I posted a picture of my hatchling Sulcata the day that I got him, on a website called Reddit, and a huge comment thread started with 600+ comments, once of which was the story below... All of you turtle and tortoise people please tell me your opinion on this, if you've ever heard of such a thing. It left me speechless, honestly. Please forgive any grammar or swear words, I just copied it directly.
"I have an interesting story about our African Sulcata "Elliot". Well about 12 years ago on mothers day Me, my brother my sister and my step dad went to an exotic pet store where they sold African Sulcatas, we bought her a 2 year old Sulcata. Years pass(maybe 6-8 years) we let him roam our back yard we have grass that he "mows" and plenty of room for him to grow. We have a pool too...after all these years he would walk pass the pool and NEVER payed no attention to it. One day i come home from school and my mom is balling her eyes out. She says Elliot had drowned...my heart sank it was mid November fairly cold out and i go to the back yard where Elliot was at the bottom of the pool. I take my clothes of jump in the freezing cold water and sadly bring his limp body out of the pool. My older brother is also very sad and remeberd from school that turtles can slow their heart beats to 1-2 beats an hour almost a hibernation state. so we look up how to give a turtle CPR we get a straw and gently blow air to his lungs while my step dad is pumping his legs. about 2 min go by no luck, we all start to lose faith...then out of nowhere Eliot MOVES he **** MOVES we all light up and rush him to the vet emergency clinic. They said there is hope and we come back the next day and Eliot sure enough is VERY much alive but making weird sounds. well, Eliot kind of became slow after the incident, he will not eat on his own my mom has had to hand feed him for 4 years now. Just recently Eliot has eaten on his own after 4 years of my mother prying his mouth open and injecting liquid food into his mouth. My mom sent me pictures of Eliot eating a head of lettuce 2 or 3 weeks ago all on his own. He is doing well to this day and is 14 or 15 years old
we luv our Eliot he is a Miracle.
http://i.imgur.com/mYDKB.jpg "
"I have an interesting story about our African Sulcata "Elliot". Well about 12 years ago on mothers day Me, my brother my sister and my step dad went to an exotic pet store where they sold African Sulcatas, we bought her a 2 year old Sulcata. Years pass(maybe 6-8 years) we let him roam our back yard we have grass that he "mows" and plenty of room for him to grow. We have a pool too...after all these years he would walk pass the pool and NEVER payed no attention to it. One day i come home from school and my mom is balling her eyes out. She says Elliot had drowned...my heart sank it was mid November fairly cold out and i go to the back yard where Elliot was at the bottom of the pool. I take my clothes of jump in the freezing cold water and sadly bring his limp body out of the pool. My older brother is also very sad and remeberd from school that turtles can slow their heart beats to 1-2 beats an hour almost a hibernation state. so we look up how to give a turtle CPR we get a straw and gently blow air to his lungs while my step dad is pumping his legs. about 2 min go by no luck, we all start to lose faith...then out of nowhere Eliot MOVES he **** MOVES we all light up and rush him to the vet emergency clinic. They said there is hope and we come back the next day and Eliot sure enough is VERY much alive but making weird sounds. well, Eliot kind of became slow after the incident, he will not eat on his own my mom has had to hand feed him for 4 years now. Just recently Eliot has eaten on his own after 4 years of my mother prying his mouth open and injecting liquid food into his mouth. My mom sent me pictures of Eliot eating a head of lettuce 2 or 3 weeks ago all on his own. He is doing well to this day and is 14 or 15 years old
we luv our Eliot he is a Miracle.http://i.imgur.com/mYDKB.jpg "
