*cough* more baby tortoises ?! *cough*

You might remember me mentioning that our tortoise family is complete. You might also know that I'm a huge sucker for tiny baby tortoises.

Just out of the box - one still has the red nail polish mark from the breeder

When I got Buttercup (the almost-yearling Marginated tortoise) I knew that at some point down the line I wanted to get more, to form a small breeding group eventually. Well, to make a long story short,  an opportunity came up that it would have been folly to pass up, and now we have two more baby Marginated tortoises.

Parmesan Cheese? Nope, baby tortoises!

These two tiny girls were shipped to me, and arrived safely this morning. The FedEx guy placed the box on the ground with the 'This way UP' arrow prominently pointing DOWN, but the tortoises were so well packaged that they were just fine.

Sorry it's a little blurry - I was too excited to get them out!

I know that I call Buttercup a 'baby' tortoise, and she is. But these wee creatures are truly BABY tortoises. They are about 1 and 3/4 inches long (less than 4.5cm). Their tiny belly buttons have just healed over, and they only have one growth ring so far. They each weigh 16g - which is about 5x smaller than Buttercup. Can you imagine that they will grow 425x larger in the course of their life (to about 6800g or up to 15lbs)?!

Buttercup looks like a giant now!

I refer to the babies as 'girls' because they were incubated at temperatures that should result in females. Tortoises, like many other reptiles, are sexed based on the temperature the eggs are kept at, did you know that? It will likely be another 5 or more years before we know for sure though.

Meet Blossom (L) and Bubbles (R). 

I got to choose these two out of several clutches. They are unrelated, and I picked the darkest of all the babies, and the lightest of all the babies. It will be interesting to see what they look like as adults. Marginated tortoises don't differ much visually, once they are grown up, but I am sure we will be able to tell them apart.

Exploring a little

After the wee Marginated babies had soaked, I set them into the enclosure to bask. They moved around and explored, one of them even nibbled on the weeds I offered, and then they dug themselves into the spaghnum moss of their hot humid hide.

I provide artificial UVB for them indoors, but once it was warm enough outside, I also brought them out and let them explore the safe little planted baby tortoise garden for a few hours. Natural sunlight is so good for them, and I hope they will be off to a good start for years of nice smooth growth. I know their breeder gave them the best start a baby could possibly hope for.

'Shot' lettuce = yummy treat for tortoises!

The tortoises got to eat a special treat today: my friend gave me a big bag of lettuce that had gone to seed in her garden, and therefore was too bitter for humans to eat. 

Freshly bathed, and chowing down!

 The tortoises seemed to think this stuff was candy. The scarfed it down like there was no tomorrow!

Look how 'domey' little Jill is getting. She is shiny from her bath.

Even little Jill, who is the smallest of the Russian torts, ate a sizeable portion, and then looked up at me, seemingly asking for more. I think she is actually going to end up growing to be a very large Russian tortoise. Just look at how tall her shell has gotten - now she just needs to catch up in length, too! I am keeping her separate from the other Russian tortoises for the cold season, because she got picked on too much last year, and I don't want to let that happen again.

Buttercup enjoyed a few leaves, too, along with a small aloe leaf.

Buttercup, our marginated tortoise, is growing beautifully, as well. She weighed in at 72g the other day, and her new growth continues to be healthy and smooth.

Buttercup meets a snail V2.0

Our little Marginated tortoise got to meet another snail. It finally rained here, so there were quite a few in our garden - I think these are European snails. People are always surprised to see them in our area. Regardless, the design on this particular snail's shell looked really pretty, so before feeding it to our redfoot tortoise, I took a few pictures of it with on top of Buttercup. 

Giving snails a ride makes me grumpy! (Or maybe that's just my face)

I found a nice sunny spot on a rock in your back yard that was the perfect staging area for these pictures. No flash or extra lighting was necessary.

Weeee!

Hopefully in the next year or so we will have some home-hatched Russian tortoise babies... which will start out about the same size as this snail!

Two beautiful shelled creatures...

On a side note, it is a real pain to rinse snail trail off of a tortoise shell. It's not quite water soluble, and kind of sticky. I don't put anything but water on Buttercup's shell, so I finally just scrubbed it a little with an old toothbrush.

Cuteness alert!

Daylilies are a healthy treat for tortoises... and since they are one of my favorite flowers, I have a lot of them in my garden. I love that Buttercup, our little Marginated baby, is smaller than even the smallest of the daylily blooms. I know she will end up much bigger than the flowers, as well as all my other tortoises... so I took some pictures of her eating a flower!

Buttercup taking a chomp out of a daylily

Snail Cozies?!!!

I promise you that I have NOT gone off the deep end. ;) I just like to crochet, and I like to giggle. One of my clients asked me to crochet a tiny lacy stegosaurus cozy for her baby tortoise, which happens to be the same size as our baby marginated tortoise, Buttercup. I had a little bit of the yarn left over... and so, not wanting to waste it, I made a snail cozy! I couldn't stop laughing, and so I took some pictures for you:

Buttercup and snail. Snail is being shy.

A snail in a cozy. What is this world coming to?!

Neither tortoises nor snails need cozies... but both are very funny!

Who wouldn't giggle about a snail in a cozy?!

I hope this made you smile just a little... or maybe laugh out loud?

The tortoise nursery

Keeping a hatchling tortoise involves a little more work than caring for a juvenile or adult tortoise. It helps that our little Marginated tortoise Buttercup had a really good start in life - she is healthy, spunky, active, eats well, and even self-hydrates (aka she drinks on her own!).

Buttercup, our wee Marginated baby

I thought some of you might like to see the 'nursery' I set up for her. She has one that is indoors, where she sleeps and spends her mornings, and one that is outdoors, which I move about a bit to provide both sun and shade.

The tortoise nursery

I purchased this large rubbermaid bin, and used a dremel cutting wheel to cut out most of the plastic lid. Then I zip-tied hardware cloth into that area (hardware cloth is similar to chicken wire, but has much smaller holes). This will help protect Buttercup from hawks, crows, cats, or whatever else might come through our yard during the daytime.

I filled the bin halfway with ACE topsoil. It has no fertilizer and no perlite. I included a little hill, a cave, some rocks, a water dish (which used to be a lid for some container), and a bunch of hens-and-chicks and weeds (dandelion, plantain, violet, thistle) from the yard. Of course Buttercup decided to burrow into the dirt outside of the cave, making her own... and she dug up some of the plants and/or ate them. Tortoises are such little tanks!

Buttercup, exploring

I mist the whole enclosure several times a day - letting the soil surface dry out in between. I also soak Buttercup in shallow, warm water for about 20 minutes daily. As mentioned above, I end up moving the bin a few feet at a time to provide sunshine and shade. Around 4pm it gets hot enough in the side yard where the tortoises live that Buttercup digs down into the soil. Then she comes back out around 6 to snack and explore some more.

Buttercup chomping pieces off of the cuttlefish bone

Baby tortoises have a lot of growing to do, and to grow healthy bones and a healthy shell, tortoises need a lot of calcium. I provide cuttlefish bones in both of Buttercups nursery bins, and am delighted to see that she helps herself to it.

Cuttlefish bones are a good source of calcium!

Look at how big she is opening her mouth to take a bite! She nibbles on the cuttlefish bone almost daily.

The bottom line for a good tortoise nursery: protection from predators, good substrate, humidity, warmth, food, shelter, calcium, water. Keeping baby tortoises hot and humid results in beautiful, smooth shells (along with good food, good natural UVB light, and calcium). I will change the landscape in there periodically to keep it interesting and stimulating. She will likely out-grow this container by next Spring, but for now it is just right!

Our baby Marginated tortoise has a name!

I think I have settled on a name for our little Marginated tortoise. My husband called her a "margarine" tortoise the other day, which brought me to butter, which brought me to 'Buttercup' - if she really turns out to be female, and some day we get a male, then we'll name him Wesley. ;)

Little Buttercup seems to be settling in really well. She has eaten every day, is active and curious, and loves to explore. She seems to enjoy her daily soaks, and doesn't hide when I mist her.

I move her big tub outside every afternoon so that she can catch some natural sunshine. She seems to like being out there, and it will be fun to watch her explore when I've built her a larger outdoor enclosure. 

I measured and weighed her yesterday. Buttercup is 2.5" long (6.35cm) and weighs 60g. I look forward to watching this spunky little one grow and thrive!

Bathtime and weigh-in!

Except for our baby Marginated tortoise, all the torts are currently living outside for the Summer. Just to be sure that they are staying hydrated, I soak them once a week (the baby gets soaked every day). I keep my tortoises separated by species, so bath-time is really the only chance I have to take a picture of them all together.

My little tortoise crew soaking in warm water

The current count is: 5 Russian tortoises (1 male, 4 females), 1 Greek, 1 Marginated. These are all my own, I am not currently fostering any tortoises (I'm sure that will change).

Summertime weigh-in

About once every half year I weigh my tortoises to make sure they are growing healthily. Here are the result's from today's weigh-in:

Our Greek tortoise, Boo - 480g

The Russian tortoises:
Jill - 452g
Roz - 478g
Mila - 628g
Timmy - 908g
Lady - 1075g

Our baby Marginated tortoise - 60g

It looks like all the tortoises are healthily gaining weight. Hooray!

New tortoise family addition!

We have had an un-planned addition to our tortoise family yesterday: a small Marginated tortoise baby! This little one hatched last November to a tortoise owner near us. At almost 9 months old, she is past the sensitive stage, but still small enough to fit into the palm of my hand. 

I haven't decided on a name yet - the eggs were incubated at temperatures that should result in females, so until proven otherwise, I am going to assume she is a female. We likely won't be able to tell for sure for several years.

I have never held a tortoise this small. She is too darn cute! She sure doesn't hold still much though. It was hard to get good pictures!

Just look at that cute little tortoise belly! Did you know that Marginated tortoises have a slightly hinged plastron? It is more obvious in an adult.

She was kept outdoors since April - she has a beautiful, healthy shell (with very minimal pyramiding from the first few weeks of her life, which she spent indoors), and she is active, alert, bright-eyed and spunky. I have set up an indoor enclosure for her, but she will spend afternoons outside in a protected little enclosure. 

I haven't measured and weighed her yet. I didn't want to disturb her too much today, since she was eating wonderfully, and exploring her enclosure.

It is going to be so fun watching her thrive and grow! So far all my tortoises have been rescues and 2nd hand... so it will be nice to start with a 'brand new' little one.

New Tortoise Paintings in my Etsy shop!

I finally have listed some new tortoise paintings in my Etsy shop, Mossy Tortoise (www.mossytortoise.etsy.com)!

A little Russian tortoise, ready to be gifted!

A baby Sulcata tortoise meeting a snail

A baby Leopard tortoise meeting a goldfish

A little Russian tortoise, basking

A hatchling Leopard tortoise stealing a bite of apple

A happy little Russian tortoise, going out for a stroll

A hatchling Redfoot tortoise

An adult Redfoot tortoise

A close-up of a Yellowfoot tortoise

A Radiated tortoise from Madagascar

A lumpy bumpy Indian Star tortoise

A gopher tortoise

A top view of a pancake tortoise

If, by the time you get there, the one you want has sold out, just send me a message in Etsy, and I can have a print made in 5x7 or larger.