Munch for Lunch

Its morning again and I have been pondering on the subject of food for Bob. It seems to be a very mixed subject with a lot of different information online. I've tried a few bits so far- he really likes a mix I get from Tesco. It has spinach, watercress and rocket and I like it as it’s giving him variety. One of the things brought up on the food side of things is wild weeds like dandelions etc. which I think is a nice idea. So I have bought some seeds on eBay which I have planted and they have just started sprouting which will give him a tasty treat. I don’t really agree with some sites saying this is all they should be eating as it’s what they eat in the wild. It’s different in the wild as they have to eat weeds etc. as its all that’s there and from what I have read tortoises are browsers they like to sample small amounts of lots of different things. So I’m providing little bits of lots of different things for him to eat. I think it will satisfy whatever dietary need he may have i.e. rocket, watercress, slice of cucumber, spinach and every so often a little bit of fruit only as a treat. One other thing is try not to give him something too hard especially for a small tortoise like Bob as he would struggle to bite through hard veg like celery.

Hide in the habitat

Ahoy ahoy! So Bob has settled in really well and is getting much tamer to the point he is eating out of my hand. I am currently doing exams so he’s not really helping since I lost about half an hour the other day watching him eat a piece of cucumber….but he’s worth it. He’s mad for climbing all over the place so I got him a flower pot and dug it in a bit. I put it on its side as anything that didn’t have a bottom attached he likes to lift and throw around his table. I bought a big bag of topsoil filtered stuff from b&q which I’ve built up around it so he can move it and it gives him something to climb on which he seems to like. I’m going to do a bit more research on stuff to keep him busy and happy and I’ll up date with that in my next post. 

Bath time Bob

Today is Handsome Bob’s bath day! Kinda excited as I haven’t done it before and he is getting more comfortable with me to the point where he is climbing all over me.
So, I started by buying a very cheap plastic tub and putting just enough water in so his head can’t get submerged. I wouldn’t recommend having it two high as if you aren’t watching him the whole time, he might drown (“tortoises can’t swim or breath underwater just in case you are ever minding Bob”)   

I made sure the water was warm; quarter boiled the kettle and added cold water till it was warm. I also had a nice little towel for him and a new soft tooth brush. I let him soak for a few minutes then gave him a gentle scrub with the tooth brush. Try not to have him upside down too long as they don’t like it very much and squirm a lot to show it.

After he’s had a scrub, I let him soak which he seems to enjoy but be prepared that he may relieve himself in his tub-don’t worry as that is quite normal. After his soak, sit him on his towel and gently dry him off making sure he is dry. If he is making a weird noise while walking it could mean he isn’t dry enough I would give him another dab with the towel as you don’t want to bring on an infection.

So that’s Bobs bath done and he’s having a chomp on some cucumber 

Till my next post see ya!

Eating and Breathing

Hey again,

With a couple of days under his belt, Handsome Bob is doing much better. I was a bit worried by a few things which I will go through. I am about 99% sure they will happen to others but with a bit of looking into it, found there was nothing to worry about. 
Firstly, he kept moving without moving…I know it sounds strange but he was almost bobbing. I assumed he was posturing as he didn’t like me or there was something wrong but  I have actually found out that tortoises don’t have diaphragms-they have to move like that to breath so that was the first worry off my mind.
Secondly was the lack of eating. I hadn’t seem he take a nibble at all which was worrying but again after a little bit of research found that tortoises are creatures of habit and don’t like their routine changed too often. So to speed up the process of him eating, I hand fed him a little apple and after that he was eating fine on his own-two little dishes of leafy veg a day. 

He seems to be delighted with his table. He spends all day climbing around and eating, quite an active little guy. I am just working on getting a routine that works for both of us. He seems to still be waking and sleeping at roughly the time the pet shop opens and closes whereas I tend to get up quite early in the morning so am turning his light on the same time I get up and off around 7pm or 8pm.
That’s all for this post. Next post will be an update on how he is getting on and also will be more on me bathing him.
See ya!

Finishing your Tortoise Starter Kit

Right so we have the table made, the light and heat fittings and the substrate ready.
After a few hours of pondering how I would attach the lights/heat, I managed to come up with something secure as well as easy to do. To start with the heat emitter; it came with a metal hook like thing attached for hanging it so I just drove a long screw into the end of the table leaving about 1/½ sticking out. I then hooked the lamp onto it above the slate and put the thermometer in too to gauge the temp and make sure it was ok for him. Roughly the basking area should be about 35-37C of if you’re from elsewhere 95-100F 

And that should trail off across the table to about 26C during day and dropping to not much lower than 18C during the night (80F for day and 65F at night) 

The UVB light was slightly trickier. I bought some soldering wire as it’s easy to bend and break off. I’ve put in a very crude drawing of how it was done. A brief description is the ceramic fitting is resting on the end of the table, two screws are driven into either side. I have wound the soldering wire around it twice where there is a join in the fitting so it has a little gap that it is stuck in. I then had excess wire each side making a loop out of it and securing it to a screw on either side. 

Finally the table is ready and we have got the little fella. He seems a little scared but I probably would be too if some crazy giant put me in a cardboard box...so I am leaving him alone in his new home for a bit to get used to it. I’ve picked up a bag of mixed leaves from Tesco. It has rocket, spinach etc so we will be sharing dinners as I am quite partial to a veg smoothie. One tip I was given from the pet shop owner was to spray his dinner with a water bottle like below as they don’t drink from their water dishes very often. Therefore, this is a second source of water for them.

Ok that’s enough for today my next post will be on how the little fella is getting on. Until next time see ya!