers them cover you don't see a single turtle in the vicinity do you how about now [Music] plant life is a great Predator deterrent inside the pen so that means that your deterrence don't always have to be on the outside of a turtle or tortoise enclosure inside of it things like heavy plant life allow them to feel secure and that's exactly how they stay safe in nature so use them really plant your pens heavily and don't forget to click the link above me for a safe plant list surveillance is an excellent way for you to keep an eye on your animals especially at night when most predators are active or when you're away from your property here we love to use Arlo systems and the newer ones that they put out are great because they shoot in 4k they have wonderful night vision and they're able to detect animal from person and they also zoom in so it can zoom in on a person's face so they can actually be identified so you'll get a notification if something comes into the pen and sets the camera off saying animal detected on camera one or a person detected on camera too just check out this footage right here if it weren't for my Arlo system I would know that this raccoon was in the immediate area possibly a threat to Miami animals but these things are also good for one other thing and that's keeping an eye on your animals when they're choosing to nest because nests can be almost impossible to find unless you see it happen foreign [Music] we've got a Herman's tortoise nesting right here right now and when turtles and tortoises are nesting they are extremely vulnerable particularly to birds crows to be exact and don't freak out this is a fake Crow the crows are extremely intelligent birds and they absolutely love making a quick meal out of turtle and tortoise eggs as they actually come out of the mother it's pretty awful so what you could do is you can get yourself one of these fake Halloween crows and you move it around the yard because again crows are smart and they will figure out that this is not real so what I'm going to do is because this Herman's tortoise is nesting here I'm going to stick this in the ground right by her but I'm going to do it in combination with something else this is a bird repeller box this plays the calls of natural predators of crows like Cooper's Hawks for a quick example and it plays it at irregular intervals so that the crows can't get used to how it's sounding because again they are that intelligent so this thing can be quite annoying it does have volume control on it and it does also tell you what you want to set to deter a certain species of bird but these two in combination are perfect at protecting your turtles and tortoises so they can safely securely and quietly lay their eggs without something like a crow coming down and eating them on you [Music] [Applause] dogs another effective way to protect your property and your animals this is Gilligan this is Angus they are Labrador Retrievers and here we use positive reinforcement with them to make sure that they know what we're saying and that there's always a positive environment for them and believe me even though they're labs they are very effective at scaring people out of our yards and of course animals because they will not hesitate to chase after them so dogs may not be for everybody but if you love dogs they will definitely help you in protecting your animals [Music] as you guys can see our dogs have access to our tortoise Gardens and that's because they were trained from a young age to respect these animals now you'll notice the collars around their neck that's because we have the electric fence on our property to protect the dogs from getting out but that's not what we use to actually train the dogs to respect these animals we do that through positive reinforcement and Casey got a good handle on that from when Gill and Angus were just little tiny puppies because dogs can absolutely hurt Turtles and tortoises too so if you're going to go that route again wonderful protection measure for your turtle and tortoise Gardens but you want to make sure you train those dogs from a young age positively to respect and understand that their job is to protect their Turtles and tortoises last but not least you can use Humane traps such as havahart traps these are easy to find and they come in all different sizes depending on the animal that it is you're trying to catch in your area they make ones for raccoons and they make ones that go as large as I think for coyote and then of course they have ones that catch squirrels and rats there's a lot of different animals out there that can be harmful to Turtles and tortoises like I said right here we mainly aim to make sure raccoons are not harming our animals including crows that might come down and eat the eggs or even hatchlings so you do want to pay attention to what's in your area so that you know what you're up against Have a Heart Traps are great and they're very effective they simply open up and latch you put the bait all the way in the back and then when the animal steps on this platform boom you have safely securely and humanely trapped the animal and then you can go release it at a safe distance which also varies depending on the species of Predator you have caught bait that you use for them also varies and there is a theory that when you bait these things you might be drawing animals into your backyard or property now while that is very true I look at it as if you live in an area like we do where you're backed up to thousands of Acres of protected National Wildlife Refuge you already have raccoons and other predators in the area so better be safe than sorry in case somebody does come snooping around your yard you have something like a trap or these other measures that I've shown you to keep your beloved Turtles and tortoises safe I hope what I showed you guys in this video is beneficial to you and you learn a thing or two about how you could sleep at night knowing your animals are safe and don't forget go into the description of this very video and click the link for our Amazon storefront where you can find each and every one of these items directly and also if you enjoyed watching this video don't forget the other important parameters that go into creating the ultimate tortoise garden and check out this video right here [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Garden State Tortoise

Views: 12,615

Keywords: Tortoise garden, how to make a tortoise garden, keeping tortoises outside, tortoise pen blueprints, protecting pets from other animals, turtle predator protection, tortoise predators, protecting tortoises outdoors, how to get rid of raccoons, how to get rid of crows, what do raccoons hate?, what do crows hate?, garden state tortoise, Otis the turtle, raised garden bed baby tortoises, what eats tortoises?, what animals are dangerous?

Id: grJSSaCYssM

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Wed May 24 2023