A big hello to my fellow reptile lovers. I’m from Sri Lanka. My tortoise is a Sri Lankan star (naturally) named turbo. We obtained turbo back in 1996 from a neighborhood fish collector for $1. So yes, he must be a wild caught specimen. But being so close to the capital city he wouldn’t have survived long in the open. Also we have never seen any other stars in our area. So he could be an escapee who was captured and brought from a different part of the country.
He always fit in my hand from the time we got him. I was 9 at the time so I guess he grew with me.
He spends his days roaming around the back yard on a diet of bean pod, ladies fingers, water spinach and weeds and grass around the garden. While new pets came and passed on this guy stuck around.
By the way keeping tortoises are illegal in our country so I’ll apologize in advance if I don’t divulge too much information about myself. So the ban was somewhat strictly enforced only recently and my parents wanted to donate him to the zoo before we got in trouble.
This also sparked my interest in these creatures and unlike in 1996 now that we have internet I did some reasearch and realized that he’s so much more amazing than he actually is.
And now he’s got a girlfriend. I call her Julie. She was loaned to me by my aunt who’s got 7 stars. She’s captive bred hence the beautiful shell. Wild ones and the ones who’ve lived in more natural environments with rocks and roots like turbo can have pretty worn out shells. Julie’s around 4-5 years old and weighs about 5 pounds
So I’m waiting for these two to give me some awesome babies. I’m also seeking to obtain permission from the authorities to legally keep and breed these guys and maybe help the dwindling population here in some way. Just a thought.
He always fit in my hand from the time we got him. I was 9 at the time so I guess he grew with me.
He spends his days roaming around the back yard on a diet of bean pod, ladies fingers, water spinach and weeds and grass around the garden. While new pets came and passed on this guy stuck around.
By the way keeping tortoises are illegal in our country so I’ll apologize in advance if I don’t divulge too much information about myself. So the ban was somewhat strictly enforced only recently and my parents wanted to donate him to the zoo before we got in trouble.
This also sparked my interest in these creatures and unlike in 1996 now that we have internet I did some reasearch and realized that he’s so much more amazing than he actually is.
And now he’s got a girlfriend. I call her Julie. She was loaned to me by my aunt who’s got 7 stars. She’s captive bred hence the beautiful shell. Wild ones and the ones who’ve lived in more natural environments with rocks and roots like turbo can have pretty worn out shells. Julie’s around 4-5 years old and weighs about 5 pounds
So I’m waiting for these two to give me some awesome babies. I’m also seeking to obtain permission from the authorities to legally keep and breed these guys and maybe help the dwindling population here in some way. Just a thought.
