Seagulls!

[Sian]

We have finally made the move from Buckingham to the Isle of Wight. Jack (17yr old Hermann’s) has spent the winter with his Auntie Dee & her brood of torties & is now awake and hopefully joining us in a couple of weeks. We will be starting from scratch with his outdoor enclosure and hopefully he’ll be getting a new & improved table too as he stays inside every night & on cooler days. One thing that’s worrying me, is seagulls! I’m Buckingham, his enclosure was open. He had a large plant pot to climb into, and for the last year, a small plastic cold frame as well but essentially it was open & accessible. Any coastal tortoise parents here? Should I worry about gulls? Do I need a full cover (I’m guessing something like chicken wire) to protect him, or will he be ok with an open enclosure? Xx

[Nina]

Hi Sian -- lovely to hear from you!

Gosh, aren't you lucky to have moved to the Isle of Wight, but I'll bet that Dee and family were really sad when you moved. My son and I used to go for a week or so to Shanklin every year when he was younger, and I always thought it was like the UK in miniature -- lovely coast, little thatched villages inland, etc., and I loved The Garlic Farm there. And of course you'll probably get a bit more sunshine there than you had in Buckingham.

Regarding Seagulls -- I really don't know as we don't really get Seagulls around here. We have Red Kites in the air over my house all the time though, and they could easily take one of mine if they wanted to, so I've worried about that. I gather that Kites only take dead animals, but I have no idea if they know whether a tortoise is alive or dead Lin lives near the sea on the South Coast and I'll ask her to come on and give her view, as I know she gets Seagulls in her garden.

Certainly a chickenwire lid on the enclosure would do the trick. There are some photos of someone's enclosure incorporating lids on hinges in this thread here http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site ... =11&t=2372 , but even some netting secured over the top would do. I'd love to see some photos of the new enclosure -- and of Jack too!

Nina

[lin]

Hi Sian.
Glad the move went well and your looking forward to having Jack back under your care, that must be so exciting.
I live on the South East coast and as beautiful the gulls are they are a strong hefty scavenging bird so I would say yes to security of some sort, yes a chicken wire construction that is easy to lift with cross sections to make it sturdy if the birds land on top. I have no trouble with the chickens but they are now under cover because of the bird flu restrictions.
Hope that helps.
Lin

[Nina]

Hi Sian,

Lin has pointed out to me that netting on the top of an enclosure would be dangerous because birds could get their feet caught if they land on it. So a wire mesh would be much better.

Nina

[Sian]

Thanks for the advice. I think we had chicken wire in mind so will look into that. Dee’s run has got sectional lids which lift up and hook onto the fence when not needed so might try that.

[Daniel]

Have a read of this before building any thing. I turned a part my outside enclosure to this design and it works extremely well and good temps all season.

http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/climateframe.html