Poop Tracks

I left the house for a couple hours to run some errands with my kiddos. When we returned, I found Otis had entertained himself by dragging his poop across the kitchen floor. 

Nothing got put away or moved until the poop tracks got cleaned up.

Poop!

Our Yearly Tortoise Checkup

Spring means "Tortoise Checkups" and so I made an appointment to take all 5 in today. And then Junior went along to get his second Calcitonin shot. It took two laundry baskets to transport them all. Thankfully, my daughter went along with me to carry one of the baskets. 

Here's a line of torts-- Sissy (box turtle but honorary tortoise) at the top, then Leo the Russian, Curly Q the desert tortoise, and Otis the cherry head (red foot) tortoise at the end. 

All of them got weighed and checked. Otis & Leo & Sissy got beak trims.

Leo took some persuasion to come out of his shell so we could trim his beak. He was not thrilled. See?

Otis wanted to mount all the other tortoises and we had to keep pulling him off of them.

Curly Q peed all over the counter & floor & Dr Folland's tie. I told him he should keep a backup tie in his office on days I come. The last visit with Norman started with Norman projectile pooping onto his tie too. ;)

Sissy got a few dead spots of shell scraped off and we checked her nails. She's missing most of her toe nails on her front feet. And she obviously got bit by a dog at some point in her life too. She's a very sweet box turtle. I don't normally like box turtles, but I really like her. She fits in the zoo well.

Georgie has tripled her weight since last year. She's my leopard tortoise who stayed in the laundry basket for most of the visit. She is not social and doesn't like to interact with anyone. I didn't even get a picture of her.

Junior got his second Calcitonin injection which will help pull calcium back into his bones. I watched him poop out urate pieces this morning but no fecal matter. He still has a lump in his belly, but it is actually smaller and on the opposite side of his belly than it was before. So strange! He's a lot more alert and aware than he was before. But his bones are still rubber. He'll have a long road to recovery.

The vet's staff blocked out a whole hour for me so we could get everyone checked in, examined, and treated. We stayed right on time. It was great!

While it was expensive to have them all checked (just over $500 for all 5 & the shot), it's important to me to keep my regulars updated in the vet's system. They become established clients and we can track weights and such.

"Wait.... What?!?!?" says Poor Otis!

Poor Otis is confused like the rest of us how it was almost Spring-like a few days ago and we wandered around the backyard, but now there are 3 inches of snow.

Sigh.

Spring is coming. Just not quickly enough.

The Price of Otis

Proof that my kids have the same weird sense of humor that I do. I found Otis, my male cherryhead tortoise, walking around the house looking like this: 

I started laughing! "Otis!," I said, "you are way under-valuing yourself! You're at least worth $10!"

Ha ha ha!

Welcome to the Zoo.

Blocking Otis

Otis, my 4 year old cherry head tortoise, is very anxious for Spring. He is very anxious to go outside and frolic (or whatever tortoises do outside in a yard full of grass). He gets bored being stuck in the house and, sometimes, he decides to mount my leopard tortoise, Georgie. Georgie is *not* into to be mounted or mated or looked at or nibbled on or touched or talked to or moved or pet. She is a very solitary tortoise that we let out so she can bask under the mercury vapor bulb in our kitchen for a change of pace. She too is very excited to go back outside for the summer. This summer will be the first time that she is big enough to free roam the yard and not be stuck in the "Babies Box." She's very excited. Until then, she has to avoid Otis and his occasional desire to mate.

While I worked on my computer, I kept an eye on Otis & Georgie who were basking together by my feet. It went really well for awhile, but then Otis felt amorous. Oy vay! So I blocked him with my foot.

At first, he attempted to eat my foot because it looked tasty somehow. No, Otis! No biting!

When I moved my foot so it wasn't in his mouth, he tried to sneak under my leg. 

That was it for Otis and he was relocated to the living room where he could wander around at will.

We are definitely all dreaming of Spring here.

Dreaming of Spring

The high today in Utah was over 60 degrees!!! It was fantastic! My zoo & I are so anxious for Spring and sunshine and warmer temps.

I opened the back door for awhile to let the warm air in. Otis stared longingly into the backyard.

Then Teddy joined him in admiring the snow free backyard.

Teddy decided to go out while Otis wasn't quite ready to try it out. 

Because it was warm enough, I took Smaug with me to go run a couple of "pet friendly" errands. I took a picture of him on my shoulder when I stopped at a stoplight. He stayed very mellow and looked all around him. 

At the vet, he attracted quite a bit of attention. 

Then I ran in to get some frozen feeder rats at my local pet store (my local feeder rat supplier had a virus wipe out their entire colony and I'm anxiously waiting for them to start selling feeders again!). He got a few odd looks. 

I can't wait for Spring! Warm temps! Walks to school! Tortoises pooping outside instead of on the kitchen floor! Woo hoo! 

Reptile Roll Call for January 5, 2017

Here's most of my reptile zoo (minus the 3 ball pythons who didn't want to leave their hides to have their pictures taken; I have Lucy, Sunny, & Bones). Also, Gumby, the MBD leopard gecko didn't want to come out either.

First the Torts. I only have FOUR! That amazes me. 

Georgie, my female Leopard tortoise 

Hermy, my hibernating Desert tortoise

Leo, the happy little Russian tort

Otis, our house tort

And now my beardies-- 

Baby Sawyer, with a little pudgy food belly

Dash, my old man who is shedding

Flame, who is also shedding 

Gen, my big girl who is sorta bruminating

Max, my big boy who is 6 years old

Neville, the latest addition 

Noel, who is looking sickly this morning

Smaug, my big boy who is looking for a home as the ONLY beardie

Tiger, who has been wheezing again :( 

Ziggy, who has pretty much trashed his tank in the last few days 

 And last, but not least, Lady Squinty Dink the Dainty Skink of bluTonguesville!

Couldn't get the lighting right for a good pic 

We also have two dogs (Belle & Teddy) and a hedgehog (Pixie).

Nom nom

Otis decided to taste my foot today. And then my shoe. And then my other shoe. 

Well, Poop

Got home after delivering Junie and running a few errands and found poop all over my bathroom floor, bath mat, and baseboards. 

Otis!! Silly tortoise. He spread poop all over the back of the door too. 

Poop happens at my house. A lot! 

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. 

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. 

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- 

Noises in the Closet

As I get ready in the morning, I often hear a heavy breathing echoing out of my closet. 

Monster? 

Nope. 

Intruder? 

Nope. 

Lil Foot. 

He's claimed the corner of my closet as his own. The problem is that he wets the bed (which is why he sleeps alone). I tried to make him sleep on a towel, but he doesn't cooperate. 

Sometimes Otis joins him in the closet and then we really hear heavy breathing. 

;) 

Just one more way that I live in a Zoo!