Otis says "If I fits, I sits!"

Otis is my 4 year old red foot tortoise. I love this boy! He's my most friendly and most fun tortoise. 

Now that it's colder at night, I put him in my tortoise box with Georgie and Baby Foot. All three of them love hiding in boxes and all three of them destroy boxes quickly by scratching, peeing, and pooping in them. 

I had three boxes in their box this week- one for each of them in just the right size. 

Large for Otis, medium for Georgie, and small for Baby Foot. 

This is, of course, why I found Otis in the smallest box and Baby Foot in the biggest box. 

Tonight I found Otis here: 

He was determined to be in that box with Georgie. 

My red foot tortoises are very social and do better with friends. Georgie, a leopard tortoise, endures her two pesky red foot brothers but doesn't care much if they are there or not. 

I will admit that this is one of two areas where I am directly going against my vet's advice. I cohabitate these three even though they are not all the same tortoise species. It is a risk, but these three have been together all year and are okay with each other. 

In case you were curious-- The other area is that I use baby food to feed critically ill reptiles before using Critical Care food from his office and he disagrees with that. :) That's okay. I've saved more beardies through baby food. 

Updates on the others from the Vet

Akime got her special bandage off today. Hooray! Her skin is all healed over for arm. Because the skin is so fragile, we put a simple wrap cover on it to protect it from her grabbing. When she gets stressed, she grabs at the bandage with her good arm and can't let go. 

She and Lotus are going to a their new home at a Chameleon Sanctuary next week! Woo hoo! We've just been waiting for the bandage to come off. 

Drake appears to have defective or blocked tear ducts that prevent his eyes from draining properly. He will always have weepy eyes that need wiped frequently so they don't get crusty. 

He's been shedding off the nasty sand stained skin too which is making him into a handsome Beardie. I'll start looking for a home for him soon. 

Georgie got an injection of antibiotics to help with her runny nose and goopy eyes. She was not happy to be examined and eventually outlasted the vet who wanted to look in her mouth. 

Baby Foot got his nails clipped since they had curled up and under his feet. We did get to see that he is for sure a boy. Until now, his shell has been too deformed to tell. Definitely a boy. :) 

The next vet trip will be for Midnight the iguana. Everyone else -- so far-- is healthy. 

Field Trip to the Vet

It's another big vet visit today. 

I have Georgie (runny nose) and Baby Foot (nail & beak trim). 

Drake still has runny eyes. 

Akime needs her arm bandage off. 

And Henry is a new guy who is a mess. 

Luckily, they scheduled me a full hour. I'm going to use it! 

Bath Night

Midnight's first bath here. He's not thrilled. 

Hermy- 

Otis-- 

Georgie & Baby Foot-- 

I don't have time to bathe the beardies, but at least the torts are soaked. 

3 Years with Lil Foot/Baby Foot

These two pics showed up in my FB newsfeed yesterday. Hermy with a very small Lil Foot. 

Today I attempted to recreate the pics. Lil Foot (who we call "Baby Foot" to avoid confusing him with the bigger Lil Foot) did not want to hold still. 

Lil Foot was fairly sick when I got him. His shell was soft and had shell rot. His eyes were goopy and he was just not very healthy. 

He's still rather stunted and his shell will never be shaped normal, but he's very healthy and active. 

Following the Leader

I'm not sure what it is about my red foot tortoises, but they love to follow each other around very, very closely. 

Here's Otis right on LilFoot's tail. This is one of at least a dozen photos of this. 

Today I let Baby Foot and Georgie walk around the kitchen for a little bit. When I turned around, I saw this. 

Baby Foot had to hussle to keep up with Otis, but he stayed right on him. Otis, who was always following all the other tortoises WAY too closely, was not happy with this. I had to laugh at him. 

By way of updates-- 

Heidi & Derp are happily in their home in Montana. 

Half Pint & T-Bear are adored in their new home in California. 

LilFoot is hanging out with a friend of mine this summer. 

My buddy's big torts went back. 

That takes me from 11 tortoises to 4. So much easier to manage. Far less poop to clean up. 

Tortoise Roll Call

Otis- 

Baby Foot-

Georgie- 

Hermy- 

Vet Visit

I think maybe I should have a permanent Monday morning opening since I'm pretty much always here. ;) 

Today Skye's tummy stitches are coming out. 

And Baby Foot has an open wound on his leg where his shell scrapes against it. I think we'll just need to file the edges down. 

Hopefully it will be a cheap and easy visit.