8 Tortoises & Turtles

On Wednesday, I rescued 5 tortoises and 3 box turtles! 2 sulcatas, 1 cherry head/red foot, 1 Russian with an infected dog bite, 1 Greek tortoise, 2 3-toed box turtles, and 1 ornate box turtle. All of them have colds.

Yesterday I took the 3 boxies and the Russian to Idaho to give them to my friend who runs the Land Turtle & Tortoise Rescue.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

An Update on the Wood Turtle

Come to find out the wood turtle I helped rescue last week is NOT a wood turtle.

Bruce is a very, very, very rare Jagged shell/Keeled shell box turtle. They originate from Asia and are extremely endangered! 

The rescue will get him all fixed up (he's got a skin fungus and some other issues) and then keep him. It makes me wonder what this guy's life journey has been.

For more info on Bruce, the Land Turtle & Tortoise rescue, or info on how to donate to Bruce's care, please CLICK HERE!

An Empty Roll Call

My house is empty. My heart still feels a bit empty.

But it is sunny and I have my beardies in the windows and decided to take pics for a roll call. 

Ziggy

Norman

Flame

Max 

Milo 

Noel (will be available for adoption soon!)

Noodle, a foster corn snake 

Raptor (will be available for adoption soon!)

Not pictured (because I'm too lazy to walk around and try to take pics of them! ;) )-- 5 baby chickens, 1 hedgehog, 2 dogs, 4 tortoises (outside), 2 ball pythons, 1 crested gecko, a leopard gecko, and 1 box turtle (outside).

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.

Sissy, rescue 174

I thought it would be great to call the two box turtles I took to Idaho "Sissy" and "Sassy" since one was shy & one was *not!* But turns out that the Sassy one was actually a boy.

That's okay. He went to live with the owners of the Land Turtle & Tortoise rescue in Idaho who are very skilled at caring for feisty, rambunctious, and busy ornate box turtles.

Sissy is a sweetheart and rather timid. She is a healthy and good looking normal box turtle and she came back home with me. For now, she'll stay here with me. If that becomes to much, I have a good friend who adores box turtles and will gladly adopt her.

I gotta read up on box turtle care again so I make sure I'm doing the right things for Sissy. It's been a couple years since I had a box turtle (who was an ornate turtle who wanted to feed on my flesh & drink my blood; meaning: he was *not* nice).

She's already enjoying the sunshine on the kitchen floor and is learning where to go to get food & water.

We are ALL counting down the days until the tortoises can be outside all day.

A Trip to Idaho and 3 new Tortoises

I drove up to Twin Falls, Idaho this weekend to meet the owner of the Land Turtle & Tortoise Rescue for a tortoise swap. Do you follow them on Facebook? You should. Click HERE.

I LOVED driving up to Idaho by myself. Well... technically it was me and two box turtles. :) I picked up these two to deliver to Kacy.

An Ornate who was FEISTY! And needed a beak trim.

And a regular female who was very shy and obviously got bit by a dog at some point in her life.

I had never been to that part of Idaho as an adult! And to go there alone was fantastic. I left my zoo in the capable hands of my hubby & kids and took a much needed break. I listened to a book on CD as I drove too-- "The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto" by Mitch Albom. LOVED it!


Friday night, I drove around and saw the Snake river. That river is incredible! In Idaho, you can see all the way around you, almost from horizon to horizon. SO gorgeous. I fell in love with that area immediately.

On Saturday, I went to see one of the sets of water falls on the Snake River- the Twin Falls. The other set, the Shoshone Falls, I ran out of time to see. But there are two sets and that's why the city "Twin Falls" has that name. :) The Snake River has been super full because of the wet winter and the falls were running fast & hard. 

I met Kacy and gave her the two box turtles and she gave me three tortoises to take back to Utah. One is staying with me (and will show up on the blog later). One went to my rescue brother Joe. The other, Merlin, is about to be adopted out. He's a doll!

Before she left, I decided to keep one of the box turtles- no, not the feisty one. :) I kept the sweet one and brought her back home with me. I'll blog about her later.

I had such a wonderful trip. I wish I could have stayed longer, but am already making plans to take my family back there so we can hike in the river gorge and watch the falls and enjoy the beauty.

Check out the sunset pic I took Friday night:

Pops, number 123

Pops is an ornate box turtle who came to me yesterday. He was a rescue who couldn't stay with his rescuer.

So far he's proven to be very good at "Hide N Seek." He is good at hiding from me. 

He's headed to a friend of mine who will fix him up good with a nail trim and beak polish. Then he'll be prettier. :) 

Pudge, rescue 121

Yesterday became a "2 for 1" rescue. I went to get Remy and walked away with a little box turtle too. He'd been kept in a super dry tank with little to no water. :( His skin shows that he's been dehydrated too. 

This little guy is adorable but his feet are in bad shape! He has layers and layers of old shed stuck around his nails. 

His nails and feet are all twisted and dirty. I'm afraid a few of them are dead because the old skin cut off the blood flow. 

The tip of his back foot (see above) is black and I'm afraid he'll lose part of his foot. 

Pudge is headed to the vet Monday morning and I'll let the vet try to remove the dead skin & tissue. I am not skilled enough to attempt it on my own. 

For now he's in a great set up with lots of mud and water to play in. 

Rescue Skills

It takes a certain amount of talent to go rescue a baby beardie and come back with a juvenile box turtle too.

I wonder how I'd list that on my resume? 

More details on next posts.