Hello All,
I am new to the form but not to the husbandry of tortoises, after 20 years I still learning. I got my first matting pair of Sulcata tortoises in 1993. I sold that pair in 1997 when my first daughter was born and kept a hatching named Flower that will always be with our family.
Fast forward to 2005, I now have two daughters and a son and am ready to get a male Sulcata we named Bud to pair with Flower. Also in 2005 I adopted 5 California Desert tortoises from an older gentleman who had those tortoises for 35 years in his backyard. We kept 3 and have since re-homed 2 of the CDT’s to families I know well and they are doing great.
After 6 years (2011) and dozen or so hatchling offspring from Flower and Bud, Bud became very large and aggressive toward Flower. I did not have room in my backyard for another large bin for Bud so I had to re-home him. It was sad but needed to be done before Flower was injured or killed.
Then in May 2012 I adopted a male Russian tortoise from a friend named Turdy (a 6 year old boy named him). The Russian had become a chew toy for the family lab after living together in harmony for ten years. He had suffer moderate/sever shell damage and I took him in hoping to help/save him from a certain death. After some TLC preparing him for hibernation he made it through the first winter and is very active and hungry today. His shell has begun to peel a little where he had been chewed on exposing the bone. I will start a thread on this with pictures soon to get some advice from all of you.
So to date our family includes my wife, three children, Flower 16 year old female Sulcata, Winston 45+ year old male CDT, Cruiser 40+ year old male CDT, Princess 40+ year old female CDT, Turdy 10+ year old male Russian Tortoise, Grizzly a 5 year old rescued Newfoundland, Pawnee 8 year rescued alley cat, George 6 year old Bearded Dragon and a 60 reef aquarium.
I look forward to expanding my knowledge and maybe being able to help others.
Regards,
I am new to the form but not to the husbandry of tortoises, after 20 years I still learning. I got my first matting pair of Sulcata tortoises in 1993. I sold that pair in 1997 when my first daughter was born and kept a hatching named Flower that will always be with our family.
Fast forward to 2005, I now have two daughters and a son and am ready to get a male Sulcata we named Bud to pair with Flower. Also in 2005 I adopted 5 California Desert tortoises from an older gentleman who had those tortoises for 35 years in his backyard. We kept 3 and have since re-homed 2 of the CDT’s to families I know well and they are doing great.
After 6 years (2011) and dozen or so hatchling offspring from Flower and Bud, Bud became very large and aggressive toward Flower. I did not have room in my backyard for another large bin for Bud so I had to re-home him. It was sad but needed to be done before Flower was injured or killed.
Then in May 2012 I adopted a male Russian tortoise from a friend named Turdy (a 6 year old boy named him). The Russian had become a chew toy for the family lab after living together in harmony for ten years. He had suffer moderate/sever shell damage and I took him in hoping to help/save him from a certain death. After some TLC preparing him for hibernation he made it through the first winter and is very active and hungry today. His shell has begun to peel a little where he had been chewed on exposing the bone. I will start a thread on this with pictures soon to get some advice from all of you.
So to date our family includes my wife, three children, Flower 16 year old female Sulcata, Winston 45+ year old male CDT, Cruiser 40+ year old male CDT, Princess 40+ year old female CDT, Turdy 10+ year old male Russian Tortoise, Grizzly a 5 year old rescued Newfoundland, Pawnee 8 year rescued alley cat, George 6 year old Bearded Dragon and a 60 reef aquarium.
I look forward to expanding my knowledge and maybe being able to help others.
Regards,