Boney Earp the baby redfoot

[NerdtasticLady]

My first little tort Artoo sadly did not live past 3 months of having him. He just never really started eating properly except sporadically he would eat a full meal. Then I got up one morning and he had passed at some point during the night.

I wasn’t really planning on getting another tort for quite a while. But this little guy (have no idea if he is actually a he) was quite literally shoved into my life. My neighbor has a habit of getting her 2 year old son pets and when they get too difficult or he is afraid of them she gets rid of them.

She asked me if I wanted him and I refused because I didn’t want to aid her in getting another animal. But told her I would help her correct his enclosure and what she was feeding him. That worked all of a week. I came home 5 days ago to a very cold and barely moving baby tortoise sitting my in front yard with every stray cat around standing around him. I thought they had killed him at first but seen his head bob.

I scooped him up and brought him inside and slowly warmed him up. Then went over to my neighbors' house and told her exactly what I thought about her.

He did not move for almost a full 24 hours. I soaked him and he perked up a little and drank for a long long time. What seemed to bring him back was putting food in front of him. Once the food was in front of him he started moving around and acting normal.

He is now an active food driven pig. He is also not shy in the least which surprised me a bit.

Not sure how old he is. He is 3.5” long.

Here are some pics of him. He does not appreciate the camera at all. Also, the giant hunk of banana was for the picture only.

 

[Diamond]

Sorry to hear about your first baby. Glad you were able to rescue this one. The neighbor sounds like she has no clue about pets! He/she is a cute baby.

 

[NerdtasticLady]

My neighbor is a lot to handle to put it kindly. 'He's' so tiny!

 

[Diamond]

Did she just release him into your yard?

 

[NerdtasticLady]

Yes, I refused to take him when she no longer wanted him and a week later she left him in my yard.

 

[Diamond]

Sounds a little nutty. Glad the baby now has a good home.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

See what animal they take in next and call the ASPCA

 

[MysticCaribou]

That's really a bizarre situation, however so glad that it was your yard as you know what to do and how to care for the little guy. Good luck with him. He's darling.

 

[NerdtasticLady]

It's unfortunately not bizarre where I live. If someone doesn't want an animal it is usually set out beside a road or in someone's yard. I've already contacted animal control due to the conditions her dogs are kept. But, the only requirements here are they have food, water, and a shelter. Unless they are witnessed physically abusing the animal not much will be done.

I'm just glad he doesn't seem to have suffered any repercussions from being out in the cold for who knows how long. And that the cats around here didn't hurt him.

 

[Anyfoot]

My first little tort Artoo sadly did not live past 3 months of having him. He just never really started eating properly except sporadically he would eat a full meal. Then I got up one morning and he had passed at some point during the night.

I wasn’t really planning on getting another tort for quite a while. But this little guy (have no idea if he is actually a he) was quite literally shoved into my life. My neighbor has a habit of getting her 2 year old son pets and when they get too difficult or he is afraid of them she gets rid of them.

She asked me if I wanted him and I refused because I didn’t want to aid her in getting another animal. But told her I would help her correct his enclosure and what she was feeding him. That worked all of a week. I came home 5 days ago to a very cold and barely moving baby tortoise sitting my in front yard with every stray cat around standing around him. I thought they had killed him at first but seen his head bob.

I scooped him up and brought him inside and slowly warmed him up. Then went over to my neighbors' house and told her exactly what I thought about her.

He did not move for almost a full 24 hours. I soaked him and he perked up a little and drank for a long long time. What seemed to bring him back was putting food in front of him. Once the food was in front of him he started moving around and acting normal.

He is now an active food driven pig. He is also not shy in the least which surprised me a bit.

Not sure how old he is. He is 3.5” long.

Here are some pics of him. He does not appreciate the camera at all. Also, the giant hunk of banana was for the picture only.
View attachment 194490 View attachment 194491 View attachment 194492

Hi,. So what's your plan on how to look after this little one. He's a looker that for sure.

 

[NerdtasticLady]

I did some quick research on the basic care when my neighbor had him to try to help her take proper care of him. Then I have researched more now that he is here in my house. I set up a closed chamber enclosure while he was warming up. I had a couple of issues with the temperature being too high but went and got a lower wattage MVB and that fixed that. I have a humidifier modified into a fogger to keep the humidity up since it is very dry in my house. And I have a variety of safe plants growing indoors (from when I got Artoo and a few different plants I feed my rabbits) and it isn't difficult to find foods I can't grow, in stores. I've offered mealworms but he seems afraid of them so I'm currently looking at alternative methods of giving him appropriate amounts of protein.

Once he is a bit bigger and I will have an outdoor enclosure for the warmer months and a larger enclosure indoors for the winter.

I'm not new to figuring out fast care for an animal. I've had a variety of animals show up on my doorstep at one point or another either as strays of someone setting them off.