I need a safe place to rant and I know you will understand

[hshar1]

As you know on the 11/6/14 we took a phone call to say would we take in a tortoise and offer it a home for life, they had decided that we were a good choice as we keep other reptiles and we are known to research everything in even the small detail. But the catch was that the tortoise would arrive 21/6/14 ready or not. The previous owner had had it since it was a baby and it is now 42 years old, it was believed to be male though this had never been confirmed and the species was unknown, the couple looking to re-home are friends of my parents so I have had to bite my tongue to some degree! Her previous home was the entire garden to live in daily, a purpose built conservatory for the colder months and was brought in at night to sleep. It would bring with it the indoor accommodation.
With this in mind we asked for photos to set about identification, received done blurred images but between you here, a couple of other places and looking at lots of images we all went for Greek, no under photos were sent despite requests so it wasn't until she arrived yesterday that we discovered she is in fact a girl, again we confirmed here and a couple of other places and no-one has disputed that.
We had set about creating an outdoor enclosure knowing that not all of our garden is safe for her, plus if we want to leave her out and go anywhere, work, shops etc she needs to have a secure environment.
Due to other commitments and my father in law being rushed into hospital and having emergency surgery to try and save his life (fingers crossed there), this has meant things are not quite finished.
So she has romped about the garden exploring as we keep one eye on her and crack on with the work, luckily the kids are enjoying following her to see what she is doing.
The indoor accommodation, consists of a dog kennel with a home made basking area, that is a light bulb inside a sealed tin, surrounded by foam and covered in blankets and carpet which she has been laying on at night!
No surprise when we dismantled it and found scorch marks in various places! This has all gone in the bin!! I am not killing her or us!
So we have been out and brought a viv, 2 types of substrate as she digs when settling in to sleep a hide for her to sit under and a basking light.
This will be left open during the day when we need to go out to allow her to roam as we know she has been in her own conservatory!!
This also will allow her to get used to the viv so she can be made safe if we need to restrict her wandering for certain visitors.
Not least her well meaning previous owners who wish to visit, they sent a food parcel, a weeks typical diet, 4 iceberg lettuces, 6 cucumbers and 6 packets of cat food, they have never bathed her and never give her a bowl of water as she gets all of her fluid from her cucumber!
It is our intention at payday to get a second basking bulb to ensure the temp and the uv for the viv, she has had her first bath today that went better than I thought though not as well as I would have preferred, the cat food has gone to my friend the cat lover and we have had a chat with her about her diet and offered her lots of things off the tortoise table and care guides plus a bowl if water and a cuttlefish!
At this pint as we concentrate in finishing off her outdoor enclosure can you think of anything obvious I have missed?

Did I mention we were told not to worry about poisonous foods as she will simply avoid them!! And that though she is a hibernating species she never has done so and they think I am making a fuss with all the stuff we are doing.

Thank you for letting me rant as I bang my head against the wall. Plus we have books her a vets check up and micro chipping appointment.

Less than impressed with the idea of a bath, and a couple of times tried to put her head in the shell going under water!!

Start of the unexpected viv after a long day's garden patrol

 

[dmmj]

Tortoises have a dual curse. They can survive bad care, sadly they survive bad care.

 

[hshar1]

Thank you, I know it was a long ramble but I needed to say it to anyone who would know where I was coming from, so massive hugs of thanks to anyone who listens. She is beautiful and I get so cross thinking of anyone having any creature without learning any understanding of what they are doing for it. But this weekend the standard reply to my questions has been " it's got to 42 without any of that"!!!

 

[Flipper]

Good luck! I'm glad she found you and your family! Big hugs all around!!

 

[Yvonne G]

You just keep on doing what you're doing. The tortoise will do much better under your care. Good job!

 

[naturalman91]

Thank you, I know it was a long ramble but I needed to say it to anyone who would know where I was coming from, so massive hugs of thanks to anyone who listens. She is beautiful and I get so cross thinking of anyone having any creature without learning any understanding of what they are doing for it. But this weekend the standard reply to my questions has been " it's got to 42 without any of that"!!!

it got to 42 because it went into survival mode poor thing happy it found you

 

[hshar1]

She's tucked up asleep and I have opened the wine, I fear that as she becomes healthy I risk getting hooked on wine to save me shouting at my father! Who keeps defending his friend

 

[Yvonne G]

There are worse things to be hooked on.

 

[naturalman91]

She's tucked up asleep and I have opened the wine, I fear that as she becomes healthy I risk getting hooked on wine to save me shouting at my father! Who keeps defending his friend

your best bet to avoid confrontation is to just let it go you have her now and that's all that matters you can't change the past

 

[hshar1]

your best bet to avoid confrontation is to just let it go you have her now and that's all that matters you can't change the past

I know you are right, I know if I just keep my head down and get on with it, we'll have her set to go forward as she should be and they will just get used to what we've done, but it isn't easy with the little things they say.

 

[naturalman91]

I know you are right, I know if I just keep my head down and get on with it, we'll have her set to go forward as she should be and they will just get used to what we've done, but it isn't easy with the little things they say.

oh trust me i know i recently got in to a BIG squabble with a very close friend over how he treat's his box turtle only i'm not good at biting my tongue so we don't talk a whole lot anymore

 

[ascott]

Her previous home was the entire garden to live in daily, a purpose built conservatory for the colder months and was brought in at night to sleep.

I know I am not going to be the popular one, but suppose I don't often need to I don't see where any of this is poor husbandry...that is if the tortoise has had free run of the garden (I am assuming here that there are items for grazing present in that garden--and tortoise are pretty good at avoiding plants that cause them discomfort) then the iceburg, cucumber and bits of cat food are but treats (yes, tortoise find those items part of the treat family) and a conservatory for the colder months is also ok and then brought in at night.....these are all alright. This is likely why the tortoise has thrived up to the age it is at....the pic of the tort is that of a smooth, plump older tort....I don't see an ailing, barely surviving tort....also, if I were the one that was going to now host the tortoise....I would mimic alot of what you described here (well, except for the cat food--that is not that uncommon, but it weirds me out)....just saying.

 

[Tom]

Add me to the list with Angela. Now I don't even know what a conservatory is, but while the diet and lack of water could certainly have been better, this tortoise would not have survived this long if the environment was not suitable. It certainly must have found puddles to drink from on rainy days and other things to eat while outside.

What concerns me more is that big tortoise in a tiny little vivarium under that little spot bulb. That tortoise needs a MUCH larger enclosure and little bitty bulbs like that tend to make a super hot little spot on top of the carapace. Do you know what the temperature is directly under that bulb at tortoise carapace height? I'd bet money that its too hot. Carapace damaging hot.

I understand your frustration with what they were doing, but I also hope you understand MY frustration with what YOU are doing. I know you mean well, and I hope we can all help you figure out the best ways to care for your new tortoise.

 

[ShadowRancher]

Whewt....the first couple of lines of this made me think that they had backed out of the deal or that something had happened to the tort, glad she's ok.

 

[hshar1]

Guys she doesn't have just the viv it is open and she has open access to the kitchen at night. She has a purpose built garden pen that has been specifically planted with all the things on the lists, particularly in mind from the tortoise table to graze as she wonders. The viv was to replace the little wooden shack with a bulb that was in a tin that she had been laying on in her previous residence which when we took the lid off was burning the tin. She is on,y ever going to be outside roaming or roaming the house with access to the viv with the different areas. My post did say that a further basking lamp and uv will be added later this week but what you see is the emergency purchase when we opened the box to find the serious fire hazard that she had arrived with.
The bulb is actually cooler than the one that she had been laying directly on top off rather than under and with the availability of moving away in our house rather than being placed upon the previous bulb in a 2 foot buy 3 foot wooden dog kennel that had the door closed at night.
I do not believe that she will avoid the plants that will harm her as we keep having to move her away from several plants in the wider garden when we allow her to wonder.
She has an appointment with a specialist vet to check her health and I will wait to see what they say regarding any short or long term issues that she may have brought with her.

 

[hshar1]

Whewt....the first couple of lines of this made me think that they had backed out of the deal or that something had happened to the tort, glad she's ok.

You were nearly right, when she arrived, they advised me that they thought she may be travel sick as she had fallen very still and quiet in the journey to our house, however when they collected her from the car, she was in a loose plastic carrier bag, inside a closed cardboard box and inside a larger loose plastic carrier bag! A bit of time in the garden and she was soon fine

 

[Kim444]

well, I just adopted a 3 yr old Greek tortoise from a girl who lived with a vet tech(yes, a vet tech whom you would assume would research tortoise care) . She told me to feed him only romaine lettuce as everything else makes him sick. He came to me on old news kitty litter, and told me they occasionally feet him dog food. She also told me she only soaked him every now and then as a baby and he doesn't need soaking anymore. She told me he only poops 1-2 times a week.

Within 4 days I had him eating dandelions and cuttle bone. I changed his substrate to coco coir, added a heat lamp(he only had a UV lamp) and bought him a hide that he actually fits in.

Yesterday it was a hot sunny day, so I took him out to the park, let him roam around supervised, and he pooped 2 huge piles. I think he needed the exercise to poop. This has been the first poop I have seen since I got him 9 days ago, but he didn't eat for 2 days out of the 9, so I guess he was due for a good poop. Surprisingly I have been soaking him every second day, and he didn't poop during those soaks but yet a good long walk in the park sure helped.

He also peed in my hand while I was bringing him to the park. I have no idea they peed that much, I cupped my hand and held a nice puddle of warm pee. Lovely, I've been christened, lol. At least he waited to be on the ground to poop!

 

[hshar1]

We had noticed that she poops when active, didn't know of that was coincidence or not as she has only been here a couple of days. She does wee a lot!! All over the lawn all over the kitchen floor often, but I take it as a good sign, no mess in her bath, she has had two now, but she certainly can't be described as enjoying them! Though she isn't distressed as such either just grumpy, may be they have to be relaxed to poop I the bath?

 

[kmartin]

May have you beat. I spoke with a very nice woman whose daughter bought a baby turtle for her 2 year old- from a guy in a van next to the side of the road! It lives in an aquarium with a rock. No filter, no UVB, no heat, nothing. After a year it is still alive and they still have no idea what it is. Not even sure what it eats other than a can of food the person they got it from (in a plastic bowl) gave them.
I gave her the TFO as a starting point since she is now the proud grandmother of what may be a water turtle of some sort. Maybe????

 

[ascott]

Guys she doesn't have just the viv it is open and she has open access to the kitchen at night. She has a purpose built garden pen that has been specifically planted with all the things on the lists, particularly in mind from the tortoise table to graze as she wonders. The viv was to replace the little wooden shack with a bulb that was in a tin that she had been laying on in her previous residence which when we took the lid off was burning the tin. She is on,y ever going to be outside roaming or roaming the house with access to the viv with the different areas. My post did say that a further basking lamp and uv will be added later this week but what you see is the emergency purchase when we opened the box to find the serious fire hazard that she had arrived with.
The bulb is actually cooler than the one that she had been laying directly on top off rather than under and with the availability of moving away in our house rather than being placed upon the previous bulb in a 2 foot buy 3 foot wooden dog kennel that had the door closed at night.
I do not believe that she will avoid the plants that will harm her as we keep having to move her away from several plants in the wider garden when we allow her to wonder.
She has an appointment with a specialist vet to check her health and I will wait to see what they say regarding any short or long term issues that she may have brought with her.

Wow, you totally read my reply with the wrong set of eyes. Nonetheless, I can tell you are a person that will do what they will. Lots of wishes of fun with that gorgeous tortoise.