Another momentous stretch for us. What kicked it off was one day we were out on a walk and we said hello to some boys I already “know” because they often walk their dog, Lulu, around the neighborhood. But this time, they were accompanied by Mom. So I excitedly said hello and we talked for a minute mostly because I knew they also owned chickens. Well, she happened to mention that they also own a tortoise! In fact, they had recently “lost” her but she was found. I had seen this drama in the Nextdoor app but I didn’t know who the owner was!
So anyway, a couple days later we visited her place and got to see the tortoise that lives in the backyard. The mom explained that the tortoise rescue place didn’t really enforce the rules that they emphasize on-line. It seemed like was easy for her to get one!
So after that, we had renewed excitement about our chances to adopt a tortoise, even from the rescue place that seemed so particular. So I looked at their website, but at the current time there were no African tortoises available. Who knows how long before there would be. They had other kinds of tortoises/turtles, but we had decided on African tortoise as they get really big, live really long, and are considered great pets. They can also live outside.
So anyway then I recalled that in my social media feed there were pics of baby tortoises someone was selling. I went back and found the entry in Facebook (a tortoise owners group) and messaged the owner, Khloe, and there were still some available!
Khloe’s baby sulcatas
So then I discussed the idea with Rob, and he agreed immediately (probably realizing that being measured and thoughtful wasn’t going to go over well with me). So that weekend we drove to Waco to pick up the baby tortoise! The seller lives in Ft. Worth so it’s basically halfway. The weather was uncharacteristically stormy, so it made for some poor driving conditions along what is already a busy road.
Khloe asked me to pick which one I wanted LOL. So this is the one I chose!
On car ride home!
I learned that the eggs had been kept at a temperature that favors females, but anyway the sex of the tortoises won’t be known for a while longer. Rob and I were both shocked at how SMALL she was when we saw her in person! Somehow the pics didn’t convey this. She was like 3 inches long. The CUTEST thing ever! I asked the Khloe and her husband some questions but I could hardly listen to the answers I was so excited. We forked over $125 and drove home.
Turns out Khloe is just converting her hobby of raising/selling sulcatas into a little business called “Shelby’s Shells” and we are therefore one of her first clients. We take this as a good sign as she has been very happy to answer questions and will be glad to have good reviews from her early customers.
We may need to keep the tortoise indoors for her first 2 years or so because predators. We have her in an open-topped container with a UVB lamp and a ceramic heat lamp. Every day I take her outside for a little fresh air, sunshine, and walkabout. Oh, and a bath which is recommended for hydration. I have been keeping those short as she seems to hate them :)
Sulcatas eat mostly grasses and weeds. Most fruits or veggies are not recommended, or at least only rarely. We provide her with “timothy hay” but she hasn’t eaten any of that yet. Khloe also started us off with some tortoise food pellets but she also doesn’t eat that. Khloe explained that in their first month, the babies don’t eat much because they are still getting nutrition from the yolk.
If all goes well, I expect she’ll grow fast. Her Dad, Brutus, weights 165 pounds!
She is scared of me and when I approach her tub she often freezes up. But I have caught her in the act of eating a few times now. She definitely will eat romaine lettuce (not ideal nutritionally but Ok for now), dandelion, and a little thistle.
I am unclear what kind of grass we have in our lawn, so I ordered some tortoise-friendly grass seeds and planted them in a planter. I also ordered African hibiscus and have planted a few seeds of that as it would be a good food source. Some of these are starting to grow. I also ordered buffalo grass seed which I hope to put right in the yard as it should survive well here.
Having some confusion about best way to raise her. Biggest concern now is humidity. We are not achieving high levels but it sounds like that’s important. So I’ve been keeping a sprayer on hand and every so often during the day I “make it rain” all around her tub. Hoping that will help a bit.
We weighed her yesterday (I think we’ve owned her now about a week and a half so far) and she was just under 2 ounces.
Don’t intend to allow dogs anywhere near her until she’s a large enough size that she appears nothing like a “chew toy”. But once she is sizeable, we plan to keep her in backyard. Then our issue will be keeping track of her. They are known as escape artists- climbing up and digging down under. So that’s a hurdle ahead of us. The neighbors with a tortoise have attached a tracking device on theirs so maybe we’ll do something like that. While brainstorming, Rob even considered a zip line for her. Haha, wouldn’t that be hilarious! Anyway there’s time to figure that out.
So I’ve been busy trying to figure out what to feed her and trying to identify our local weeds. I have an app which tells me what plants are OK for tortoise to eat, but it is UK-based so a lot of Texas plants aren’t in it.
So also one day I was in Tortoise Forum and saw that a “Lisa” was also a new sulcata owner and she lives in Round Rock which is north of Austin. I contacted her and we ended up texting each other and plan to maintain communication as we try to rear our tortoises. She already knows a lot more than me about local plants. She also already owns two other kinds of turtles! We will probably meet up soon because I ordered some cuttle bones and we will do a trade of cuttle bones (turtle can chew on it for calcium) for plants.
In other news. both Americaunas are laying blue-ish eggs. If you look carefully, you can see the difference in coloration. Isis lays more bright blue ish and Sisi’s are a little more olive-greenish.
Zsa Zsa has been a bit of a handful. First event was one day I noticed she was on her own by the pool and before the dogs walked over there and spooked her I decided to try to urge her over to steps but as I approached her she freaked out, flew up in the air, and landed plop in the middle of the pool! It was hilarious. She then very capably swam over to the edge, but was having trouble getting out. So I picked her up and out of there. She is kind of the odd girl in the flock it seems.
Zsa Zsa swimming to edge of pool.
And the last few days we found that Zsa Zsa is “broody” so she keeps going into the roost and just sitting in a trance. So to try to get her out of this mode, I have to keep going in there and taking her out. I do this at least a half dozen times each day. When hens are broody, they don’t lay eggs. We went through this before with Matt, but I don’t think it lasted this long. I’m hoping this will end soon.
I have an idea for art on a blank wall outside on our deck. We have a large, flat piece of wood we could hang up there and probably paint. Then, on top of this, I would glue down painted balls. I have been collecting the little plastic balls that are inside Guinness Stout cans. I was thinking I would choose some kind of image and paint the balls (maybe use a grid to figure out what color goes where?). Possibly the paint color on board underneath would support that, else it would be the opposite color on the color wheel. Haven’t decided on the image yet, but would like it to be dung beetle pushing spherical poop ball. Seems like a good metaphor. But I haven’t done a lot with this idea because I’m basically spending my time moving Zsa Zsa, checking on the tortoise, and thinking about what to feed the tortoise.
If you can drink some cans of Guinness, please save these balls for me.
The tortoise is not officially named yet. We don’t know if it’s M or F, but likely she’s F. So for now, we call her Malala. That may stick. The name that came up for M is Jerome, which Paige recommended as she reminded me that one of my favorite kids’ books is called Jerome (it’s about a frog). The only other name candidate on our list is Cusp of Oscillation. This came about because when I learned that her birthdate is July 30, I quickly googled to see what her horoscope sign was, and it turns out to be between two different signs, or, as one site put it, on the “cusp of oscillation” which cracked me up.
Having both dogs at a brewery (usually Suds Monkey) can be tricky because when it is busy there’s kids running around and stuff and we like to keep a close eye on the dogs to make sure they don’t freak out or whatever. So anyway, we have gone back to taking only one dog at a time. The only consequence of this is that we are now having to visit breweries TWICE as much as before in order to get the same amount of dog socializing in. Sigh, what we do for our pets!
More pics below. The last two pics are from Khloe, showing parent tortoises in her yard with her kids.
