My New Girls

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Tom

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After many years of searching, I found exactly what I was looking for. Meet Big Bertha and Chewy. Bertha has a bit of a funny shape when viewed from above. She's around 80 pounds and bigger than my male, Scooter. Chewy was supposedly chewed on by a coyote when she was younger, but she seems fine now. She's around 60 lbs, just slightly larger than Scooter.

They were in a small dirt pen, with one bulb for heat, but I don't know much more than that about their history. Probably somewhere around 15 years old. You can see they weren't raised with sufficient humidity, hydration and moisture... haha.

Despite the pyramiding, they are both healthy, parasite free and settling in very nicely. I gave the three girls (Delores, my other female) all day to hang out and get to know each other and there were zero problems with any of them. They acted like they had known each other for years and promptly shared a big tray of greens, cactus, cactus fruit, and a little Mazuri. I didn't put Scooter back in until after dark and they all slept nicely together in the shed. The next day Scooter did a little pushing and shoving to assert himself (a**hole) and since he encountered no resistance he just moved on and left them alone. Mission accomplished already. He's leaving Delores alone around 75% of the time now. I have not seen him breed either of the new girls yet. They might be too big for him. Bertha is a bit shyer, retreating into her shell when I surprise her by walking up behind her, but she gets better every day. She readily approaches me to investigate if I sit down in the pen where she can see me. Chewy acts like she owns the place and just marches around investigating. She particularly likes the big hill where she can sit and survey the entire ranch. She's also taken to testing the wall and trying to knock her way out, if she finds a weak spot. All the weak spots have now been doubled up with bricks and she seems to be giving up now. Damn sulcatas. Total brutes, even the girls.

I got these girls for pretty pragmatic reasons. I needed to improve my m/f ratio to give poor Delores a break and IF I ever get eggs out of them, I've got six hungry monitor lizards to feed. Despite that, I've really grown to like them in a very short time. Each one has her own charm and personality. I'm very happy to have made them a part of my family. My little girl loves them and hopefully she still will when she's my age.

Big Bertha:
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Chewy:
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The End:
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Yvonne G

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Very nice!

I notice that both of them have "flat" front leg scales. Remember the thread where we were trying to figure out why some had flat and some had "spikes?" Livingstone is one with the spikey front legs. Both your girls have sweet, small heads and faces. I'm wondering if this is a male/female trait too.
 

Kristina

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I had those two Sulcatas last year... The larger of the two ended up being male, and has those flat front scales. (He is 18" now.) He had a tendency to try to walk through the corner of the enclosure when they were inside. I think that he wore them smooth by rubbing them over and over against the wall.

They are gorgeous in their own way, Tom, and definitely majestic!
 

Tom

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emysemys said:
Very nice!

I notice that both of them have "flat" front leg scales. Remember the thread where we were trying to figure out why some had flat and some had "spikes?" Livingstone is one with the spikey front legs. Both your girls have sweet, small heads and faces. I'm wondering if this is a male/female trait too.

Sharkstar's RV, the most beautiful sulcata that ever lived is a female with the big spikey leg scales too. And Bert, my other male, has a tiny little head and very flat leg scales. All of my sulcatas are of the flat leg scale variety. Sorry for the monkey wrench in your theory.

And thank you very much. For the compliment.
 

Yvonne G

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Its interesting to note that Chewy's gular goes off towards the left. I wonder if that's from being chewed on as a baby. Too bad we don't know the whole story. Oh well... her story is recorded from now on!!
 

Kristina

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Not trying to hijack, but I found the old pic of the Sulcata I had with the worn down scales...

kris006-1.jpg


He would get in the corner and walk, walk, walk, walk... I would turn him around and he would walk around the outside of the enclosure to go back to the corner and walk, walk, walk, walk...
 

Tom

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Sulcatas sure do a lot of that. When I turn mine loose on the whole 5 acre ranch they just motor from one end to the other all day. Seriously, I think if you put a sulcata in the middle of a 10,000 acre pen, it would just march the perimeter looking for a way out all day long. Of course, it would take a while for it to find the perimeter in something that big...
 

Missy

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Congrats on your girls Tom, they are beautiful.
 

Kristina

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Az tortoise compound said:
Congrats Tom! They look very stout.
Raising tortoises to feed lizards. I love it!

Oh, no no no, Tom is certainly NOT feeding tortoises to lizards! He is feeding the EGGS to his monitors, NO baby tortoises involved!
 

DeanS

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Super cool! Glad everything is working out for you. Congrats on the 'new' girls
 

Az tortoise compound

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kyryah said:
Az tortoise compound said:
Congrats Tom! They look very stout.
Raising tortoises to feed lizards. I love it!

Oh, no no no, Tom is certainly NOT feeding tortoises to lizards! He is feeding the EGGS to his monitors, NO baby tortoises involved!

Kyryah,
I understood that. I meant raising the females to lay eggs to feed the lizards. Anyway just a smart(***) comment. There will be lots of those from me. :p
 

Kristina

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LOL, that's okay :) I just didn't want anyone to think Tom was offing hatchling torts, lol.

Smart alec comments are acceptable :p
 

Stephanie Logan

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Tom, you always take such lovely photos of your tortoises.

Congratulations on the the new additions. Lucky girls to have landed such a cushy home. :D
 

tczar

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nic pics tom. u must have a full time job keeping things clean around there, my 1 keeps me busy daily, cant wait for mine to reach that size
 

tczar

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Really Tom, monitor lizards? They WILL eat you, bbq sauce or not!![/b]
 

Tom

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tczar said:
Really Tom, monitor lizards? They WILL eat you, bbq sauce or not!![/b]

Yeah, I've got six blackthroats. Had seven, but gave one to my friends who now have 3. They will be one year old in January, but they are already over 4'. Big appetites too. They can eat 4 chicken eggs or two whole drumsticks at a time. They could probably get down more, but I'm not trying to stuff them.
 
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