Outside Time

I spent all morning running around (40 miles south to get the MBD beardie and then 50 miles in the opposite direction to get the adult for a total of 110 miles in 3 hours) and when I finally finally got home, I still had a ton of things on my "To Do" list.

I had my youngest take his beloved pet chickens outside. They are almost 100% fully feathered and will soon be able to stay outside. My youngest begged me to sit outside with him. So I ignored the groceries in bags on the table and the messes that needed to clean up and sat outside with him. For awhile we ate cherries and played with the chickens.

Bunsen, my 10 pound sulcata tortoise, came over to check out the chickens too.

It was a fantastic afternoon in the backyard. I enjoyed it a lot and am glad I chose to ignore the list for awhile and enjoy my family & my animals. <3 nbsp="" p="">

Rescues 179, 180, 181, & 182 at the Vet

The four tortoises I kept from last week made a trip to the vet today to make sure they weren't too sick.

The big sulcata tort is a male and his name is Bunson.
The cherry head is most likely a female and her name is Chiquita.
The smaller sulcata is a female and her name is Red.
The Greek tortoise is a male and his name is Gonzo.

Also, baby Lolly went along for a quick well check and beak trim.

 Top of pic to bottom-- Chiquita, Red, Gonzo, Lolly 

Bunson was NOT happy in his box and got to roam around. 

Gonzo & Lolly both got beak trims. 

All 5 tortosies will stay in quarantine for another couple weeks and then we will see if their respiratory infections improve with adequate heat and a good diet. If they don't, I'll take them back in for treatment. 

Bunson's shell is softer than it should be and he will need a lot more outside time and a much better diet to help him get better. 

Thankfully the visit only came to $385. I was expecting over $500. I could still use some help paying for it though. If you'd like to donate to help pay for their care, please use my PayPal link HERE. 

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.

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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.

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:

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.

Leo, the Russian Tortoise

When I got Leo last November, he was mostly a pet rock. He couldn't/wouldn't open his eyes or eat or drink or move or anything. I didn't know if he would even make it.

After about a month, Leo started eating and drinking on his own. He's now doing really well-- but he's discovered his feistiness! Oh, he's spunky! He kicks and huffs when I pick him up, He tries to buck himself forward and out of my hand. I had him on the floor in the sunshine on Saturday and he started ramming my dog Teddy who was smelling him.

Oh boy! It's great to see him alert & active, but he's definitely in a new category of Pet. I had originally hoped he could return to his first rescuer, but NOPE. He's a brat! He's cute! But a brat!

On Saturday, he started ramming Otis, my big red foot, because Otis was trying to share the sunshine space with him. It didn't take very long before Otis grew weary of Leo's attitude and crawled right over him to get to a better place in the sun.

Tortoise Turf Wars. Now at my house! ;)

And I promise no tortoises or dogs were harmed in the making of this post. After Otis crawled over Leo, they both kept their distance from each other.

Community Watering Hole

Kreature went on a walk-about tonight and discovered the dogs' water dish. He made great use of it.

He must have been quite thirsty because he went back for seconds.

He sniffed the dog food, but wasn't interested.

I realized how many photos I have of different reptiles making use of the water dish. The tortoises use it frequently too. I couldn't find pics of any of my iguanas using it, but I'm almost positive they did. I made a quick collage.... realizing, of course, that I don't have any pictures of my DOGS using the DOG bowl because apparently that is too mundane and boring. LOL! 

Top left: Lil Foot. Top right: Otis. Bottom left: Tuga. Bottom right: Kreature. 

Vet Trip

I took Leo and Drake to the vet today. Leo got a beak trim and a Vitamin A injection to help with his swollen eyes. I have a two week game plan now to help him get back on track. If he's not eating within two weeks, I'll take him back to the vet to be tube fed. 

Drake is still not eating on his own. He sleeps all the time and has lost weight. He breathes through his mouth a lot too. 

Drake stumped Dr Folland on his last visit, and today he tried to repeat the stumping. His eyes are clear, his mouth is clear, his belly was soft. Nothing obviously wrong. He has zero body fat though. 

So they took blood to do basic blood tests to see if anything shows up. We'll start there. 

He is still shedding off the nasty stained sand. 

Blood tests come back tomorrow and we'll go from there. I'll start force feeding him every day instead of weekly to help pack on the calories. 

Thomas, rescue 156

Today I picked up this little red foot tortoise. He's probably 3 or so years old. 

Poor little guy's shell is SO messed up! I've never seen such bad pyramiding. His shell should be smooth with no bumps. He's practically a Koopa turtle from Mario Bros! 

He's outside in the sunshine right now. Thank goodness for unseasonably warm days. He had a hard boiled egg and some greens and some pellets. He's pooped a ton and is super curious about his new home. 

I'm hoping that his shell will even out with a good diet and good habitat, but I suspect that he will always be "specially" shaped. 

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. 

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!