It is funny, when Hermann's tortoises are young it is almost impossible to tell if they are male or female. When we got Virgil, we just decided he was going to be a boy at least until we found out otherwise. To me, he looked like he had a boy's face. As he has gotten older and bigger, it was beginning to look like he was a boy, almost for certain. You are supposed to be able to tell from the width of the shell at the back- it is much wider in the boys.

When we got Emma, we hoped that whatever sex Virgil was, she would be the opposite, but again, there was no way to tell, so we arbitrarily decided she would be a girl until we found out otherwise. She does sort of look a little daintier and more feminine than him, but it could be wishful thinking.

Since the two torts have been introduced to each other and are living together, it appears that we may have been right on both counts, which is kind of surprising. Virgil was a bit baffled by Emma at first and ran from her, but she followed him everywhere. Now he chases her around. Andy says that Emma absolutely MUST be a girl, because she turned Virgil into an idiot. He is completely infatuated with her. He follows her around and tries to hump her. I think they are both too young for mating, but try to tell Virgil that. Isn't it crazy that we were almost certainly right on guessing the sexes of both of them from tiny hatchlings? What are the chances?

This morning it was finally time for the torts to move into their new, larger home. Virgil had gotten too big for his old house that Andy built last Christmas and Emma's quarantine time was up so they got to move in together. They were so funny. As soon as we put them in the there they both peed, then each of them headed immediately up opposite stairways and met upstairs. Virgil didn't know what to think of her at first and he grabbed a leaf of escarole and carried it all over his new house; upstairs, downstairs and all over the place. Emma followed him the whole time, like his little shadow. They seem to be getting along fairly well so far. I think Emma is much more enamored with Virgil than the other way around, but that may change with time.

Update: Awwwww. Virgil went to sleep for the night upstairs in his hut and Emma squished in there with him just as close as can be and went to sleep snuggled up with him. It is the cutest thing.

Due to the change of time of year for Daylight Savings Time, yesterday I had my first 25 hour birthday ever. Not that it made much difference, as I went to bed pretty early anyway, but it is nice to be granted that extra birthday hour just for the principle of it.

I had a wonderful birthday weekend, though. I have been really tired of the hot nasty humid weather we have had here since about May. That and the incessant annoying rain we have had. All I wanted for my birthday weather-wise was some nice cool, dry weather. Amazingly, I actually got it. It cooled down considerably and the rain completely moved out of the area. The nice weather is sticking around, too, so that is a bonus.

My little sweet baby tortoise seems to be doing very well. She likes to bury herself and hide a lot, but I kind of remember Virgil doing the same thing when he was a tiny hatchling as well. It makes sense for a little itty bitty animal like that to hide a lot from predators, so it is no real surprise.

I finally figured out for sure what her name is going to be. The new baby tortoise is Emma. I kicked that name around with a few others and it just seemed to fit her the best. One of my friends at work says I am completely nuts after hearing she is called Emma. Shoot, what am I supposed to name her, Fluffy?

It has been a fun-filled day today, the beginning of my birthday weekend. This morning, I took Michaela to her final dog training class where we miserably failed her final test. It is okay; she did improve quite a bit in her socialization, but she is still terrible about walking on a leash. She always wants to jump up and bite my butt to get my attention, or she chews on the leash out of nervousness. She never learned the stay command at all. But, she got out of the class what I wanted for her; she is more comfortable around other people and dogs, so I am happy. I am not enough of a glutton for punishment to put her through any more obedience classes, though!

This afternoon we went to our scheduled visit at the Turtle Farm. We got to look at all kinds of hatchlings and it was very hard to pick out just one. The choice was made easier because I knew I was going to get another Hermann's tortoise so it could eventually interact with Virgil, and there were only two of them. Still it was very hard to pick one. I chose the smaller of the two. Hermann's tortoises can' be sexed until they are quite a bit older (we don't even know if Virgil is a boy yet) so we just have to guess. Since we guessed boy for Virgil, we are going along as though this baby is a girl. I haven't named her yet, but I have a couple of names in mind. I kind of like Violet, and it goes well with Virgil, but I also like Emma. I will think about it more tomorrow and come to some sort of decision then.

This is the little baby here. She is really cute and looks almost just like Virgil did when we got him last year. She has to be kept separately form him for a sort of quarantine period for a while, so I can't show the size difference in them, but he is a LOT bigger than she is. It is hard to believe how much he has grown in a year. Below is a picture of the house we have set up for her in a wine crate. I have to go get her a few things tomorrow from the store; the correct lighting and such, but we had most of the things she needed like a water bowl and a hut to hide in because she can use the ones Virgil outgrew. I just love her.

To finish off the day, we went to another bird class at the bird store here. We took Charley with us in his carrier, and he said "Hi" "Hi" "Hi" during the presentation because he was nervous. I got him out and held him for part of it. Several other people were there wiith their birds and it is fun to see the different ones and how they interact with their owners.

And that is how I spent the day, surrounded with animals just as I like. I hope you all are having a great weekend!

Last Saturday, Andy and I went out to lunch while his truck was being worked on. He had to get new tires and shocks, but the truck is over eight years old so that is to be expected. Anyway, we were at lunch and Andy asked me what I wanted for my birthday. It just dawned on me earlier that day that my birthday is this coming Sunday. Birthdays just aren't the same when you get old. There is nothing to look forward to. I remember counting down the days for weeks until my birthday when I was a kid, and now it totally sneaks up on me.

I told Andy that nothing could top last year's birthday present, and of course I had to remind him what that was, or actually who that was, because it was for my birthday last year that I got Virgil the tortoise. I said he could get me a friend for Virgil, and he was actually okay with that. I looked around and found that they have some Hermann's tortoise hatchlings (that is what Virgil is, a Hermann's tortoise) at a turtle farm in our area. Yes, we have turtle farm here, isn't that cool?

Visits to the turtle farm are by appointment only, so I made an appointment for three o'clock on Saturday afternoon. I am excited to see if we will bring home a buddy for Virgil! Andy did make a point of mentioning that if I get another tortoise for my birthday this year, it doesn't mean that I can get another one EVERY year. I said, "Why not? Think of how great it will be when I am eighty years old and fully surrounded by tortoises. That would be wonderful!" I am not sure Andy sees it that way, though :)

Look what I found today- a freshly hatched softshell turtle with a funny little pointy nose. I found him in the middle of the sidewalk this morning after I almost stepped on him, and then I transported him to a nice safe pond where he would have a much better chance of survival and released him. He was darn cute, though.

That is what I call Virgil sometimes, my little tortellini. I think he likes it. Virgil and I went to see a reptilian veterinarian this afternoon about his toenails. On two of his feet, two adjacent toenails have fused together, and it worried me. So I went to a vet in Cocoa that sees all types of exotic animals to get him checked out.

It is funny taking a tortoise to the vet. Everyone at the vet wanted to see him and ask questions about him. He is very handsome, of course, and everyone liked him. When we saw the doctor, she tried to pry the toenails apart, but they were good and fused. She said that while they don't know what causes it to happen, it is not an uncommon thing for tortoises and that it shouldn't affect him much. It may correct itself when his toenails shed their outer surface next time. In any case, she examined him and said that he looked like he was in excellent health and we are doing all the right things. His shell didn't show signs of pyramiding- which is when the individual scutes, or sections of the shell start to grow in a pyramid shape due to nutritional deficiencies, resulting in a very sharply bumped shell. It is hard to tell in the early stages, and I wasn't sure if he had some pyramiding, but she said no, he looks fine. And of course he peed on her just for good measure, but she didn't mind a bit.

I made a neat transporter for Virgil out of a plastic container that was meant to be a photo organizer. I bought it at Target for $5.99 and drilled half inch holes in the sides of it for ventilation, then added a dirt substrate for him to crawl around on. Here is a photo of it, but it isn't Virgil inside- I put a little figure of a tortoise in there to illustrate, but it is pretty close to the same size as Virge- he is just teeny bit bigger.

Yesterday when I was at the mall for the dog rescue event, I spotted a young woman off to the side that was carrying a plastic container with a tortoise inside. Of course I went up to talk to her. I started asking her about the tortoise and where she got it. She had just bought it from the pet store in the mall, one of the major chain pet stores that are regularly found in malls. We'll call them PetStand for our purposes here, but I think you know who I mean.

The woman told me that the tortoise was the only one they had, and she couldn't remember the name of it. I asked her if it was a sulcata, and she said no, it had a name that started with "S" but she couldn't remember it. I asjked her if there were any more of them and she told me that the one she got was right up front and was the only one there. I asked her how big it would get and she told me it would only get as big as the small container it was in- roughly 6 to eight inches. She said that she was going to keep it in a 25 gallon fish tank and I talked to her about how tortoises don't do so well in tanks and that they need a lot of space. I only talked to her for a minute or two and did not go into great depth because she didn't ask for it and it was not my place to do so. I had a strong feeling that the tortoise she had bought was a sulcata, though and it worried me.

Today as I was out and about looking for martingale training collars for the dogs, I stopped into the very same PetStand that the tortoise had come from just out of curiosity. I noticed the reptile display up front and saw the very spot the tortoise in question had come from- a small empty tank that was labeled "spurthigh." That had been the "S" name the woman couldn't remember. Well, guess what? The name spurthigh or African Spurthigh is used in the pet trade for sulcatas, which are one of the largest tortoises of all. Sulcatas grow to be as large as 200 pounds and can be quite destructive. They like to dig and can undermine the foundation of a home. They generally need a minimum of a quarter to half acre of space to move around. The fact that that crappy pet store sold the tortoise to someone who was not at all equipped to take care of it in adulthood and lied to her about its full grown size is really deplorable and pisses me off. These poor animals are often in the position of being passed around because very few people have the kind of set up at their homes to care for them. Please, do not buy anything from mall pet stores like PetStand as they clearly do not have any concern for the well being of the animals they sell and are just in it for a quick buck. Sickening!

This has to be the cutest tortoise butt in the world. This is Virgil stretching to get a drink of water out of his bowl.

Virgil is such an intertesting pet and really such a wonderful one in that he doesn't make any noise and is very easy to take care of but still interacts with us some and is fun to watch. We pick fresh weeds for him to eat twiice a day, and he also has thhe weeds that are growing inside his little home to munch on whenever he likes. His very favorite things are the little yellow flowers that grow on his favorite weeds which I think are dandelions. He attacks those with great gusto.

Lately Virgil has been going to bed very early. He crawls into a corner and partially buries himself in the dirt to go to sleep. I think the reduced levels of daylight have let him know that it is winter so he goes to sleep fairly early. He has got to be the cutest totrtoise in the entire world. He has such an intelligent look about him- that is what won me over the first time I saw him.

Since we got little Virgil in November, he has been living in less than optimal conditions in a home that was a bit too small for a tortoise like him. You see, they like to roam, so even though his house looked plenty big, he needed a lot more room. I came up with a nice design for his new habitat, and over the first week of Christmas vacation, Andy built it for him, adding his own touches and finally finishing it today. This afternoon Virgil was able to move in. I think if tortoises could smile he would have a big stupid grin on his face right now.

His new home is everything an indoor tortoise habitat should be. The really cool part that I came up with is for it to be built with two levels, and that way the upper level hanging over gives him a place to hide. The bottom floor has a plastic trough planted with all of Virgil's favorite foods sunk down into a wooden guide so that it is level with the surrounding substrate. We bought several of these troughs so that we can plant extras with seed and switch them out when the one in his habitat gets chewed down too much. Also on the ground level is his water bowl, which is shallow and has steps so that he can get in and out of it. Then there is a nice wide basking rock set up right uder his heat light, and nearby a cuttlebone is fastened to the wall for supplemental calcium for him. His UVB light is on the other side of the habitat, over by the "stairs."

The stairs are actually a ramp textured with small twigs and dirt substrate. I loved the idea of making a two level enclosure for him because that way we could pack more square footage into a smaller form factor, but in reality I wasn't sure if it would work. I mean, I knew we could build it, but I wasn't sure if he would actually go "upstairs." As it turns out, I needn't have worried. From the first few minutes that he spent in the new home, Virgil has been motoring all over the place, upstairs, downstairs, back and forth. He loves it! We have never seen him this active before and it is so much fun to watch.

Here are some pictures of Virgil in his new fabulous habitat. I guess that would make it a "fab hab," wouldn't it?

And here is one of the tortoise house being built. You can see how the plant trough fits into it's wood box that is attached to the floor of the enclosure- that is how we keep the hole where the trough goes from filling up with dirt when we change it out. The trough is really just a plastic silverware tray I found at Target.

Okay, this is really icky, but I am going to share anyway. A couple of days ago I noticed thhat my very tiny tortoise, Virgil, had some poop stuck to his butt, and it appeaered that there was a long piece of dried grass- part of his food- through the center of the poop that continued up into his body. I kept expecting that he would eventually poop it the rest of the way out, but it had been there for a couple of days. I guess he was constipated or something. This afternoon I soaked him in some warm water for a while to help him poop, but it wasn't working. I finally decided to give the little piece of grass hanging out of him a little tug and when I did a giant piece of poop came shooting out. Poor little booger must've been bound up pretty badly. I think he feels a whole lot better now, and his appetite has increased dramatically, so I think that must have done the trick.

Remember how I mentioned that Andy and I were planting a giant bowl of weeds for Virgil the tortoise to eat? I received the "tortoise seed mix" in the mail a couple of weeks ago, and finally it was starting to grow in enough that we decided to let Virgil crawl around and sample the greens. It needs to grow a lot more, but it didn't hurt to let him test it out. I think he thought he had died and gone to heaven. He wandered around the bowl munching on whatever he came across, though he did seem to prefer the broadleaf weeds to the grasses. He is a little eating machine.

Don't forget to stop by our other blog, Tortoise Hollow to see how things are going with our new house plans.

I scrubbed out Virgil the tortoise's water bowl this evening and filled it back up with warm water for him to soak in. He has a shallow water bowl that is big enough for him to walk around in, and it even has steps so he can get out of it on his own. He wandered around in there for a while, then started rocking back and forth and I saw some teeny bubbles come from his rear end. Then I saw the end of a poop poking out of his butt. The next thing I knew, a huge turd befitting a much larger animal shot out of his butt and he almost smiled at me. You can see the giant turd here, floating in the water behind him. I swear, it is bigger around than one of his legs.

After he was done, he climbed right out of the water and was on his way, happy as can be. Don't you wish your life was that simple?

Virgil, our little Hermann's tortoise that we got last week, was acquired rather quickly, but he was not exactly an impulse purchase. We have been researching tortoises for several months now, and I can say with assurance that Andy and I don't do anything half-assed when it comes to our animals. As a tiny hatchling he is too small now for an outdoor enclosure, but we have big plans to build a really neat park-like home for him on our new property. He is in a roomy indoor enclosure now, with a heat lamp for basking and a full spectrum and UVB reptile light for his health. He has a lovely little turtle hut to hide and sleep under and his the rest of his furnishings are nice as well. Certainly his current setup is more than adequate until he gets larger. I have big plans for his outdoor home- I want it to be terraced with divided living areas for other small tortoises, and nice warm, heated tortoise houses and burrows for night time.

The big thing that we need to work on now is his food. I have been feeding him some leafy greens such as escarole, and he likes romaine and spinach, but from what I have read, they aren't that great for him because they tend to block the uptake of calcium. Grocery store greens in general aren't the best food, but they will do in a pinch. Commercial tortoise foods are no good either, according to my research. The tortoise's normal diet consists of certain types of grasses, weeds, dandelions, and flowers, but it is quite difficult to find things like that around here that have no traces of pesticide on them. Everything gets sprayed with pesticides, it seems, and that is no good for our Virgil.

Today Andy and I went out and bought a very large shallow terracotta planter bowl. It is nearly three feet wide. We are going to fill it with dirt and plant seeds of all the foods that are the best for our little tortoise. I even found a "forest tortoise seed mix" for sale by a tortoise rescue group on the internet and have ordered some to grow in the bowl. It is supposed to grow very quickly, within a couple of weeks, and we will be able to let Virgil crawl around the bowl and choose his own meal from time to time. He is going to love it.