My weather has been great the last couple weeks so I have been letting my hingebacks live in their outdoor enclosure 24/7. They've been thrilled to be out there- they even started eating spring mix for me! My 2 year old daughter decided she's the tortoise feeder, and after she fed my sulcata she brought the greens over to the hingebacks... they haven't eaten greens once in 8 years, but my daughter insisted they needed them, and they ate them. Who'd have thought.
Sunday night was supposed to get too cold for them, so they came in for the night and didn't get back out until late Monday afternoon. And sometime between 5 and 9 on Monday something attcked poor little Sam. The injury wasn't serious, just a little cut on the skin that runs along his hinge. (On a side note, that skin is well disguised! Looks just like the shell around it...) I cleaned it out well, disinfected it, added antibiotic ointment and a "waterproof" bandaid. He'll be fine, was eating and acting normal this morning.
My initial thought is that my dominant male somehow cut Sam with his shell, but when I went out to bring them in no one was in their favorite spot, so it leads me to believe that they were somehow disturbed. Well, more disturbed than my big male would make them... he's always trying to hump something, whether it be a tortoise or an appropriately shaped rock, and all the other torts seem really bored when he does. Also, it looks like the cut came from above, so maybe a small bird is to blame. Possibly a Robin, they occasionally hunt for worms in the hingeback's enclosure. The worst part is I have the chicken wire sitting in the shed, I just haven't had the time to install it yet. Guess I'll be making the time over the next couple nights. Stupid birds... I'm going to have to check out the legality of going after them with my pellet gun.
Sunday night was supposed to get too cold for them, so they came in for the night and didn't get back out until late Monday afternoon. And sometime between 5 and 9 on Monday something attcked poor little Sam. The injury wasn't serious, just a little cut on the skin that runs along his hinge. (On a side note, that skin is well disguised! Looks just like the shell around it...) I cleaned it out well, disinfected it, added antibiotic ointment and a "waterproof" bandaid. He'll be fine, was eating and acting normal this morning.
My initial thought is that my dominant male somehow cut Sam with his shell, but when I went out to bring them in no one was in their favorite spot, so it leads me to believe that they were somehow disturbed. Well, more disturbed than my big male would make them... he's always trying to hump something, whether it be a tortoise or an appropriately shaped rock, and all the other torts seem really bored when he does. Also, it looks like the cut came from above, so maybe a small bird is to blame. Possibly a Robin, they occasionally hunt for worms in the hingeback's enclosure. The worst part is I have the chicken wire sitting in the shed, I just haven't had the time to install it yet. Guess I'll be making the time over the next couple nights. Stupid birds... I'm going to have to check out the legality of going after them with my pellet gun.