kightboy
New Member
Although I love all the liddle creatures, especially frogs, fish, lizards and snakes of various kinds, having a tortoise wasn't planned.One day my wife went into the garage (which was open just a bit to keep it cool inside) and a lovely little Eastern Hermanni had wandered in. Her shell is about 8 or 9 inches long.
My wife is an actual fairy (or so I'm convinced) so I'm never surprised when she attracts an interesting creature. For instance Hummingbirds seem to think she's a flower and give her a lot of love and she's always catching tiny snakes, lizards and froggies to show off to me.
We fell for this tortoise gal and her elephant-like manner of locomotion and comic-book demeanor. Strangely, just a week before, a very large red-eared slider turtle had moved into my koi pond. Two Testudinidae in one week? Whaaaat?
I'm just going with the flow here but the slider was wreaking havoc on the plants in my small pond and terrorizing the Koi so it has been given to a friend who has a huge private pond with a large number sliders and then we set about trying to find the owner of the Hermanni.
With no luck after 3 weeks of looking, posting notices and putting signs on mailboxes, no-one responded so there was no question that we'd keep her.
Our climate is very similar to the Mediterranean (albeit less humid) and there is a LOT of information online about care and feeding, etc. She has a very slight amount of pyramiding of her shell but is otherwise healthy and has a great appetite. She looks to be about 4 or 5 years old from what I can tell after reading a bit more.
After reading about requirements, I spent about $180 and built her a first-class habitat with 2x12 lumber as the base and it's 6 feet by 4 feet large - chicken wire across the bottom so she can't dig out and filled the box with about 10" of sandy, loamy soil as well as coconut mulch that is doing well for holding some humidity on these hot days. There is plenty of driftwood and there are small hills and rocks to climb around in as well as a large flat rock for basking. A chicken wire cage is on top with a hinged hatch so we can get easy access but raccoons or skunks won't bother her. The entire chicken wire frame on the top unlatches and lifts off if we want to access the whole enclosure. I built a small hut that sits in the corner and she goes in there every night and burrows-in for the night. We're feeding her Mazuri and various dark organic greens. Have planted some "tortoise mix" seeds and dandelions to have fresh greens very soon - should be big enough in 3 weeks to transplant into her habitat. Our two granddaughters (5 and 8) come over frequently and watch her walk all around the large garden area and feed her green stuff. I bought Opuntia cactus (which she loves to eat) and planted two of them for the future. Have a multi vitamin as well as calcium supplement, specifically for tortoises. She's outside and get's plenty of sun so I'm NOT supplementing D3.
It's completely delightful just to watch her wander, eat and explore. Captivating and enjoyable. We're so glad she picked us!
That's my story and I'm stickin' with it!
It is refreshing to read about the efforts of conscientious owners doing what it takes to provide a quality life for their charge.
