I have a sulcata and I don't think a 1'H box will keep him out of your flowers for long. Mine will go almost vertical trying to reach a tasty morsel. We had to put a two foot high fence around our plants and he still eats anything he can reach and spends hours ramming it. I will let someone else address the water damage issue.

Tortoises have been around a LONG time and are quite successful...I'd say if yours digs an adequate tunnel it should be fine. With us the main concern for Geraldine (our tortoise) was not cold but being wet--we don't want her to get any kind of health issues because of it. The chickens are mostly a bit freaked out by Geraldine so they don't climb on her...the only time they will willingly approach her is if she has some food (like corn) stuck to her face, then they will gently clean it off. For her part, Geraldine will barge right into whatever the chickens are doing if she wants to eat or is curious, but she never bites the chickens or tries to hurt them. She's mostly just really laid-back but curious--if we are out there doing anything, Geraldine has to come over and get in the middle of it, she's very friendly. If you want to see Geraldine with the chickens, here is a video from our UStream Chickam site we did this year...Geraldine sloooowly sneaking up behind Phoenix, our Head Roo and then eating rose petals while the chickens mill around her. :) http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/14891491 Oh--despite her name and the fact that we refer to her as 'she', we discovered a few years ago that Geraldine is actually a male (she has a concave depression on the plastron, or underside of her shell, the function of which is to facilitate mating)--but after all these years we decided not to change her name or how we refer to her. Don't know if a female tortoise's personality may be different than that of a male! :) Velvet ~:>

I rather doubt they would damage a concrete slab foundation but some of the older cracker houses are raised up on posts/pilars and a large enough burrow might be able to destabilize one of those, I think. In my situation I'm more worried about the flowerbed's rock edging collapsing down into the burrow and trapping the tortoise. I wish the tortoise had dug the burrow away from the house and flowerbeds. I would have then been happy to leave it alone, even if it was in the middle of the lawn! I got a call back from the species conservation man and he e-mailed me the 3 page permit application for relocating the gopher tortoise along with the 8 page permit infomation packet and the 3 page quiz that I have to fill out along with the application. I then have to mail the application and quiz back to him along with the $25 fee and a copy of my driver's license. Then I have to wait to see whether or not the permit will be approved. Looking over the form I'm not even sure that they will think I have enough property to relocate the tortoise within my own yard or if they will want it moved somewhere else. This is turning into a lot more fuss then I thought it would! Kara

Greetings Joanie and Slate - I emailed both of you requesting shipping addresses---if I don't get any more 'takers' by the end of today (08/08/06, 11 pm central time), I'll just divide them up between you (I want to get these plants off to good homes asap).