Scruffie

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Maggie Cummings

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About a week ago I thought I noticed that my RES Scruffie didn't eat but my son was having problems with his heart so that was kinda more important. Then two days later she refused her meal again and was swimming around in a circle with a lot of splashing...uh oh I know what that means but it's not spring. I have had Scruffie for 5 years, my sister rescued her she had been chewed up by a dog and really just wasn't very pretty. She was probably about a year old then. Well she grew to be a good sized turtle 10 inches now. Every spring she starts acting exactly this way and I put her in the box turtle pen and she makes her nests. 2 or 3 a year. But this is early and it's all frozen out there.
So I put a bunch of old substrate in a 175 gallon aquarium and wet it down. I wrap newspaper around the outside for privacy and I go get her. She lives in a dumpster bottom in a shed. I set her down in that tank and she starts digging right away. So for the next hour she's digging and the dirt is just falling back in the hole. So I pour some water in it and she's digging like crazy and it's just not holding. Then I remember I have bags of sand over the back wheels in my IROC for winter traction. So I put Scruffie into the bath tub and haul in a couple of buckets of sand, I mix it all up in that tank and throw Scruffie back in. Now mind you if this was happening this way to any other turtle being disturbed this way they would stop and just give up. But Scruffie trusts me and she starts digging again. She makes me a present of 9 kinda big eggs. I am so proud of her and without getting too mushy I think it's pretty neat that she trusts me enough to work with me while I try to get her set up for this nesting business...So here's Scruffie and her eggs...BTW...she has not been with a male in the 5 years I've had her and I really wish she would stop creating eggs...

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Yvonne G

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Too bad we didn't take any pictures of Scruffie when we first got her. She was a pretty bad dog-chew. Took a long time and lots of Maggie's hard work to get her well. She's a really nice turtle, however, she still bites like crazy when she feels like it.

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nrfitchett4

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I think all of the turtles I have ever come across have been biters. That is one thing that led me to a tortoise.
 
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Maggie Cummings

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Scruffie has not tried to bite me in years. Yet she will viciously attack anyone else if they get within biting distance, and I really do mean viciously. When I stand by her tank and watch her swimming around I get that dum da dum sound from Jaws in my head. She does not bite me...but I am very careful around her. I don't trust her to not bite me. Just the same as I have a 80 pound Sulcata that I can count on to bite me so don't for a minute think that tortoises don't bite. Bob bites, draws blood and leaves black bruises. He has a great personality and only bites me because I am the food goddess. He thinks I am food, it's that simple. I should never have hand fed him.
I used to head start Gopherus agassizii for my sister, and even tho they are the sweetest most mellow tortoise alive, I have been bitten by several of them. I have Ornate box turtles and they will bite if given the opportunity, yet the 3-toed that I have don't ever bite.
there is just no rhyme or reason to who bites and who doesn't...
 

Kristina

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Scruffie has such a sweet looking face, lol.

I do think it is neat that she knows that you are trying to help her get those eggs out. Very nice story, and thank you for sharing!

Kristina
 

Isa

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Maggie
I am glad Scruffie trusts you a lot and that she is doing good after what happened to her when she was younger :)
 
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