Hello!
We moved form the states a few years ago to Turkey. We live in a kind of like suburb place near the black sea.
We live half way up a mountain and around our house we have many Spur tortoises. They are very used to us and people are very fond of them here. we have a garden and a river near by. They come into our garden all the time and eat our veggies and we love it. we never feed them non "native food". The other day my wife and I were shocked to see dead baby tortoises in the woods as if eaten by something.. very sad. Then when we were driving home and in the middle of the road we saw a tiny tiny little guy just siting there. I couldn't help it but took it home. Now I know we live in his natural habitat so that is a plus, but I am worried to just let him go because of the gruesome scene we saw with some other babies. We want to give him a plus one start! Would be OK if we took care of him for a while outside in a safe place? its day two now. we gave him a lukewarm bath he loved it drank water and like a cat "cleaned his head" with his little hands. we didn't know what he ate so we followed him for hours in the garden warding off our dogs and cats and two big tortoises that were roaming around in the yard. Then this little guy stopped and started eating these dandelion like leaves. so we picked him up, put him in his big plastic cage with grass and a little shallow bowl of water and those dandy lion leaves. He went to town eating from our hand and on his own. When I said we should let him go in the back yard my wife started to cry and said he would probably get eaten. We do live in the wild so probably she is right. I couldn't bring my self to do it. What should I do? keep him/her OK for a while till he or she gets a bit bigger then let him out or let him on his own now? The Tortoises we have in our garden are our regulars, we can actually tell them apart and they are always coming and going, they are not scared of us at all they come up to us! There is one with only 3 legs and a little stump where the 4th should be and we find him sometimes on the road and we put him on the other side in the direction he was heading as so not to disturb his path. Then the next day, behold "Stumpy" as we call him is walking around in our front yard again!. Sorry for the long post. We love these little guys! Kind regards
Abe
We moved form the states a few years ago to Turkey. We live in a kind of like suburb place near the black sea.
We live half way up a mountain and around our house we have many Spur tortoises. They are very used to us and people are very fond of them here. we have a garden and a river near by. They come into our garden all the time and eat our veggies and we love it. we never feed them non "native food". The other day my wife and I were shocked to see dead baby tortoises in the woods as if eaten by something.. very sad. Then when we were driving home and in the middle of the road we saw a tiny tiny little guy just siting there. I couldn't help it but took it home. Now I know we live in his natural habitat so that is a plus, but I am worried to just let him go because of the gruesome scene we saw with some other babies. We want to give him a plus one start! Would be OK if we took care of him for a while outside in a safe place? its day two now. we gave him a lukewarm bath he loved it drank water and like a cat "cleaned his head" with his little hands. we didn't know what he ate so we followed him for hours in the garden warding off our dogs and cats and two big tortoises that were roaming around in the yard. Then this little guy stopped and started eating these dandelion like leaves. so we picked him up, put him in his big plastic cage with grass and a little shallow bowl of water and those dandy lion leaves. He went to town eating from our hand and on his own. When I said we should let him go in the back yard my wife started to cry and said he would probably get eaten. We do live in the wild so probably she is right. I couldn't bring my self to do it. What should I do? keep him/her OK for a while till he or she gets a bit bigger then let him out or let him on his own now? The Tortoises we have in our garden are our regulars, we can actually tell them apart and they are always coming and going, they are not scared of us at all they come up to us! There is one with only 3 legs and a little stump where the 4th should be and we find him sometimes on the road and we put him on the other side in the direction he was heading as so not to disturb his path. Then the next day, behold "Stumpy" as we call him is walking around in our front yard again!. Sorry for the long post. We love these little guys! Kind regards
Abe
