Tortoises & Turtles

TORT - THE WORLD'S MOST PAMPERED (AND OVERWEIGHT?) TORTOISE - by Sam Gilbert 

I moved house in June last year, to a smaller place which unfortunately meant Tort had to be downsized too!  Tort's new home's not exactly cramped, being 4' x 3' with the usual array of sun lamps, bark, cardboard, wood chips and rocks - he's still ridiculously spoilt!  He seems to enjoy his time here, pootling about, climbing stuff, hiding unconvincingly and eating everything.  He managed to sidestep hibernation again this year by losing too much weight in the run up to it.  This was my fault as I hadn't reduced his daylight hours sufficiently in the run up to hibernation, so he was still pretty active when it came to hibernation time.  However I'll do better next year - so maybe it'll be a case of third time lucky.

Bruce the Vet requested that I feed him less this year as he's way too big for his age - the size of a 10 year old even though he's only 5... so he's on restricted rations.  He isn't too happy with this and if he's feeling particularly ravenous he will gnaw rocks and then look at me pityingly.  Spoilt is the word!  He has an excellent diet as I've set aside part of my garden to grow all the best weeds - dandelion, thistle, vetch, ribwort etc.

He has a small holiday home with my parents which he goes to when I dare to stay away from home for more than one night!  We tested it out for the first time in April, when I was in Italy for a few days. It's smaller than his other residences being approx 3' x 18". He expressed his dissatisfaction with this state of affairs by becoming, as we nicknamed him, "poo monkey"!  He wasn't ill, just disgruntled - and showed it by losing a third of his substantial bodyweight in excretion in a week!  My poor Mum, I owe her big time.

I'm still on the hunt for a suitable outdoor pad for him as the weather is turning nicer and he could do with some natural rays.  It is going to have to meet his exacting standards, though I'm undecided as to whether it needs a wire base to it to stop him burrowing out... my inclination is no as he is pathologically lazy and burrowing would be way too much effort - we'll see what I can find out there!

Oh, and lastly, ‘he' is looking very much like a ‘she' now... but he'll always be male to me!