The Russians are coming!!!!

[Kristina]

LOL, I know it has been awhile again since I have been around and posted, but I wanted to share....

I am finally, FINALLY, getting the group of Russians I have wanted since I was a 7 year old kid. A dream 21 years in the making, lol!!!

They are being shipped today, and I will have them tomorrow. One male and three females. I am freaking excited!!!

I am also getting another female K. homeana, which will mean I will have two pairs of Hinges. Well, in six months or so, gotta keep the new girl in QT for awhile.

Hope everyone has been well!!

Kristina

 

[Stephanie Logan]

Congratulations!

Have you got all their little beds made and the covers turned back?

Seriously, do you have to keep the new 4 in separate enclosures or are they coming from the same breeder? How old are they? Do you have their names all picked out?

 

[Kristina]

LOL, they are all coming from the same place, so I will probably keep them in the same enclosure as long as I do not have any aggression issues. They will visit the vet probably on Thursday (my next day off.) They are imports, not captive bred, so age is unknown, but they will all be about 4" scl. I haven't picked any names yet. Most of the time my animals seem to fall into their names, so once their little personalities come out, I will pick some thing for them.

Kristina

 

[TortieGal]

Congradulations! please take picture's for us!

 

[Weloveourtortoise]

congrats on the new additions!!! SOOOOOO Jealous!!! I want more!!!-- POST PICS ASAP!!!! -- Please!!!

 

[ChiKat]

How exciting!! I can't wait to see pics

 

[Jacqui]

Congrats on the long time dream coming true and getting all the new guys...including the Hingeback! Long time no hear from you, you need to keep us more in the loop, atleast so you know your alive and well.

 

[Kristina]

Ha, I know, I know, I have a tendency to drop off the radar and then resurface from time to time

Well, they got here this morning. The little Hingeback is, well, so LITTLE. She is so cute, but it will definitely be some time before she reaches breeding age. She doesn't even have a fully developed hinge yet. She felt very light for her size though, my big guys are like tanks, just heavy and solid. I fed her a good meal and gave her a long warm soak after unpacking, and she seemed very happy with all of it.

The Russians are all in good shape, except one. He has a definite eye infection. The seller is disagreeing with me, saying that he probably got his eyes injured during shipping (Both? Oozing white/yellowish fluid? Riiiiiiiight....) My position is that if he had bagged them seperately, rather than all four in one bag, it would not have been possible for one of the other tortoises to scratch his eye, and either way, it is going to require treatment, and that I want just a partial refund to cover my expenses. He was already getting a bit ouchy with me before I asked for money back, so I am waiting for the fireworks to begin.

I got a little Stinkpot too, he is also very cute. All in all, I am happy, but I do hope to get a bit of a kick-back to cover the tube of Teramycin Opthalmic ointment that I had to hunt all over the world for - at 25% more than what I usually pay for it, yikes.

Kristina

 

[chadk]

Hold on - they were all stuffed together during shipping?? Is that common when ordering more than one tort? Seems like trouble to me....

 

[Meg90]

Post some pics Kristina! Nice to see you posting again.

 

[Kristina]

Hold on - they were all stuffed together during shipping?? Is that common when ordering more than one tort? Seems like trouble to me....

No, each tortoise should have had it's own bag. The seller is now telling me he would be happy to give me a "discount" on my next order. Bull pucky. Do you really think I am going to order again when all I am asking is a mere $30 refund on a $400 order? Nope nope. I am going to see what can be done with Paypal and other avenues.

Thanks Meg - I will try to get some pics up tomorrow, I took some, but no internet at home makes it a challenge to upload them.

Kristina

 

[Stephanie Logan]

Whoa Bubba, you sure got more than you bargained for!

Best wishes for a complete and swift recovery of tortoise health as well as some fund$ to help pay for the meds.

It will be nice when you can return to merely finding names for your new additions...

 

[-ryan-]

Good luck getting everything sorted out with the one tort. I have a 1.3 group of russians and they are so great. The male is only 4.5" or so, but two of the females are around 7" and the other is over 8", so expect your females to grow quite a bit more after everyone is settled in. My group is just starting to become productive. Actually, I should rephrase that, because they have always been productive (always breeding and laying lots of clutches of eggs), but I've just recently figured out that I was incubating them wrong. My group is going to grow to 1.4 in another year or so when my other female is big enough, and then either 2.4 or 1.5 depending on what my little holdback hatchling ends up being.

They are great animals. Russians are my favorite tortoises.

 

[Kristina]

Well, the seller proved himself to be a total jerk. He said he "sent me great, healthy tortoises and if you can't see that you are foolish" and that I need to "put my thinking cap on" and that he "thinks something is wrong with me." WOW. If anyone would like the name of this person, please PM me. I googled this guy, and the three phrases I quoted seem to be some of his favorite insults when a sale goes wrong. He has several negative threads on the BOI of Faunaclassifieds. What a jerk.

I feel sooo bad for the little girl with the sore eyes. They look better already, but when I put her in her soak today she arched her neck down so she could keep her nostrils above the water and get her eyes submerged. I put her medicine in her eyes, she let me without pulling her head in, and then she ate today, which she did not do yesterday. I am confident it will heal, just really disgusted with the seller. Pig.

Ryan, does your group cohabitate? I am hoping mine will be able to, but if not, oh well. Right now they are all together except the one with the infected eyes, she has her own tub lined in paper towel to keep dirt from getting in her eyes.

They are so funny, I love them already.

Kristina

 

[Chelsea]

I'm sorry to hear about you little one's bad eyes. I hope you can get it resolved, and that she recovers fully

 

[Kristina]

Thanks She is doing great already, the swelling is totally gone and there is no more discharge. Thank goodness for Teramycin Opthalmic ointment. I have used that stuff on more animals than I could count.

They are such little piggies!!! I have had to increase their food a bit each day. I was unsure how much they would need to eat (I guess I got a bit too used to having Sulcatas, and had a hard time judging what a smaller tort needed.) They kept cleaning it up and looking at me like, "Where is the rest, lady?" Such cute little squirts. They sleep like puppies, all sprawled out with their heads and legs just hanging out, a head propped on anothers shell, leg on top of that one, lol.

Kristina

 

[Stephanie Logan]

They sleep like puppies, all sprawled out with their heads and legs just hanging out, a head propped on anothers shell, leg on top of that one, lol.

Sounds like PHOTO TIME!

 

[Kristina]

I know, I know, bad Kristina, BAD KRISTINA!!! I will try to get some up pronto

Kristina

 

[-ryan-]

Yeah, my 1.3 group cohabitates year round and I have not had any serious problems. They seem to get along pretty well and are able to tell each other when they need some alone time.

Well, the seller proved himself to be a total jerk. He said he "sent me great, healthy tortoises and if you can't see that you are foolish" and that I need to "put my thinking cap on" and that he "thinks something is wrong with me." WOW. If anyone would like the name of this person, please PM me. I googled this guy, and the three phrases I quoted seem to be some of his favorite insults when a sale goes wrong. He has several negative threads on the BOI of Faunaclassifieds. What a jerk.

I feel sooo bad for the little girl with the sore eyes. They look better already, but when I put her in her soak today she arched her neck down so she could keep her nostrils above the water and get her eyes submerged. I put her medicine in her eyes, she let me without pulling her head in, and then she ate today, which she did not do yesterday. I am confident it will heal, just really disgusted with the seller. Pig.

Ryan, does your group cohabitate? I am hoping mine will be able to, but if not, oh well. Right now they are all together except the one with the infected eyes, she has her own tub lined in paper towel to keep dirt from getting in her eyes.

They are so funny, I love them already.

Kristina