Shelly & Goldie

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Badger

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Hi Everyone!

Wanted to introduce you all to Shelly & Goldie! Shelly is the 4 month old baby and Goldie is the larger 1.25 year old Aldabra Tortoise. We just wanted to say "Hi" to everyone on the Forum. This place have provided really valuable insights on how to provide happy and healthy care for our tortoises and we wanted to express our thanks!! Hope to speak to you all soon!!

Cheers!

Oh, so Photos:

1) This is Shelly Shelly.JPG
2) This is Goldie Goldie.jpg


Sorry, posted to wrong picture...

This is ShellyShelly Picture.jpg
 
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dmarcus

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Hello and welcome to the forum, you have 2 nice looking Aldabra's..
 

coreyc

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Hello Welcome to the TFO you have some great looking Aldabra's:)
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Badger:

Welcome to the forum!!

May we know your name and where you are?
 

DesertGrandma

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I love their big eyes. That salad looks good enough to eat, haha. Thanks for posting the pics for us to enjoy.
 
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Maggie Cummings

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They are beautiful and very healthy looking. I am sure if you stay here that you will discover that rabbit pellets are not a good substrate for your tortoises. They would appreciate a slightly humid atmosphere and you can't keep the pellets wet but most of all they are hard to walk on and cause a condition called 'splay leg'. Because of the uneven footing and that they roll it damages the leg muscles. It mostly happens in birds, but we are now finding it in tortoises and most are kept on pellets. So most of the tortoise world is moving away from using rabbit pellets. Welcome to the forum, I guess I should have said welcome first before I told you about the pellets. I raised several animals on rabbit pellets before I discovered how bad they actually are for the tortoises and I see a big difference in the animals on a dirt type substrate. I like cypress mulch or fine grade orchid bark....HTH
 

tortoises101

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maggie3fan said:
They are beautiful and very healthy looking. I am sure if you stay here that you will discover that rabbit pellets are not a good substrate for your tortoises. They would appreciate a slightly humid atmosphere and you can't keep the pellets wet but most of all they are hard to walk on and cause a condition called 'splay leg'. Because of the uneven footing and that they roll it damages the leg muscles. It mostly happens in birds, but we are now finding it in tortoises and most are kept on pellets. So most of the tortoise world is moving away from using rabbit pellets. Welcome to the forum, I guess I should have said welcome first before I told you about the pellets. I raised several animals on rabbit pellets before I discovered how bad they actually are for the tortoises and I see a big difference in the animals on a dirt type substrate. I like cypress mulch or fine grade orchid bark....HTH

I agree. Don't get me wrong, you have beautiful torts, but do follow Maggie's recommendation of substrates.
 
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Maggie Cummings

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I did not intend at all to infer that your tortoises are anything but beautiful. I just know what has to potential to happen after some time on pellets...
 

Badger

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thanks!

My name is Adam and I currently live in Hong Kong (Asia).

Cheers!


emysemys said:
Hi Badger:

Welcome to the forum!!

May we know your name and where you are?



Hi Maggie,

Many Thanks for your advice! I appreciate very much any feedback/comments/suggestions/what I am doing wrong etc! Goldie and Shelly are our first tortoises and we are currently very nervous owners, while I have spent many hours looking through the internet seeking information, it is often conflicting though, so it great to get feedback from other owners. Thanks again!

I will change the substrate ASAP! The substrate currently being used is recycled paper cat litter and because Hong Kong is very humid (70% average and during Spring and Summer can push to 90%+), the reptile shop owner suggested this is be used in order to remove some moisture from the Terrarium environment so bascially it ranges out around 60 to 70% on most days. Is that humidity level too low for the tortoises? I had no idea regarding the splay leg issue, thank you so much for highlighting it me! With regards to Mulch/Cypress Bark, are there any other substrate that is suitable? As I live in Hong Kong, the aforemention substrate seems difficult to come by.

Furthermore, would anyone mind sharing with me what they feed their aldabra tortoises? Bizzarely in Hong Kong, grass and weeds are actually difficult to come by and so far we have only been feeding them dark, leafy green vegatables (no lettuce, spinach, chard etc and no fruits) and peeled carrots only once. We also give some "Natural Grassland Tortoise Food" from Zoo Med. Calcium and D3 (combined) are given sparingly but daily. Would appreciate any input on the diet.

Thanks again Maggie for your advice!!

Adam

maggie3fan said:
I did not intend at all to infer that your tortoises are anything but beautiful. I just know what has to potential to happen after some time on pellets...
 

Jacob

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Hello, and Welcome!
Your Aldbra's Look Nice and Healthy
 

Badger

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Thanks for the welcome!

Not yet! We dont have a yard and hence we have to keep the babies inside for now (not ideal I know...). We are now looking to move to our house with a large garden, fingers crossed! Clock is ticking though! Before Goldie and Shelly gets too big!!

Sky2Mina said:
Welcome!
Nice Aldabras, hope you have a huge yard. :D
 

River14

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Badger I think these are the (smaller) tortoises I am meant to be taking pictures of for the forum. :D When did you buy them. Ok I wont ask cost cause I think I already know all things being equal.

Anyway I also live in HK as you might have guessed.

Im a bit worried bout all these Aldabras (amongst others) appearing in HK, suddenly do you know where they are coming from?

They both look well but absolutely should be outside in our climate and immediately.

I know about four kilometres up our drive there are three adult Galapagos tortoises living on concrete in some tycoons terrace. Its all a bit frightening to be honest as these wonderful creatures like to wallow in mud and walk many miles browsing as they go on soft and sometimes hard earth but not on bare concrete. They are not status symbols they are living breathing animals like ourselves.

The thing is if you haven't got a very large garden or a garden at all (as lucky as I am to live in the national park its not at all probable that you do have a big enough garden or ever will have) then these creatures should be found a proper home, Kadoorie might be of use to you here. Please think about it seriously. The sooner the better as they need sunshine exercise blah blah.... or rather etc etc just proper care, that in an apartment is almost impossible to realise. They cannot develop fully like this at all.

How or why these magnificent giants are finding their way to Hong Kong aduts as well as BBs is a complete mystery. Its like selling people in NY baby hippo as house pets!
 

River14

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BTW these torts on pellets have been on the internet for a long time take with a pinch of salt
 

Badger

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Hi River,

Thank you for your post and truely appreciate your comments and have given me much to think about. You are absolutely corrrect, HK is probably not the best place to raise Aladabras in captivity given the limited and high price of land.

To answer your first question, I bought mine a little over a month ago in a reptile shop. They generally import them from either Mauritius or the US so the tortoises are breed and raised in captivity. Your concern is very much justified, as its actually quite common to see pet stores selling Aldabra Tortoises in "Gold Fish Street" in Mong Kok. Many of these animals are actually kept in quite poor conditions (limited space, poor diet etc). Your concern is the poor treatment of these animals in entirely unappropriate conditions and come to think of it, by purchasing Goldie and Shelly, we have actively particiapted in the continued demand for these animals in HK and hence help sustain a trade that is probably best eliminated given the potential living conditions in HK. I thank you with this "wake up call" and really will give your comments a long, hard think.

Maybe to alleviate your concerns specifically for Goldie and Shelly (hopefully not just to provide relief for my now heavy conscience), we did not purchase Goldie and Shelly "wily-nily" and much thought was given to to requirement these animals will need over the very long term. We fully intend to provide the best possible environment within our capability for these animals, and literally, we consider Goldie and Shelly nothing less than our "children"!

While HK is land constraint and living space in generally tiny, we have made plans to move to the NT. Priority number 1, a very large garden so the pair can roam around and live happily. The garden will be a garden (no concrete as you mentioned) and grown with enough plants and grass for them to graze at their leisurely pace (obviously wont be large enough for them to be 100% dependant on grazing, so will still need to feed them). Incidentally, we are going house hunting tommorrow!

Furthermore, we always had a contingent plan in mind when we purchased the two. We currently have access on long term lease a 100,000 sqft piece of land in NT with a 10,000 sqft (expandable) lawn set up which could be converted and house the two if need be. While certainly nothing in comparison to the Kadoorie Farm you mentioned, we certainly hope that this is up to the standard that many other Aldabra owners keep their tortoises.

Probably not a lot I else I can say without sounding defensive. As I mentioned before, you have given me something serious food for thought. All we can say is that we will provide Goldie and Shelly the best possible environment we can, suitable enough for their healthy development!

Sorry for the long reply!

A

River14 said:
Badger I think these are the (smaller) tortoises I am meant to be taking pictures of for the forum. :D When did you buy them. Ok I wont ask cost cause I think I already know all things being equal.

Anyway I also live in HK as you might have guessed.

Im a bit worried bout all these Aldabras (amongst others) appearing in HK, suddenly do you know where they are coming from?

They both look well but absolutely should be outside in our climate and immediately.

I know about four kilometres up our drive there are three adult Galapagos tortoises living on concrete in some tycoons terrace. Its all a bit frightening to be honest as these wonderful creatures like to wallow in mud and walk many miles browsing as they go on soft and sometimes hard earth but not on bare concrete. They are not status symbols they are living breathing animals like ourselves.

The thing is if you haven't got a very large garden or a garden at all (as lucky as I am to live in the national park its not at all probable that you do have a big enough garden or ever will have) then these creatures should be found a proper home, Kadoorie might be of use to you here. Please think about it seriously. The sooner the better as they need sunshine exercise blah blah.... or rather etc etc just proper care, that in an apartment is almost impossible to realise. They cannot develop fully like this at all.

How or why these magnificent giants are finding their way to Hong Kong aduts as well as BBs is a complete mystery. Its like selling people in NY baby hippo as house pets!



Sorry, didnt quite catch this. You mean I should take with a pinch of salt that its ok for the tortoise to be on or off the pellets as substrates?

River14 said:
BTW these torts on pellets have been on the internet for a long time take with a pinch of salt
 

Badger

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Hi Aldabraman,

Thank you for your kind welcome.

I was reading many of the previous posts and I couldn't help but notice that you are a total expert! If you dont mind, would you mind if I asked you a few (rather basic and lay man) questions?

Thanks a lot,

Adam

ALDABRAMAN said:
Welcome, very nice looking aldabras.
 
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