BS

Maggie3fan

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2018
Messages
8,046
Location (City and/or State)
PacificNorthWest
Spring has sprung in Corvallis Oregon, my decorative plum tree...
100_7414.JPG

I have pasture grass seed planted in my Sulcata pens and all my ros trees are leafing out, the sunflowers are up and so is the 'tortoise from hell' (tfh). She has just been insane. All winter she was pacing her shed and banging on the walls and doggie door. I let her out and she is now just pacing the fence line. The problem is she gets kinda obsessed with pacing about 12 feet and turning going back. So she's in dirt all day and not grazing. So I started throwing objects along that route so she either climbs over or goes around...
100_7407.JPG
She is obsessed. There are 2 tires now and she's angry at them and frustrated, I swear I heard her scream lol. I've fixed and extension on to her pen and that grass is coming up also. It gives her more area to get into trouble. Here she's just been stuck behind the open shed door...
100_7434.JPG100_7438.JPG
Mary Knobbins has been petrified when I've tried to soak her, and I mean she freaks out, but I turned on the sprinkler Monday and she stayed under it most of the day.. She seems to get stuck with the water falling on her carapace making her do the Hootchy Cootchy dance haha, dead camera batteries tho no photos...
 

Maggie3fan

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2018
Messages
8,046
Location (City and/or State)
PacificNorthWest
Hope that fence is super reinforced cause she will show you where it ain't! That is why I am glad my Russian is so small
That's why I like you...you're a Taurus...like me. Happy Birthday!!!!!!!
The rats have made lots of holes rotting the bottom of the fencing. Some of the 4x4's are rotting, so you are closer to the truth than you realized. I am so worried that I will live longer than intended and how will that used ta be good fence hold Mary...I'm not gonna live without a Sulcata to **** me off...lol
 

Jan A

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
1,808
Location (City and/or State)
Boulder, CO
Spring has sprung in Corvallis Oregon, my decorative plum tree...
View attachment 323642

I have pasture grass seed planted in my Sulcata pens and all my ros trees are leafing out, the sunflowers are up and so is the 'tortoise from hell' (tfh). She has just been insane. All winter she was pacing her shed and banging on the walls and doggie door. I let her out and she is now just pacing the fence line. The problem is she gets kinda obsessed with pacing about 12 feet and turning going back. So she's in dirt all day and not grazing. So I started throwing objects along that route so she either climbs over or goes around...
View attachment 323639
She is obsessed. There are 2 tires now and she's angry at them and frustrated, I swear I heard her scream lol. I've fixed and extension on to her pen and that grass is coming up also. It gives her more area to get into trouble. Here she's just been stuck behind the open shed door...
View attachment 323641View attachment 323640
Mary Knobbins has been petrified when I've tried to soak her, and I mean she freaks out, but I turned on the sprinkler Monday and she stayed under it most of the day.. She seems to get stuck with the water falling on her carapace making her do the Hootchy Cootchy dance haha, dead camera batteries tho no photos...
I've so missed Mary Knobbins stories!! How you doin'?
 

Maggie3fan

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2018
Messages
8,046
Location (City and/or State)
PacificNorthWest
I've so missed Mary Knobbins stories!! How you doin'?
Frankly, I was not doing very good, was very sick for over 2 weeks. But, here I am still alive, I sat outside on the blocks watching Mary Knobbins be Mary. I can't believe how much the warm sun made my recovery better. People have said "what are you thinking?!" to me...and that's what I think about Mary. She has 3 separate but connected pens and yet she sticks to the solid wood fence back and forth all damn day. So I threw cinder blocks and tires and crap all along that route...She got so mad...lol
Oregon State Flower...
100_7359.JPG
 

Relic

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2018
Messages
538
Location (City and/or State)
Here
Frankly, I was not doing very good, was very sick for over 2 weeks. But, here I am still alive, I sat outside on the blocks watching Mary Knobbins be Mary. I can't believe how much the warm sun made my recovery better. People have said "what are you thinking?!" to me...and that's what I think about Mary. She has 3 separate but connected pens and yet she sticks to the solid wood fence back and forth all damn day. So I threw cinder blocks and tires and crap all along that route...She got so mad...lol
Oregon State Flower...
View attachment 323695
It seems to me that keeping a fully-grown sulcata in the yard (which I have never experienced first hand) is akin to leaving a toddler in the driver's seat of a bulldozer in your yard. Something undesirable is just bound to happen...but, it's bound to provide loads of amusement in the process.
 

Lyn W

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
23,497
Location (City and/or State)
UK
Glad to hear you're feeling better Maggie and your torts seem to be enjoying the sunshine.
Hope Mary calms down soon.
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,390
Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
Frankly, I was not doing very good, was very sick for over 2 weeks. But, here I am still alive, I sat outside on the blocks watching Mary Knobbins be Mary. I can't believe how much the warm sun made my recovery better. People have said "what are you thinking?!" to me...and that's what I think about Mary. She has 3 separate but connected pens and yet she sticks to the solid wood fence back and forth all damn day. So I threw cinder blocks and tires and crap all along that route...She got so mad...lol
Oregon State Flower...
View attachment 323695
She doesn't look nearly as badly pyramided as she did when you first got her.
 

Maggie3fan

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2018
Messages
8,046
Location (City and/or State)
PacificNorthWest
It seems to me that keeping a fully-grown sulcata in the yard (which I have never experienced first hand) is akin to leaving a toddler in the driver's seat of a bulldozer in your yard. Something undesirable is just bound to happen...but, it's bound to provide loads of amusement in the process.
For me it's sorta hard to explain. Since 2005 I have always had 1 or more Sulcata. My biggest was Bob who was hitting 120 lbs. It's kinda like the same feeling in my Camaro at 100 mph; joy, adrenaline and fear. You absolutely must stay a few steps ahead of them. I must anticipate their moves before they happen, and sometimes I lose. That is a 4' tall solid cedar reinforced Sulcata fence, (not protected against the damn rats ruining the bottom). My property is also surrounded with chain link, (now THAT'S a whole nuther problem). Mary Knobbins will belong to someone else by the time she gets of a larger size and I will be sorry to miss that. In my mind Bob was the consumite Sulcata and Mary the devil incarnate (and numerous in between) lol. Mary is not quite 25 lbs now so outside of her trouble making temperament she's a very easy keeper. I am home all the time so I spend a lot of hours outside gardening and tortoiseing. To me Sulcata are the Flip Wilson's of tortoisedom. Mary has personality plus, she's not very pretty but she sure is fun...
100_7354.JPG
 

Jan A

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
1,808
Location (City and/or State)
Boulder, CO
Frankly, I was not doing very good, was very sick for over 2 weeks. But, here I am still alive, I sat outside on the blocks watching Mary Knobbins be Mary. I can't believe how much the warm sun made my recovery better. People have said "what are you thinking?!" to me...and that's what I think about Mary. She has 3 separate but connected pens and yet she sticks to the solid wood fence back and forth all damn day. So I threw cinder blocks and tires and crap all along that route...She got so mad...lol
Oregon State Flower...
View attachment 323695
I'm sorry you were sick. Sunlight has always been my cure-all. I'm probably nuts for moving to Oklahoma but it's not Indiana where there are no blue skies. I'm thinking it's good for my fat cat, Buster. He's been walking the inside perimeter of the house like a relentless sulcata--the most exercise he's gotten since we got him. If I can just get him to stop caterwauling at 3, 4, 5 & 6 am so we can get some sleep.
 
Top