I just emailed a friend of mine inquiring about the exotics vet she uses for her ball python. Hopefully I will simply be able to drop off a stool sample and get some medication without having to bring my tortoise in for a check-up. Since she's acting so healthy I would hate for her to be exposed...
I was cleaning up after my Hermann's tortoise tonight and was horrified to find three or four of these tiny worms on the exterior of her feces. I removed the stool from her enclosure and broke it apart a little on a paper plate with some medical scissors. I did not find any more inside the...
I don't know much about desert tortoises specifically, but it would make sense to me that a tortoise's skin would darken in response to more sun or an especially sunny season. Its the same sort of response you or I would have to increased sun exposure. We would tan. The body responds to an...
One thing you might want to try is covering the enclosure with an acrylic or plexiglass sheet. Those are pretty inexpensive but hold heat and humidity in well. If your enclosure walls are tall enough you can either mount your lights inside, beneath the acrylic sheet, or cut out holes in the...
Cacti are very difficult to grow from seed. If you want to try growing some of your own, I would suggest getting some cactus pads shipped to you. You can give some as food but save several (or as many as you want) to try and plant. All you have to do to get cactus pads to root is stick them...
Your tortoise should not be outside of its enclosure at all. How is he "refusing" to sleep anywhere but there? You need to keep him inside a secure, enclosed area where he is provided with the proper temperatures in order to regulate his body temperature. The floor is an incredibly unsafe place...
Do you offer him any calcium? Acknowledging what you said about how he likes to back up against his water dish, his shell still looks a bit funny to me.
When I first got my juvenile tortoise Pumpkin, I was so surprised when I saw how much trouble these little guys can get into. Pumpkin loves to pull all sorts of dare-devil stunts. He leaps off of his tuberware humid hide, slides down the sides of his half log, and does unnecessary parkour over...
Pumpkin very well could. (S)he's still very young. It doesn't matter to me either way, I'm just getting all excited about speculating for the future :D I would one day love to have some more tortoises, maybe even incubate a clutch or two.
Thank you both very much for your compliments :D Call it maternal instincts, but I've also gotten the feeling that Pumpkin may turn out to be a female. We'll just have to wait and see!
Pumpkin turned one just over a month ago, and man, I'm still surprised by how big (s)he has gotten. A lot of people on this forum are surprised to hear that Pumpkin is so young because of how large s(he) is. I'm a bit perplexed myself, since I have provided a very weed rich diet and, as far as I...
Yup, there's a rather large hole in the stump that he can climb into, kind of like a cave. It was a large knot hole in a tree that fell in my friend's yard and they cut it up and gifted me a piece. I think it looks like a gnome's house, hehe :)
Oh good, I'm so glad there doesn't appear to be any problem. I had a feeling that was simply the inherent shape of his shell, but I just wanted to make sure. I'll make sure to mount the new UV strip light properly. I've fed escarole before and Pumpkin liked it (he isn't picky at all), so I'll...