Update on Darwin!

[MaggieofNarnia]

Hey guys! I thought I would give you a quick update on how Darwin is doing! I moved back in almost two weeks ago and he seems to be doing much better in the dorms rather than my house. I attribute this to the coldness of my house (It's old and poorly built). Even though he still has days where he is more settled down, he seems to be pretty active a lot of the time, as well as eating and drinking a fair amount.
I had to get pretty creative with his daily soakings. The water in this place is treated a lot, versus the water back home in Indiana which wasn't treated a ton, and therefore had fewer ions that could hurt him. Here the chlorine smell is so strong a visiting friend asked if we had a swimming pool in our residence hall. I knew this amount of chlorine couldn't be good for darwin (In fact, it isn't good for humans), so I have been putting it through a brita filter and then through my Keurig coffee maker to heat it up, then letting it sit to cool back to a bearable yet warm temperature. It seems to have been working pretty well!
I'm working on growing plant to feed him, as of now he has been eating spring mix and mazuri. I am afraid to feed him weeds from the campus area because I'm almost positive they treat the lawn here. We also have a green house in the biology department where I may be able to grow a couple things organically.
I found a new reptile show in the area that seemed pretty nice as well and sold pretty much everything I'll ever need to raise him. The temptation to buy a water turtle or another tortoise was strong... I'm glad I kept my wits about me.
Thanks for all of your help in getting me to where I am now! I will post pictures of the little guy sometime this week on this thread!

 

[cwharris911]

I have to ask, I am dumbfounded that you can keep your tortoise in a college dorm, back in my day(2005, lol) we got in trouble for having geckos we had caught in the dorm and had to get rid of them. Are you skirting the rules and hoping not to get caught or is this allowed at your school?

 

[AZtortMom]

I'm so glad Darwin is doing great! Yay!

 

[MaggieofNarnia]

Well, as a matter of fact, the hand book for residence states that we may not have any pets aside from fish in a tank 15 gallons or smaller. My friends have a 50 gallon tank with 3 sharks in it. My neighbors at one point had a cat. Another friend has a hamster. It isn't a very enforced rule. I'm sure if my RA were to ever find out, she would be more excited than angry that I broke the rules. If I were to get found out by campus security (which I honestly don't think they would do anything. They are pretty lazy about enforcing rules unless your are falling over drunk in a dry hall or driving drunk) I would get a small fine and given a certain amount of time to remove him. Dad knows the drill when it comes to caring for him (Darwin was a huge learning experience for both of us) so if anything were to happen dad would care for him until May when I return. I'm leaving in May for good and next year will be getting an apartment. At this point the only rule I really care to follow is being clean and respectful to my fellow residence. (Wow, it's not obvious that I'm sick of living on campus, is it?)
Darwin is doing great here and has made several friends in the meantime. People love the little guy!