tortoise [ˈtɔːtəs]
noun;
any herbivorous terrestrial chelonian reptile of the family Testudinidae, of most warm regions, having a heavy dome-shaped shell and clawed limbs
It is hard to imagine, but I have crocheted more than 500 tortoise cozies and yard finders since the beginning of this year. The orders keep on coming, and I love the creative challenge when clients ask me for a new design. Here are two of my new designs:
The Shamrock yard finder. After all, you don't want someone to pinch your tortoise for not wearing green on St. Patty's day, right?!
The Shamrock yard finder
The Valentine. Because as long as you feed her, your tortoise will always be your Valentine, no matter what.
The Valentine yard finder
My Etsy shop MossyTortoise looks terribly empty right now, because for the last few months, my orders have almost exclusively been custom orders. If you would like me to make you a tortoise cozy, just swing by my Etsy shop, and click on the 'Request Custom Order' button on the left side. Once you've contacted me via MossyTortoise, I will send you measuring instructions.
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.
Today I would like to write about an important lesson that I learned the hard way:it is not a good idea to keep 2 tortoises together(yes, there are exceptions).
When tortoise owners ask me if I think they should get a second tortoise, I tell them: only if they plan to get a second enclosure. Then I advise them to spend the money on spoiling their 1 tortoise first: build a big outdoor enclosure, enlarge the indoor enclosure, upgrade the lighting. Put some money into savings for emergency vet care (you'll need it at some point during your tortoise's 80 or so years of life!).
...."But she's so.... lonely!"
Believe me, I've been there. Humans seek companionship, as do many other mammals. We like to project our own feelings onto our pets, and so, we assume that our tortoise would be happier with a 'friend.' Please know that I am not judging you for wanting to get another tortoise. Getting a little 'friend' for a tortoise can be so tempting. The truth is: (except for a few species like redfoot torts, aldabras, or pancake torts), most tortoises are loners in the wild. They roam several acres, and only occasionally encounter other tortoises. If a tortoise encounters another, they will fight, mate, or both. Then they wander apart again (or one is chased away by the other).
When thinking about getting another tortoise, a person often thinks they will be best buddies...
If you are thinking of getting your pet tortoise a 'buddy' then I hope you read my story first, and put some serious thought into your decision after reading about my experience. Keeping 2 tortoises together (especially of the testudo species) is NOT a cake walk.
In reality, it will look like this... *BITE!* ... a lot of the time.
If you get a male and a female, after much biting and bullying, there will be plenty of mating too. More than there would ever be in nature. Enough mating to kill the female.
No comment.
If the female can't get away from the male, he will seek her out again and again (more than in nature, since there she CAN get away). My friend rescued a tortoise female earlier this year whose vent was terribly infected and torn and chafed and ripped from all the mating. It took her a long time to heal.
The infected, oozing, puss-filled tail of my friend's rescued female that was mated too much. (I'm posting a small picture just so it's not too gross)
Here is how I learned my lesson:
I started out with one female Russian tortoise, Timmy. After I had her for a few years, I decided I'd like to get a second tortoise. A few knowledgeable people on the tortoise forums advised against this. They warned me that tortoises, especially the testudo species (to which Russian tortoises belong) are very territorial. They told me that the tortoises would compete for food, for the basking spot, for space. They told me that they would bite and ram, and one would become stressed, hurt, and might die.
"Timmy needs a friend. My tortoises will be different and won't fight."
For some reason, I was convinced that 'my' tortoises would be different. I set up a my enclosure with lots of site barriers. I soon adopted a little male, Roz. For the first 18 or so months, everything went well. There were NO signs of aggression, both tortoises ate together, basked together, slept together. Yay! My tortoises were the exception!
Wait. What?! My male is biting my female?! Oh no!
Then one day, Roz matured. Roz discovered that he was a rapist little man-tortoise with needs and urges. Roz discovered that he didn't like sharing his food. Roz discovered that he could boss Timmy around, in spite of being half her size. Roz became a big, mean, bossy, biting bully. Timmy lost scales on her legs, and even got a bite wound on her face once. Roz got to spend a lot of time in the time-out bin until I separated him permanently.
Watch this video of Roz bobbing his head at Timmy (which is territorial behavior), and then circling her and biting her:
In the wild, this is 'normal' courting behavior. However, in the wild, the female can get away! In captivity, while both tortoises were kept in the same enclosure, Roz wanted to mate with Timmy 15+ times each day. He spent his spare time bullying her away from the food or the basking spot. Timmy started to become withdrawn, and wanted to hide and sleep all the time. I separated the two, and she started eating again, thank goodness.
Now, the 'easy' solution would have been to re-home Roz. This, however, was not an option for me. I had made a commitment to care for him, and did not want to break this commitment. The 'harder' solution was to a) separate my male, b) build a larger enclosure, and c) get a little harem of female tortoises for him. It took me nearly a year to find females, since in the pet trade, most tortoises are male. I finally got Mila and Jill, and then Lady.
Roz and his harem, basking.
I know that some people will advise that two female tortoises will get along fine. I disagree: one will always be the underdog. At least for testudo species, if you want to keep multiple females together, you should get 3 or more. This way they are less likely to fight, and the bullying will be divided a little among them.
During the Summer, the tortoises happily (and peacefully) lived outside in the large tortoise garden I built them. They will be divided over several indoor tortoise tables for the winter.
They spread out over the entire tortoise garden, except to eat.
IF you decide you want more than 1 tortoise, please avoid keeping 2 males together, or 1 male and 1 female. Either 3 females (with LOTS of space) or 1 male and 3+ females might work... but even then, you may find yourself needing a degree in tortoise diplomatics!
IF you decide to keep multiple tortoises, please remember that the enclosure size must adjust accordingly for multiple tortoises! If the absolute minimum size for 1 tortoise is 2'x4', then each additional tortoise will need at least that much more space. As always, larger is better when it comes to tortoise enclosures!
Today I built our Russian tortoises a little tortoise house. Its purpose is to provide a spot that is generally drier and warmer in the mornings and more chilly days.
Jill is modelling the little house for me
It has real siding, and a slanted plexi glass roof, so the rain will run off. The total cost was $0, since these are all re-claimed materials. It doesn't look 'fancy' but it will work great, I think.
The plexi glass allows the sun to shine inside to warm the interior.
The inside of the shelter is fairly roomy - 18" x 13" - so all 5 torts can, in theory, fit in here. Because Russian tortoises are territorial little space hogs, only 2 or 3 will end up spending the night in here.
An added bonus of the plexi glass: I can peek inside at the torts!
In addition to this very slapped together rustic tortoise house, I'm also working on building a cold frame (like a small green house) that has polycarbonate siding. I got lucky at a nursery close-out sale and got a whole stack of odd-sized pieces for $5.
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.
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.
The outdoor enclosure of my Russian tortoises is planted with a variety of weeds and other edible plants... but at this point in the year, a lot of the weeds have been grazed away. I end up having to collect food in our yard and my friends' yards every few days.
'We're not ready to eat yet. It's still too early'
Today when I fed the tortoises, the Russian torts all came over to the food pile, and then promptly all sat down facing away from each other. I quickly took a picture - they have gotten so used to having all the space of the tortoise garden that I think they were a little grumpy about the sudden proximity to each other!
All my tortoises love hibiscus flowers. Knowing this, I have planted 3 different varieties: a blueish purple 'Rose of Sharon', a perennial hibiscus (which dies back in the Fall, and comes back larger every Spring), and a hot pink bush variety, of which I forget the name.
Jill, going to town on some hibiscus blooms
The first blooms show up in mid July, and I usually get new ones through October. Tortoises can eat the leaves, as well as the flowers. I pick new ones every day and mix them into the greens. They are so nutritious!
If you end up with too many flowers, you can place them on a piece of paper and sun dry them. Then place them in a plastic bag, and crumble them over your tortoise's food in the Winter! With all the tortoises I have, I never end up having any left over...
Give me more!
I will write a post about healthy tortoise diet soon, since I have been receiving a lot of questions about what to feed.
My Russian tortoises get fed exclusively dark leafy greens, with the exception of flowers. I supplement with cuttlefish bone for a little extra calcium, and I sprinkle TNT powder on their food during the Winter. During the Summer I feel that they are getting enough of a variety in their food that it isn't necessary to add the TNT, especially since so much of their food comes from grazing in their outdoor enclosure, which is planted with a wide variety of weeds and tortoise-edible plants.
Nom nom nom
My front garden gets a lot of compliments, and I just love it when people walk by our house and stop to smell some flowers, or even to take a picture with their cell phones. My dirty secret is that a lot of what I grow in our garden is meant to be tortoise food. If it happens to look pretty, that is just an added bonus! :) I also intersperse edible plants such as cherry tomatoes, rhubarb, zucchini, squash etc. in my flowerbeds - we love eating the fresh veggies, and it looks nice.
I know I keep saying that my little tortoise family is complete. Somehow, however, tortoises in need keep finding their way to me. The boys and I got to go on a little road trip the other day, and along the way, we picked up this little redfoot tortoise.
Our new tortoise resident
The guy who gave this beautiful creature to us had gotten her from a woman who kept her in a 10 gallon aquarium. He built a little tortoise table, and got the proper substrate and lighting, but unfortunately kept the tortoise in bone dry, very dusty conditions. To his defense, the new growth from the past few months actually looks pretty good. Most of the pyramiding happened while the tortoise lived in the tiny aquarium.
You can see the pyramiding in this picture
Redfoot tortoises like to live in a very humid environment, so I've been visiting her outside frequently over the course of the day, misting her thoroughly each time. I also misted the plastic lid I placed over part of the enclosure to seal in some of the moisture. Redfoot tortoises also like to eat a very varied, omnivorous diet. This tortoise gal is going to be weaned off the pellet food she is used to, and will be given good healthy greens, fresh fruit, and appropriate sources of animal protein. None of my other tortoises have ever been fed processed or pre-manufactured foods, so I am not going to start now.
A healthy plastron - yay!
Rescued tortoises often have a really messed up plastron... so I was bracing myself for shell rot and all sorts of other problems. Luckily, her plastron looks great!
As part of in-processing a new tortoise (so I can see progress later), I measured and weighed her. She is 5 3/4" long (14.5cm), and weighs 594g. This is within what is considered a healthy weight range.
...it's a girl!
Speaking of plastrons, you may have noticed that I have been referring to our new redfoot as a 'her' - she is indeed female. Her previous owner thought she was male... we still need to decide on a good name for her. Any suggestions?
Hmmmm. What should we call her... ?
With her white beak, dark eyes and red spots, I think she looks a little bit like a clown. She also has the funniest little smiling clown face in the speckles on the top her head!
Jill, the smallest of my Russian tortoises, got to wander the clover patch today for a little while. Clover is not ideal for tortoises to eat, since it is fairly high in protein, but Jill just LOVES the white clover flowers, so I sometimes let her eat them as a treat. She will walk all about the lawn, chomping away at all the flowers.
Earlier this year, when it was still too cold to send the tortoises outside, I had to separate Jill from the others because she was being bullied. She had stopped eating, and became withdrawn. My friend offered to babysit her for a few weeks for me. Once separated from the others, she started eating again.
Once the weather got warm enough to move the Russian tortoises to our large 5'x30' outdoor tortoise garden, I set her in there with the others, and she has been fine. She eats well, she explores and walks about, and is growing and gaining weight. Her new growth is healthy and smooth.
I was worried about her this Spring, but now I'm so relieved that she is ok!
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!
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?
