A bit O/T....

[jeff kushner]

I'm still waiting for Matilda's new "Tiny home" to arrive. When you pay 32 bucks delivered for a 20 gal glass aquarium, apparently, you have to wait while it is being fabbed? Didn't I order that on the 19th? I'm teasing of course.....the cool thing is the stuff I've learned about "formation" in an aquarium. They use the pink or blue closed cell insulation board, fab the general shapes and heights of various surfaces, then they use the foam insulation that you buy at the Dollar store and layer it on the walls for effects under a waterfall. It seals all joints and allows damming for water....then while still wet, sprinkle with dirt...Wa LA!

I'm thinking of incorporating some of this in Matilda's winter home but more the spray for separating the different substrates. It's a cool material when installed on a wall, because of the nooks and crannies it supports mosses, algae and fern growth. She's a turtle and is she wants to dig a hole, I want her to be able to dig, not hit styrofoam board so I'm not think of it for any part of her base but we'll see.

I'm planning on dividing the 24" width into slices, each the 12" depth of her home. By using the foam dams between spaces, I can minimize substrate migration...and keep it nicer, longer. We'll see how that goes. I don't think she's going to care that I want her to have a well kept home if it's going to be in my bedroom....but she sure loved that concierge service that came with living indoors!!

jeff

 

[Yvonne G]

Can't wait to see the finished product!

 

[jeff kushner]

Thanks Y, It got pretty chilly here last night so sooner done, better it will be. I went out and Matilda apparently never dug in last night as she was sitting in her fitting(hide).

Her new home arrived safe & sound and most of the things I had ordered except the seeds and the expanding foam stuff which is the pivotal piece to begin with!

I'm going to incorporate her fitting, maybe one size smaller..in her new home. It has been a "constant" for her since she was a baby and one that should provide some visual recognition when I place her in her new home.




jeff

 

[jeff kushner]

Had a brainstorm, I decided to put the smaller 3" fitting in her outdoor home to see if she will use it.... he seems intent on doing something else though, but she did smile for the camera!

 

[Yvonne G]

I just love box turtles! They're so tuned in to their person.

 

[jeff kushner]

I went out and checked on her since I had seen that she was digging in around 4pm ......this was nice to see. It's a smaller 3" fitting....she still has "just" enough room to complete a circle inside w/ 3/8" to spare but if she grows over the winter, it's going to be a bi**h to swap it out with the tentative ever-evolving plan I have for her home. Need a little more thought into this.....I brought her logs in too.....maybe we can use them....

This is really a challenge for me. I have as much artistic intuition as a cement block. Even staying in the lines was difficult at my best. Thankfully Kerry's coming over this w/e to "help". She's very artistic and paints, crafts- all that stuff but she's a impulsive-beast so she breaks things( we call it "Hossing" after Hoss on Bonanza)....we will likely have a broken aquarium by Sunday but on the chance that we don't, we might have a pretty cool place for Matilda to hang out this winter.

I know many of you, smarter than me with turtles are biting your tongues and I really do appreciate that you are and what it takes to do so when we aren't necessarily onboard with something we observe happening, I truly do.
I have no idea is this is "right or wrong" for her as a wild caught turtle, but give her runtiness, I'm bringing her in for me and my peace of mind.....and I can wrap my head around that when the worst case out for her in that decision is that she lives, plain and simple. (I'm justifying but this is just between you and I, ok?)

jeff

 

[jeff kushner]

Believe it or not, we call this "progress"......

We worked on the first couple steps on the tank, then took our new scooters to the park where Matilda came from to look for driftwood since this step won't be ready till tomorrow....and truthfully, to put ten miles on them and see how they are. While there, we saw this fellow warming up on the path but he wasn't really excited when I stopped to pick him up and decided to climb but not before Kerry the teacher, saw a den of cub scouts with their Den leaders and implored them to come and see....they loved it.

Of course we saw Matilda this morning at 50F..she was prob warming up?

 

[Maro2Bear]

Good looking snake. Pretty hot weekend…..cooler & rain next week. ?

 

[jeff kushner]

We need the rain badly...maybe today. It looked like Rt3 was damp through the 450 intersection this morning @4:30 and I thought I'd run into the rain but then it got dryer towards 50.

Happily, Kerry got a kick of my sharing her "hossing" with you guys.....I still have a tank on Monday, in one piece and all!

Anyway, my estimating skills are being seriously re-examined. I greatly underestimated the required time to build something of a new design for me. The only things I ever sprayed expanding foam at has been cracks and yellow-jacket bees. Kerry had never used it either. She formed the structure in polyhard foam than coated it and formed the pond bowl. As some of have already correctly ascertained, what began as a 5 gallon pond, expanded and leveled and it now about a pint....ok, not that bad, but it illustrates well.


We are having fun though, and it's getting there. The goal was to safely incorporate pond, hide, bridge, dirt, plants.......nothing too extravagant, frankly because I don't have the skillset to do it! LOL

I think some of what we sprayed, will be like the concrete in the center of the Hoover dam. The tracking of the off-gassing and the shapes those burps build is kinda cool but pretty alien in a turtle home.....but we'll see.

I'm just waiting on the kids to come in Shally's thread.....lol

 

[jeff kushner]

LMAO.....came home to this;
When I left for work at 4am this morning, the Tower-of-Power was holding up the end of the wood and had hardened overnight with maybe two small polyps over the end of the wood .........it grew during the day today & probably still is!


too funny......it's amazing how we don't know about a given subject, "expanding foam" in this case, till we actually do it! Good thing I don't work with dangerous stuff! Yikes!

Still waiting on the kids to make their arrival in the other thread.....

jeff

 

[jeff kushner]

Progress;

Added some rocks, her worm farm from the basement, seeds, hide and junk. Waiting for the hoogie-stuff to dry till this morning, 1/2 hr before leaving for work when I had this brainstorm to add water, take some pics and see if it held while away at work.

I filled her pond about 3/4's and turned on the pump. "Please God, hook a brother up".......said reverently while looking up, then I left.

Reality will likely be that I have 2" of mud under her substrate when I return home, and a nearly empty pond as the capillary attraction of the peat does it's job!....and God will be laughing his .... off.

We still have work to do before Matilda makes her grand entrance to "safen" it up a bit, landscaping etc.

 

[jeff kushner]

Thankfully, everything held tight......of course I couldn't resist getting her in there..........an evolving project of course. she found the hill, climbed halfway up the log and has run into her fitting-hide a few times. It took her 5 minutes flat to find the basking lamp! LOL

 

[jeff kushner]

You guys know I've never had a baby box turtle despite having at some point, 50 or more adults over my life. I've also never kept a box turtle indoors. Only Clemson the big sulc ever lived outside a tank, in my homes. This is all new to me....

Matilda.....was not happy.....My spidey senses told me that she knew something was going on the past week or so as little changes happened in her outdoor home so when I carefully brought her into the matching temps of her new home for the winter, she was, as I can best describe it in a female-anything, she was PISSED! She wasn't exploring at first as I had thought, she was marching around screaming WTH is going around here!

I dutifully kept my distance and remained quiet.....lol

She taught me where the risks were for (rocks are bad) her as she was looking at me upside down when I came into the room a couple of times...I"ll never get used to that shock when I realize I'm looking at a turtle on it's back...does something to me, somehow. I pressed in or removed the rocks and she was fine the rest of the evening safety wise.

It was funny, she had first climbed the hill via the rock at the rear of the tank, when the rock was removed, it took her an hour to realize it wasn't going to work again at that location......she's scaring me a little....I know she's a little bit of a runt but maybe she;'s a bit of a "sparkler" turtle too?

She did not hide last night I left a background light in the room on for her last night and she was much calmer this morning when I found her parked on the edge of the heat lamps range at 3AM. I left her some turkey, plum,romain on her food rock, doubt she'll be eating for a couple days as she seemed to have already begun the "slowdown" outside. I also need to remove some dirt from/ or raise her fitting, she did not sit in it at all last night that I saw and raced through when she did go in. I'm wondering if the floor being raised a 1/3 to flat, is causing her to feel restricted in it. I don't really know but w'll see.

 

[Jan A]

You guys know I've never had a baby box turtle despite having at some point, 50 or more adults over my life. I've also never kept a box turtle indoors. Only Clemson the big sulc ever lived outside a tank, in my homes. This is all new to me....

Matilda.....was not happy.....My spidey senses told me that she knew something was going on the past week or so as little changes happened in her outdoor home so when I carefully brought her into the matching temps of her new home for the winter, she was, as I can best describe it in a female-anything, she was PISSED! She wasn't exploring at first as I had thought, she was marching around screaming WTH is going around here!

I dutifully kept my distance and remained quiet.....lol

She taught me where the risks were for (rocks are bad) her as she was looking at me upside down when I came into the room a couple of times...I"ll never get used to that shock when I realize I'm looking at a turtle on it's back...does something to me, somehow. I pressed in or removed the rocks and she was fine the rest of the evening safety wise.

It was funny, she had first climbed the hill via the rock at the rear of the tank, when the rock was removed, it took her an hour to realize it wasn't going to work again at that location......she's scaring me a little....I know she's a little bit of a runt but maybe she;'s a bit of a "sparkler" turtle too?

She did not hide last night I left a background light in the room on for her last night and she was much calmer this morning when I found her parked on the edge of the heat lamps range at 3AM. I left her some turkey, plum,romain on her food rock, doubt she'll be eating for a couple days as she seemed to have already begun the "slowdown" outside. I also need to remove some dirt from/ or raise her fitting, she did not sit in it at all last night that I saw and raced through when she did go in. I'm wondering if the floor being raised a 1/3 to flat, is causing her to feel restricted in it. I don't really know but w'll see.

They want what they want. I have never seen so much determination in turtles & torts, whether it's to escape or to climb something or push thru something.

 

[jeff kushner]

Yeah, you're right of course Jan.......Clemson used to ram things once he got some size to him. Grunts for hours as he tried to move things like the refrigerator once LOL

Little Matilda was weighed last night. She weighs 69 grams, or one less then when she first went outside, 3 months ago!

I found her in her fitting when I got yesterday, a great sign. She sat for a picture this morning. She looks a bit scruffy after sticking her head into the ground when the rains came courtesy of the sprayer last night,

 

[jeff kushner]

Ahhhh, she EATS! Matilda cleared her mouth and posed while tearing into that piece of beef behind her.

Is she GLARING at me?

lol

 

[Maggie3fan]

Ahhhh, she EATS! Matilda cleared her mouth and posed while tearing into that piece of beef behind her.

Is she GLARING at me?

lol

View attachment 334424

raw hamburger?

 

[jeff kushner]

Nope, cooked NY Strip....


Never hamburger meat.....not good for her.

 

[Maggie3fan]

Nope, cooked NY Strip....


Never hamburger meat.....not good for her.

That's what I was gonna tell you!!! lol

 

[jeff kushner]

The latest in Matilda's saga is that developers have purchased her home and are bringing in the demo teams to eradicate her water feature! Some BS about lack of permits.....


Actually, it began leaking like a sieve(Red beer cup per 8hrs) so I'll likely cut the foam down below grade and backfill over it. She doesn't dig anyway & it will double her walkable space so maybe this is a good thing? I can place her water over the pond recess and add another, different dry-land feature.....