Turned Upside Down

The other day, I went in to check on Khaleesi. While she was climbing near the heat lamp area, she fell on her back. I must say it was heart breaking to see her wiggling around like that but I had to restrain myself from helping her. I did this, not to be unkind, and she may not have enjoyed the experience but she needed to learn. She needed to learn where not to climb and also how to right herself up. In the wild, if they can't right themselves up, they will die and the same can be said for your tortoise in your own home. If your tortoise ends up on its back, they need to learn to fix the situation, particularly when under the heat lamp. Thankfully, after about 10 minutes, she managed to get a foot against the wall and kick off turning back up the right way.

One thing I would say about it is to try to have uneven ground not just a big flat surface and put things on slants so they have some kind of leverage to aid them in righting themselves. Hopefully, this will help any people who aren't used to seeing this know not to just turn them back over to help the tortoise.

Settling in for Khaleesi

Ok so it's been about two weeks since Khaleesi has got here. From close inspection, I believe she is female. I read details on forums saying that a small tail like hers indicated her being female. She has gone from a weight of 106g to just over 116g which I think is a good Gain and she is a heavy eater. It's quite interesting to see the differences between her and Handsome Bob. She likes to hide a lot especially when going to sleep whereas Bob doesn't like or use his hide at all. He sleeps out in the open and tends to dig up his hide and throw it around. Towards the end of the month, I shall briefly introduce them to each other but I won't leave them alone as he is still a good bit bigger then her. He has had a massive gain from 197g to 223g since my last post which I am really happy with. He is very active as usual but also is becoming much tamer and settling to his routine. In my next post, I'll hopefully have some pictures of them meeting.

Arrival of Khaleesi

I finally got a scales and measuring tape for Bob I've had him about three months so not really sure if he has grown. He's measuring at about 4" and weighing in at 196 grams so I will keep an eye on that. Also I have some more good news-there is a new addition today. Unsure of the sex and won't be able to tell for at least a month as I will be quarantining her but after that I hope they will get on well. I've decided to call her Khaleesi (after the game of thrones character). She's also a hermann and hopefully a female. For the quarantine period, I have a separate table set up away from Bobs table. From what I have read, this is best. Tortoise Trust says to keep the new tortoise quarantined for a minimum of 3 months. I am going to do it for a month. My reason for this is that she is coming from a breeder rather than a pet shop and has been wormed etc so I don't have to worry about it as much. But I am still doing a month as a precaution. I've given her a warm bath to help her relax and then fresh food and water. I know she will be a bit shy for the first week but I will do an update in a few days with her progress and how she is getting on.