desert tortoise

My 60+-year-old desert tortoise Tiny Tim was stung by a scorpion last Friday. He was very ataxic and I heard him bumping and slamming around on the patio. I took him to Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital in Mesa Arizona and he was given 5 days of meloxicam and is still on injections of...

Hi, I'm Noah, or ReptilianEmoChild. I am from Arizona and I am in the process of adopting a desert tortoise from the Game and Fish department. I am young and new to owning reptiles so I will be perusing this site often and asking many questions if they haven't been asked already.

So our 26 year old desert tortoise has been doing a lot of head pumping in his sleep at night lately: Video1 Video2 Anyone know what this is? Is this weather related (it's been hot lately)? Digestion? Breathing? Aside from this behavior (that he's just started the last couple days) he seems...

This morning I found my tortoise like this. (See image). She hasn’t done this before. Her cloaca really looks like a female’s and her tail is short so I thought she is a she. What is this? Is it normal? Why is she doing this? She retracted it after about a minute. Should I worry and take her to...

Had a person contact me knowing that I have desert tortoises I take care of & have on my property, he starts telling me that he had found a tortoise on the 14 freeway in Lancaster California. He saw it last second and swerved to avoid it and slammed on his brakes and ran back and got it before...

My three young Desert Tortoises have been out of hibernation for 3 weeks now and they are still very sluggish. This is my second year with them and last year they were very active when they came out of hibernation. This year they are not the same. They will only eat small amounts of Romaine...

Help! My Jackie was stuck in his Burrow. I think it collapsed around him. After Middle of March I got very worried he still had not come out! And when I looked in his burrow it was filled with Dirt where a tunnel use to be. I couldn’t get a shovel in there So for a few days I dug out the dirt...

Not sure if everyone is aware just how destructive these new 'green' forms of energy production are to the surrounding wildlife. It seems that environmental impact studies only hold up those projects not favored by politicians and guaranteed federally backed loans at stupid low interest rates...

Hi all, Murphy, my DT, is now 4 months old. He has doubled his weight since I got him, which is amazing, eats like a champ and gets plenty of UV and water. Question, his shell seems to be flatter than what I imagine it should be. He not super round, more of an ellipse. Can anyone tell me if...

Murphy, my 4 month old DT, is a powerhouse when it comes to eating. He eats 2-3 times a day and eats almost whatever I put in front of him (he has not grown partial to cactus, yet). I've been sprinkling a dash of ReptiCalcium on his greens once a week, but not sure if it's too much or too...

Hi. I'm new here. My about 60 year old Desert Tortoise is named after a german politician, named Stoltenberg. It's our oldest member of our happy zoo and a full-on family member that we love. He now lives with us for about 27 years in southern California and is a very happy and healthy fellow...

Hi everyone! I am so happy that I found this forum. I just rescued a 3 month old desert tortoise. We have named him/her Murphy and both my husband and I adore this little guy to death. We live in Southern California (Palm Springs area) and this is our first tortoise. Eager to meet you all and...

Hi I have 2 just hatched baby desert tortoises. When do I start feeding and what? The umbilical chord has gone down in the second one. I have them in the same plastic container for now. I have 2 four year olds from the same parents but missed this part of their lives- thank you! I have a...

We think he is about 6 to 7 days old. He is 2 inches long. We live in Victorville, California. I have never owned any turtles or tortoises in my life. Any helpful advice on what to feed him would be appreciated. I keep him in a rubber maid storage bin in my room with mulch, basking rocks, a...

We have a DT hatchling--almost a year old (Nov 6)--who lives in a tortoise table at the moment. His energy, appetite, and growth have been great to date. I recently created a longer, sloping downward tunnel for him which he is really enjoying. Maybe a little too much. I put the food out and he...

I foster baby desert tortoises ranging from just a couple weeks old to a year old. I have 18. 10 Texas deserts and 8 California deserts. I have noticed my California deserts are not eating and a few staying in their hides. Well last night and this morning I lost 3 babies. 2 at a month old 1 at...

Hi there - we weren't even expecting new babies as our male tortoise died a few months ago ... we had no clue that our girl tortoise would have laid any eggs... obviously she did .... while doing yardwork, my husband was leveling the yard, and scraped and broke 3 tortoise eggs and we dont...

Nice female CDT, had her for a few years now.