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It's going to be above 80 degrees every day for the next week in the San Fernando Valley, so I took the boxes for my two juvenile CDTs out of their winter storage and put them in the shade. Within an hour the bigger one, Gomez, was stirring. They both got soaks and some outdoor time. Morticia is...

We have been slowly making changes to our enclosures for our 2 CDTs, Gomez and Morticia. There's more we plan to do, I wanted to share the latest. The clay pots have testudo mix and dandelions. The plantings in the ground are drought tolerant native grasses and succulents. The burrows are topped...

Flies seem to love the outdoor enclosures for my CDTs, especially the areas around their food and water dishes. Is there anything I can do? The tortoises don't seem to mind, but I find them pretty gross.

How are your torts spending the first day of spring? Mind are plowing through the tulip beds. (And, no, I do not let the dog around them unsupervised).

First let me start by saying that I know torts and dogs don't mix, and mine are never permitted together unsupervised. And now let me tell you a story: Tonight we couldn't find Morticia, one of our CDTs, in her enclosure. We had been looking in all her usual hiding spots for over an hour --...

I haven't started offering supplemental food yet, since my CDTs just came out of their boxes last week. Morticia's appetite is clearly coming back, though -- she started in on some hibiscus blossoms that fell in the rain.

It's official. Today I boxed Gomez and Morticia for the winter. Both stopped eating a couple weeks ago, and stopped coming out of their hides a few days ago. They each got a final 90-minute warm soak today, a chance to cool in their hides and then I boxed them as temps started to drop this...

Finally a hint of fall has arrived here in LA! Woo hoo! How are everybody's torts taking the sudden weather change? I'm happier about this cool, damp weather than my torts are. Tonight is the first night since April that I've moved my CDTs to their indoor night boxes, as we're expecting lows in...

Happy Halloween, everybody! And don't worry, the dog is never allowed around the torts unsupervised.

Long time no see, everybody! I hope everybody's torts are well. It's hot hot hot here in LA and my CDTs are showing no signs of winding down for brumation season in this heat wave. Here's Gomez out hunting for weeds after his soak. Hope we get a cool-down soon!

I moved Gomez and Morticia's brumation boxes out of the freezer and into the shady side of the yard this morning and within 90 minutes they were peeping out. Thought I'd share a few wake up day photos!

Hi guys, I haven't been on here in a while due to lots going on in life, but my juvenile DTs are getting ready to go down for the winter and I thought it was a good time to check in and say hello. Kind of like the tortoise version of a Christmas card. I hope everybody's torts are doing well...

Pretty sure I just saw a baby rattlesnake in one of my CDT enclosures, sunning about a foot from one of the burrows. It was probably 5 or 6 inches long, had the diamond-shaped head, no rattler though. Uhhh... so... now what? Does seeing one mean there are likely more? Is he apt to bother my 6-...

All week it's weeds weeds weeds for my two little CDTs -- but on Sunday, special treats like a hibiscus blossoms and chunks of watermelon get mixed in. Morticia is a fan of Sundays...

A long, thin, yellow striped wasp makes his home in our DT enclosure. He's not aggressive, and there appears to be only the one. He comes out when I water the plants. I don't want to get close enough to photograph him, but here are some of the small holes I presume belong to him. I'm inclined to...

It's jacaranda season here in LA and there are two large trees dropping their beautiful purple blossoms into our DT enclosures. I understand that jacarandas are non-toxic, so I've been letting the torts munch on the fallen blossoms, which they are doing happily. Anybody know if there's any...

In doing some landscaping recently we had to relocate a pile of firewood in our yard and decided to put it in one of our DT enclosures. With the hot spring we're having in California it's become a favorite cool hide full of nooks and crannies, which Morticia loves.

I just wanted to say how happy we've been with the Testudo mix seeds we got from Tortoise Supply. We planted 4 large clay pots with it in a mostly sunny part of our DT enclosure 5 weeks ago, and one pot with some Italian dandelion seeds they threw in as a free gift. We didn't even use a quarter...

This is how I bring my torts in from the yard at night. (Not recommended if your tort often pees in transit).