Bogie=babyDINO
Active Member
Hello, everyone! I think I am long over due for an introduction but better late then never I guess! My name is Kelsey and I live in Southern California! I have been a tortoise freak for 7 months now when I got my little friend Bogart.
I work at Petsmart part time and getting my bachelors in animal science. One day a lady came into the store looking for big soaking bowls for her desert tortoises. I knew nothing about tortoises and I told her that. We got to talking and what she said fascinated me!! I had no idea tortoises were so interesting. So being an impulsive young college student I looked up torts on Craigslist (I know I should have done my research ahead of time but I was in the "I want" mode). I met with a guy that had 3 one month old sulcata hatchlings in a dirty bucket, very dry, pyramiding already started, the guy didn't even speak English. Not knowing to look for a healthy one I picked out the worst looking one cause I felt sorry for him and I wanted to save him. (I had no idea about the death rate of dried hatchlings). Took him home, jumped on the forum and finally did my research lol. I binge read all of Toms care sheets and all the enclosure threads I could find. I started soaking him right away and named my little guy Bogart. I quickly found out I bit off a HUGE responsibility with Bogart but I saw it as an awesome challenge. I dumped a good chunk of money into his tank to make sure he has everything to resemble the monsoon season. He was growing slowly but then for 3 long months he was stuck at 72g. I was so scared because I had read about hatching failure syndrome. I knew I was doing all that I could and if he dies there was really nothing I could do. I decided to boost his mazuri from 2 days a week to 4 days a week to see if it effected his weight. 2 weeks later I weighted him at 81g!! That was two weeks ago and he is continuing to grow. I feel he is over the hump now and my little dried out hatchling is on his way to becoming a dinosaur!! He is 7 months and 84g today. I went back to mazuri 2 days a week and I am currently trying to sneak grass into his diet. He is a stubborn little guy. I let him wonder outside everyday while I work in his garden. He gets soaked 2 to 3 times a day and gets a wide variety of food from the garden but his favorite right now it Hibiscus leaves. I love him so much and I jump on my TTF app everyday to see what new things I can learn! I hope he is with me the rest of my life so I'll have to write him in my Will for my future kids.
I want to thank everyone on TTF for all their great advice and for saving Bogarts life!!
I work at Petsmart part time and getting my bachelors in animal science. One day a lady came into the store looking for big soaking bowls for her desert tortoises. I knew nothing about tortoises and I told her that. We got to talking and what she said fascinated me!! I had no idea tortoises were so interesting. So being an impulsive young college student I looked up torts on Craigslist (I know I should have done my research ahead of time but I was in the "I want" mode). I met with a guy that had 3 one month old sulcata hatchlings in a dirty bucket, very dry, pyramiding already started, the guy didn't even speak English. Not knowing to look for a healthy one I picked out the worst looking one cause I felt sorry for him and I wanted to save him. (I had no idea about the death rate of dried hatchlings). Took him home, jumped on the forum and finally did my research lol. I binge read all of Toms care sheets and all the enclosure threads I could find. I started soaking him right away and named my little guy Bogart. I quickly found out I bit off a HUGE responsibility with Bogart but I saw it as an awesome challenge. I dumped a good chunk of money into his tank to make sure he has everything to resemble the monsoon season. He was growing slowly but then for 3 long months he was stuck at 72g. I was so scared because I had read about hatching failure syndrome. I knew I was doing all that I could and if he dies there was really nothing I could do. I decided to boost his mazuri from 2 days a week to 4 days a week to see if it effected his weight. 2 weeks later I weighted him at 81g!! That was two weeks ago and he is continuing to grow. I feel he is over the hump now and my little dried out hatchling is on his way to becoming a dinosaur!! He is 7 months and 84g today. I went back to mazuri 2 days a week and I am currently trying to sneak grass into his diet. He is a stubborn little guy. I let him wonder outside everyday while I work in his garden. He gets soaked 2 to 3 times a day and gets a wide variety of food from the garden but his favorite right now it Hibiscus leaves. I love him so much and I jump on my TTF app everyday to see what new things I can learn! I hope he is with me the rest of my life so I'll have to write him in my Will for my future kids.
I want to thank everyone on TTF for all their great advice and for saving Bogarts life!!
Better late then never . 
