Recent content by Aretino

Thanks.

Thanks.

I had an infestation in Dinette's enclosure for awhile of tiny gnats that a friend told me sometimes infest potted plants. At her advice, I added a small percentage of sand to the forest bark that makes up the substrate, and along with a fly strip, that seems to quell the tiny gnats. Now that...

I have a Greek tortoise, found on a city street. The roof of her hide is a slab of local red sandstone about 1 1/2" thick. A large aluminum reflector intended for chicken brooders sits upside down directly on the roof. Inside the reflector is a ceramic heat bulb. This keeps the sandstone about...

RE: Another Dog Story (Why tortoises & dogs DO NOT MIX. No exceptions!) Here is Little hogging the heat/UV lamps. Unfortunately, he was not caught on camera with his head in the hide. He knows I don't want him in there, so he is very stealthy and quiet when he visits.

RE: Another Dog Story (Why tortoises & dogs DO NOT MIX. No exceptions!) I have two cats and was apprehensive about how they would react to the tortoise, fearing they would claw at her or bite, and perhaps harm her eyes. So I watched the interactions of cat and turtle very carefully the...

I keep the basking light aimed at her "pond," which tends to keep it warm. I put in fresh warm water every morning, and she is often waiting to get right in. I may change it during the day if it becomes too turbid. Dinette will get into the pond whenever she feels like during the day. I also...

I've never seen my small Greek tortie show even passing interest in the piece of cuttlebone in her tortarium. She spent a lot of time on something she discovered during a backyard walk one day, and this turned out to be a shard of very old and weathered animal bone about an inch long. It is...

It looks like creeping charlie to me.

My notion Dinette was experiencing some mysterious urge to hibernate turns out to have been pretty fanciful. It appears she was merely a bit constipated, and now having shifted her bowels, has returned to her former feistiness.

"WESTMINSTER -- Move over, "The Tortoise and the Hare." There's a new tortoise who has been all about town and is now starring in her own children's book. Lucy the Tortoise -- the reptile that was on the lam in Boulder County back in 2010, ending up at a feed store in Lafayette before...

Taking a second look, they may be referring more specifically to box turtles. Thanks for your opinion. For purely selfish reasons, I'd like to enjoy Dinette's company through the winter, and don't want to subject her to brumating indoors if it's not necessary.

I was just reading the Colorado Reptile Humane Society's (http://www.corhs.org/) hibernation guide and came across this rather alarming paragraph: "While skipping hibernation for a year or two may not result in an observable decline in health, over many years they may become immunocompromised...

Sorry. They were bearded dragons. "Fortunately, bearded dragons love vegetables, raw or cooked. The bearded dragon experiments show that cooked vegetables take 40 percent less energy for them to consume than raw ones. So the python and the bearded dragon help to show that eating cooked...

I caught an interesting episode of NOVA recently on the topic of food, including the considerable impact of the invention of cooking on human evolution. In an experiment, monitor lizards were fed the same favorite veggie both cooked and raw, and it was found that 41% less energy was consumed by...