Recent content by Lulu

I went to the last one, and just wanted to say that it is well worth the cost. You finish up with a nice vivarium with a water feature, and lots of left over supplies. It's also surprising how easy it is to make something nice when you have someone to walk you through it the first time. I...

They probably got him from Petco. Petco routinely states that their russians are "juveniles," about "six months old." They are usually much older than that when caught. He probably does have some problems, but russians are very hardy and resilient tortoises. A funny walk and a little bit...

My vet only charges about $12 for a beak trim, but that's on top of whatever the visit fee is. His shell does not look that unusual to me, but it's hard to tell from a picture. There's a little uneven growth maybe, but I've seen a lot of males with that little skirt area. An overgrown beak...

My hermann's was rescued from craigslist with severe mbd, and she felt like a hacky sac. It was very noticeable and her shell was very deformed (divoted in the back and kind of melty looking and flat around the edges). She slowly "stiffened" with calcium injections, lots of water, and UV and...

Nice looking tortoises. For what it's worth, we just removed our male russian from the group enclosure today because the ladies are beating up on him. I guess they're just not interested in what he's selling right now. We will probably keep him separate from the females from now on and only...

I would agree that you should be fully prepared to have them not get along and have enclosures set up for that possibility, and that a trio may be more likely to meet with success than a pair.

Ain't it the truth.

Russians will try to mate with any tortoise, regardless of sex or species. If you got your russian at a pet store, he may be older than you think and mature or nearly mature sexually. They are very aggressive while mating -- ramming and biting are common. Injury is very possible. Even if he...

I'm not saying they will get along, mind you. :) But with redfoots you have some chance of success. I'm a testudo gal myself, and they really don't care if they ever see another tortoise (though the males would really really like to see a female from time to time). However, I've known people...

I only care because mine mow things down so fast in their enclosures that I have to pick from the rest of the yard. I have a pretty limited set of stuff to choose from (mallow, chickweed, hawksbeard, etc.), so I just pull the stuff I know is good to give to them. I don't worry about the things...

Actually, my experience (my husband has them) and from what I've seen with others, redfoots are pretty happy with companions and more likely to get along with other tortoises than other species. I don't know that they're "happier" with companions, but from all I've seen, they do pretty well...

I've used organic garden soil, which you can usually get at Walmart. My nearly yearling sulcata is currently residing outside on plain old dirt. I have used coco coir and a mix of coco and soil for other tortoises. Sand used to be common as a substrate, but there are dangers with ingestion...

I was thinking maybe dudleya edulis, because I see a lot of that down here, rather than the more common rosette type. Usually that comes more directly from the ground though. It may be a crassula. I have seen the third before, but I can't identify it. I'm better with natives than the general...

The fourth is mother of millions. Toxic, from what I recall. The last is aptenia. It is edible. I think the second one is dudleya, which is edible. Edit: Yes, mother of millions is highly poisonous to grazing animals. I know endo/ecto can have different reactions to different things, but I...

Hi, My husband builds these out of boards from the home improvement store (often from the scrap bin), and hardware cloth: The solid area in the back is a shade area. The last board is unattached on this one so we can retrieve the tortoise if he is back there, but the larger versions...