Live naked people

dmmj

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still no naked people? :-(
 

Yvonne G

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still no naked people? :-(

Here ya go, David:

4162-naked-man-wearing-a-wooden-barrel-around-his-waist-clipart-by-dennis-cox-at-wackystock.jpg
 

Kapidolo Farms

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The latest climate Whoopty-Doo, rain in San Diego, has helped the snails out, and so the hingeback are getting a windfall of a snack they like.

The regular European gardens snails are much desired, the funny corkscrew guys in the image are not liked at all. As a matter of fact the are predatory on the European Garden snails, each other, dead bugs and they still eat plant material.

Somewhere in someone else's thread I said I post the picture of the snails in my garden, I can't find it now, so here it is, live naked snails.
2016-01-05 19.52.45.jpg
 

Kapidolo Farms

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At the Pomona reptile super shows today.
I am having a bit of a presence crisis at shows like this. I was wearing my old ZooMed t-shirt, no doubt older than the average age of attendees. My fellow attendee noted, and I agree, it could have been a bachelor show ala bridal show, so many clean cut people. Not the collection of tattooed, pierced generally goth looking folks in the line, but clean cut apple pie eaten baseball loving people. Prices are now 1.2 x pet shop, long gone seem to be the 0.6 of pet shop prices.

One dude said hey, when was the last time you saw neonate burm starts at a show? My reply of "last show I was at" got me called an A$$ hole. They had b grade animals at A+ prices.

Tyler was there so I got the super size water tray from him. Some Ca+D3 somewhere else with an honest to goodness expiry date in 2018 not 2015 rounded out the expenditures. A few tortoises that looked great to my eye. Sunland had really nice looking neonate redfoots and marginated that looked wild caught their shells were so perfect (a node to husbandry, not poachery).
 

dmmj

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I am having a bit of a presence crisis at shows like this. I was wearing my old ZooMed t-shirt, no doubt older than the average age of attendees. My fellow attendee noted, and I agree, it could have been a bachelor show ala bridal show, so many clean cut people. Not the collection of tattooed, pierced generally goth looking folks in the line, but clean cut apple pie eaten baseball loving people. Prices are now 1.2 x pet shop, long gone seem to be the 0.6 of pet shop prices.

One dude said hey, when was the last time you saw neonate burm starts at a show? My reply of "last show I was at" got me called an A$$ hole. They had b grade animals at A+ prices.

Tyler was there so I got the super size water tray from him. Some Ca+D3 somewhere else with an honest to goodness expiry date in 2018 not 2015 rounded out the expenditures. A few tortoises that looked great to my eye. Sunland had really nice looking neonate redfoots and marginated that looked wild caught their shells were so perfect (a node to husbandry, not poachery).
so the long haired scruffy look is out?
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Dinosaurs eating breakfast. Darth never let's pass a moment to woo the girls. Weekend mornings when I'm here at winter's late sunrise it sounds funny to hear his pig like grunting and happy sounds.

They may be due for a weight check, Medea is heavy.

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Yvonne G

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Phae's shell size is quickly catching up to Medea's size. I know she doesn't weigh as much, but volume-wise, she looks the same size now. Darth has a lot of growing to do if he wants to be as big as the girls.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Taiwan. Hey all, I'm likely going to Taiwan for a short trip some time later this year, are there members here from the Island? It could be fun to meet for a tea, beer, or to talk turtles. Unfortunately I am only an English speaker. Well, give a shout out if you think you might want to have a get together for a few minutes/hours over a meal, or just the tea, beer idea.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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The Manouria pen is partially under a pine tree, and the Manouria like to rake the pine straw (needles) around. Darth, the male, did the front leg backsweep when here as a healing bachelor from his dislocated rear left leg.

Well, now that the girls are here, Phae and Medea, I added much more, about 18 inches deep over an area about 12 x 20 feet, at the far end on the enclosure, the sunny side of the fake palm forest.

Yesterday Medea was busy pushing and piling pine straw up. She dropped one egg a few weeks ago, I found it torn open but still wet with albumin. I have hopes she will lay a bounty of eggs and that I'm able to hatch them. If so that would be an F1 generation of studbooked M.e.p. from San Diego.

The group has been eating 5 to seven pounds of food most days. I will have to weigh Medea, I swear she most be topping 70 to 80 pounds now or else I have gotten very weak. Maybe some combination of the two?

Even on sunny days when the air temp is 65F, they will all laze around in a sunny spot. When I touch their shell it is very warm, so maybe they are super good IR absorbers being so dark a color.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Here she is sitting atop her nest, I don't know yet if there are eggs inside. I don't want to wreck her triumph and fool with it yet. I'll try luring her off with food within view but off the nest by Saturday.
The image orientation may be weird (smart phone?). The nest is about 18 inches high, and 4 foot by 6 foot. It has been incorporated into the most late afternoon sunny spot of the fake palm forest.

She pulled all that together from Monday to last night. Two big piles of eucalyptus mulch and about a cubic yard (or more) of pine straw. As stoic as there faces may be, she seems to be happy with her effort.

I believe they have egos, and to fuss looking for eggs and fooling with what she has done might have the consequence of her not going to the effort next year, or maybe even another clutch this year, if indeed there are eggs in there now.

More to follow.

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Yvonne G

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Too bad you didn't weigh her prior to the nest building. Then you could weigh her again after and you would know if she had dropped the eggs.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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If tortoises could talk..... I think Medea is saying she wants MORE nest building stuff. I'll have to get more now. Yesterday when I got home it was still light out, so I went to say hello to my outside tortoises. As Medea was scrapping up that very last bit of eucalyptus mulch I laid a whole romaine head just aside her apparent path. She didn't leave her task, but ate it along the way. Phae is sitting at the base of the mound well hidden in the palm frond forest.

Darth seems to have lost interest in them, so I hope that is further indication they can have some level of communication. He comes out eats, sits in a sunny spot, then goes back in the nighthouse.

The girls are okay to stay out overnight, the temps may get as low as 55F but for a few hours, as soon as light appears, about the time I leave for work, the temp is already back up to 62F or more. Most nights it stays above 60F as the low point. Gotta love that marine air layer.

My mother in law, whose bedroom window looks into the tortoise pen, makes many periodic observations throughout the day. Her active spoken English is minimal, and my wife gets noticeable tired of translating "tortoise observations", so at best I get bits and pieces of activity when I don't see for myself. Alla, my mother in law, is somewhat afraid of them and it makes collecting lemons from the tree in the pen difficult. Those are the moments, getting lemons, that I can chat her up to hear about what she sees.
 

Yvonne G

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I really didn't have much info on Medea's nest building/egg laying, but when Phae would start nest building, she deposited the eggs almost immediately, then spent the next two weeks or so scraping and piling up more debris on the nest.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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I really didn't have much info on Medea's nest building/egg laying, but when Phae would start nest building, she deposited the eggs almost immediately, then spent the next two weeks or so scraping and piling up more debris on the nest.


Okay, so maybe there are eggs in there, I will find out tomorrow.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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I couldn't lure Medea off the mound with bananas or artificial rain. She came down later to warm herself in full sun. I worked the mound edge to edge, no eggs in there, I gave her another wheelbarrow pile of mixed eucalyptus mulch and decomposing palm frond (from inside the palm frond forest) and about another wheelbarrow load of pine straw. She ate the banana on her way back to the mound. I think I put it back enough into her shape she's okay with it.

So I weighed her, Medea is 68 pounds. Phae weighs 54 pounds, Darth didn't come out of the night house yet today, I'll weigh him later. Only 12 pounds different between the girls but Medea feels like much more.

Alla and Tamara are a bit disappointed, no eggs. Yet!
 

Anyfoot

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I couldn't lure Medea off the mound with bananas or artificial rain. She came down later to warm herself in full sun. I worked the mound edge to edge, no eggs in there, I gave her another wheelbarrow pile of mixed eucalyptus mulch and decomposing palm frond (from inside the palm frond forest) and about another wheelbarrow load of pine straw. She ate the banana on her way back to the mound. I think I put it back enough into her shape she's okay with it.

So I weighed her, Medea is 68 pounds. Phae weighs 54 pounds, Darth didn't come out of the night house yet today, I'll weigh him later. Only 12 pounds different between the girls but Medea feels like much more.

Alla and Tamara are a bit disappointed, no eggs. Yet!
I think I'm as anxious about Medea laying as you guys are. Keep the stories coming. Thoroughly enjoying the read.
 
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