This morning a member made a statement that I took exception to, the following is a quote of that statement:
"The conflicting info that is out there can be confusing, but there is a good reason for it. Most of the tortoise keeping world has realized that the old way was wrong. So now we have those who still ignorantly argue for the old way..."
Now I admit, I am from the "old way". Most everything I do today, I was doing in 1989. So let's look at my "old way" of doing things shall we and debate each area...
"Old Way 1." Diet. I have always feed my tortoises fresh foods and tried to mimic what I could find that was natural to them. I have always believed the fresher the better, so grew what I could. I never believed in feeding them commercial food made for other animals.
"Old Way #2." Outside enclosures. I always had my turtles and tortoises out for every bit of time, as possible. I made permanent outside enclosures as large as I could and then kept them planted. When I first came out into the public online mainstream, I remember being made to feel guilty and a bad keeper because I had my outside enclosures with wire sides. I then fixed one with the "mandatory solid sides so as to not stress my poor tortoises". Guess what? My tortoises in a solid wall enclosure did not pace any less then in the wire walled ones. Where is the stress?
"Old way #3." Inside Enclosure. I once more had them as large as I could. I tried to inside also mimic natural as much as possible. I rarely used lights and did not believe in the super high temps or keeping them hot constantly. Lights when used where on for varying amount of time. Substrate was so they could dig down if they wanted and kept damp. Actually once more trying to mimic nature, some times it was allowed to be dry for a day or two, sometimes we had a heavy indoor "rain". I guess you could say inconsistent was a key idea, just as outside weather from day to day is a bit inconsistent. They all had a hide (either a half log or a plant pot) placed on the substrate (actually usually over the spot where I had an (UTH) under the tank heater attached and they all had a water dish.
Many of my enclosures were aquariums (mainly 40 gal breeders). Once more when I first came back out being more publicly active, folks made me feel guilty about using those tanks. So the "bad tortoisekeeper" kept her mouth shut. These days, with this point and many others, I have become vocal that there is no one way to do anything and nobody should make you feel like it is their way or no way. Each of us need to look at our animals, ourselves, and our own environments and choose our own "right way".
"Old way #4." Hibernation. Now I use to hibernate all my tortoises and turtles that would do so naturally. Since that time, I have decided to only hibernate my native animals, who are outside and choose for themselves when and where to hibernate. My hibernation methods were "the box of shredded newspaper in the unheated closet" for the Desert tortoise and the frig method.
"Old way #5" Research. The old way was a bit different from today's. I joined clubs all over the country in order to get their newsletters, I went to club meetings, I went to shows and talks, I wrote people and even called them. I went to libraries and bought shelves of books. Today, most of this can be done so much faster and easier thru this marvelous thing called the internet where now I can learn from more people all over the world. I believed then, as I believe now, you never ever stop looking, researching and tweaking your basics.
"Old Ways #6". Mixing species. As I did from the start, I still personally believe we should keep species separate from each other. I did cross that line once. I for several years had a paint turtle in with my red eared sliders.
These are some of my basic "old ways", which Tom thinks show my complete ignorance. Are my "old ways", which are also the "old ways" used by many other folks today, that bad? Tom points out in a later post the "old ways" mean hot lights and no water bowls. Sorry folks, but that is not the old ways, it is just but one set of two examples of some ways that folks kept their animals. It is wrong to lump all the "old ways" which include many things each of us are still doing today, under the label "old ways".
Yes some of our past tortoise and turtle keeping practices have been found to be faulty, some have been found to be a little off, and yet many are still valued practices today. However, don't make such blanketed statements. Along with that, keep in mind that each case needs to be looked at as an individual thing.
"The conflicting info that is out there can be confusing, but there is a good reason for it. Most of the tortoise keeping world has realized that the old way was wrong. So now we have those who still ignorantly argue for the old way..."
Now I admit, I am from the "old way". Most everything I do today, I was doing in 1989. So let's look at my "old way" of doing things shall we and debate each area...
"Old Way 1." Diet. I have always feed my tortoises fresh foods and tried to mimic what I could find that was natural to them. I have always believed the fresher the better, so grew what I could. I never believed in feeding them commercial food made for other animals.
"Old Way #2." Outside enclosures. I always had my turtles and tortoises out for every bit of time, as possible. I made permanent outside enclosures as large as I could and then kept them planted. When I first came out into the public online mainstream, I remember being made to feel guilty and a bad keeper because I had my outside enclosures with wire sides. I then fixed one with the "mandatory solid sides so as to not stress my poor tortoises". Guess what? My tortoises in a solid wall enclosure did not pace any less then in the wire walled ones. Where is the stress?
"Old way #3." Inside Enclosure. I once more had them as large as I could. I tried to inside also mimic natural as much as possible. I rarely used lights and did not believe in the super high temps or keeping them hot constantly. Lights when used where on for varying amount of time. Substrate was so they could dig down if they wanted and kept damp. Actually once more trying to mimic nature, some times it was allowed to be dry for a day or two, sometimes we had a heavy indoor "rain". I guess you could say inconsistent was a key idea, just as outside weather from day to day is a bit inconsistent. They all had a hide (either a half log or a plant pot) placed on the substrate (actually usually over the spot where I had an (UTH) under the tank heater attached and they all had a water dish.
Many of my enclosures were aquariums (mainly 40 gal breeders). Once more when I first came back out being more publicly active, folks made me feel guilty about using those tanks. So the "bad tortoisekeeper" kept her mouth shut. These days, with this point and many others, I have become vocal that there is no one way to do anything and nobody should make you feel like it is their way or no way. Each of us need to look at our animals, ourselves, and our own environments and choose our own "right way".
"Old way #4." Hibernation. Now I use to hibernate all my tortoises and turtles that would do so naturally. Since that time, I have decided to only hibernate my native animals, who are outside and choose for themselves when and where to hibernate. My hibernation methods were "the box of shredded newspaper in the unheated closet" for the Desert tortoise and the frig method.
"Old way #5" Research. The old way was a bit different from today's. I joined clubs all over the country in order to get their newsletters, I went to club meetings, I went to shows and talks, I wrote people and even called them. I went to libraries and bought shelves of books. Today, most of this can be done so much faster and easier thru this marvelous thing called the internet where now I can learn from more people all over the world. I believed then, as I believe now, you never ever stop looking, researching and tweaking your basics.
"Old Ways #6". Mixing species. As I did from the start, I still personally believe we should keep species separate from each other. I did cross that line once. I for several years had a paint turtle in with my red eared sliders.
These are some of my basic "old ways", which Tom thinks show my complete ignorance. Are my "old ways", which are also the "old ways" used by many other folks today, that bad? Tom points out in a later post the "old ways" mean hot lights and no water bowls. Sorry folks, but that is not the old ways, it is just but one set of two examples of some ways that folks kept their animals. It is wrong to lump all the "old ways" which include many things each of us are still doing today, under the label "old ways".
Yes some of our past tortoise and turtle keeping practices have been found to be faulty, some have been found to be a little off, and yet many are still valued practices today. However, don't make such blanketed statements. Along with that, keep in mind that each case needs to be looked at as an individual thing.
The redfoots of course loved them. 
