~~~The Shelled ones in my life~~~

[Turquoise]

These photos will be of my tortoises. The largest is my 2 yr old female sulcata (African spur thigh), Toodle Butt. I made up that name to call my two dear old toy poodles who have since gone over the rainbow bridge, when they rode on the truck with my hubby & me. When we were ready to leave the house to get back on the road or head out with another load, I would tell them, "Toodle Butts, we're going to town." It is a pun on the word Doodle Bugs. I know I have a weird sense of humor & ya'll will see plenty more of it as I become senile in the next few years.:th_LOL: These first photos will be of her.

This photo was when right after I took her out of the box she flew
home in from Arizona.
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The next four photos are of her in the front yard where she stays
during warm months. She will be wintering outside this year.
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[coltfire]

i do like your zoo and love the pics

[Turquoise]

Continuing my tortoise family photos this one will be of my leopard tortoise, Jaguar & my Indian Star tortoise, Sapphire. I am not sure it is female, but I have to call it something & it still has a very short tail which can indicate it is female. Jaguar is what they call a high white color. Not really a mutation or different species, just one of those things where they keep breeding ones with more white together to bring out the quality. Jaguar is 2 1/2 yrs old, they grow very slowly compared to the sulcatas who grow fast & get very large.

Sapphire the little mostly black tortoise in the photos with Jaguar, is 2 1/2 yrs old also. They really grow slow & won't get larger than 12" on average. Sapphire was about the size of a quarter when I got him. They still live indoors, going out in a special covered pen only during the day when it is warm. Raccoons & rats could carry them away if they got into the pen at night.

These first two photos of Jaguar were when I first got her.
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These next two photos of Sapphire are when I first got him.
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These last three photos are from this year out in the front yard.
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[Turquoise]

Thanks Steve. I do have quite a few critters/zoo. The tortoises are sweet & cute to watch. I thought I'd lost Toodle Butt this past week outside. I couldn't find her anywhere in the inner yard. I did find where she had pushed behind a couple of blocks lining the fence to keep her from trying to dig out. The dirt was wallowed out a little in the area & when I searched the outer yard I found a place in the chain link that she could have gone through. We don't have the outer fence lined & ready for her to use yet. Hubby used old wire on one side, the side I found the opening on. I told him it has to be re-fenced with the new wire!

Sunday we searched all over the yards & hubby drove around the lake area looking. I told him by the time we found her gone she cold be anywhere. They are roamers & if a coyote hadn't gotten her some of the children who live out there could have picked her up. So, Monday evening when I got back from shopping I looked in the area she had wallowed out, I have been 'wishful thinking' looking for her since she left & nearly fell over from shock! Toodle Butt was back sitting in the wallowed area. I snatched her up, fixed the blocks & added some tiles behind it to discourage her from getting out again. I am certain she had been roaming free & decided to come back to have a good meal after tiring of weeds.

Next time off in 4 days I am making her the in-ground hide I have been meaning to so she doesn't feel the need to dig. She will enjoy that when our temps get in the 100s again. She has a doghouse with a hide in it, but she rarely uses it since she has gotten older.

[coltfire]

wow lucky, it was like when i lost my large female coastal, my grand mother let her out , say's she didnt but lock off , well she was gone for two weeks on 12 arcer's thought i would never see her again then one day she just turned up back at her enclosure, and it was feed day, lol.

[Turquoise]

The rascals do know where to get free grub! :th_hehe: In all that space it is really a miracle your coastal python came home.:th_biggrin: I had 2 coastal carpets when I had my other snakes.

I did have one of my burms, my albino male get out of his enclosure & was loose in the house for 2 months. He was only 4ft at the time, not a threat to any other critters & I didn't have my birds then. We had built a custom set of cages 4 high for the big kids. Topaz was in the very bottom one & I missed a small place in the front corner when I sealed the door & side together. He found the spot a week after living in the cage & pushed out by the door. I hunted everywhere & couldn't find him, but I knew he was still in the house. He was too big to squeeze under the door & there were no other openings he would be able to get out of.

On my days off I searched for him & left food out lying on a reptile heating pad, but he never took the bait. I left the cage door cracked a bit with the rat inside. One morning 2 months later I had just came home from work & was checking all my critters when I saw him under a table just staring up at me. I grabbed him up & hugged him, I couldn't believe he was just right there finally! he was a bit thin, but he did just fine for those 2 months.:th_LOL:

[Honesty]

Lovely pics De'Andrea :) Now I have definitely decided you have a small zoo :)

[Turquoise]

Thanks Wendy. It does seem like a zoo around here sometimes.:th_LOL:

I always wanted my own private zoo & tried to supply my need with wild caught critters when I was a child. My Mom always made me turn them loose. Mom if you could see me now I'd say, "See what you caused by suppressing my creativity?" :th_hehe:

Most of my animals don't that much time to care for on my work days luckily. The cleaning of everything is done on days off, so it works out fine. I don't plan on adding anything in the furry/scaled dept. Now if a parrot were to come along...:th_biggrin:

[Honesty]

Thanks Wendy. It does seem like a zoo around here sometimes.:th_LOL:

I always wanted my own private zoo & tried to supply my need with wild caught critters when I was a child. My Mom always made me turn them loose. Mom if you could see me now I'd say, "See what you caused by suppressing my creativity?" :th_hehe:

Most of my animals don't that much time to care for on my work days luckily. The cleaning of everything is done on days off, so it works out fine. I don't plan on adding anything in the furry/scaled dept. Now if a parrot were to come along...:th_biggrin:My Daughter is moving to Texas next year and I am really hoping I can save the money to visit her. If I can manage to do this, I am coming to visit your mini zoo De'Andrea :th_dance4:

[Blancaej]

Great photos De! I'll have to share them with my son. He loves turtles!

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[Debra]

Wow, they really are pretty!

[Mare]

Beautiful turtles! I grew up in the Southern California desert and experienced many desert tortoise. My folks had a couple move into their yard and mom would throw out veggie scraps for them. These turtles hung around for 3 or 4 years, they dug a hole under one of the trees and hung out there through the cold months. My husband and I moved back to the area for around 6 months, (work oriented move),and was driving down the highway to see the person in front of us swerve to intentionally run one over! It was terrible! We stopped, it was a large tortoise, still alive and we brought it home. My hubby taped his shell up with duct tape, we put him in a rock enclosure we had on the property. We fed him lettuce and veggies and he healed, his shell repaired itself and we let him go in an area that we knew was safe for turtles, way away from the highway.

[spiritbird]

Love the shells of your guys. Very attractive. My goodness but you must be so busy. Wish I lived closer I would help you out with the animals.

[Turquoise]

Awesome Wendy!! I look forward to getting to meet you when you come down. I will give you a suggestion when you do come visit your daughter here in Texas. Try not to come between the months of June thru Aug. Unless you are used to really hot days & plan on staying close to an air conditioner.

Thank you Debra & Blanca. Little boys do seem to be drawn to turtles aren't they! Hope he likes the photos. They are really great pets that don't need much work to keep.

A[Users must be registered and logged in to view attached photos or hyperlinks] Dianne thank you for wanting to help. I would love it if you did live closer as well as many of the folks I have met since I got my parrots & joined these forums. I belong to many different types of ani.al forums, but I never met more friendlier helpful genuine friends til I joined parrot forums. Every parrot forum I have joined I can say I have remained good friends with several members on it.

That is such a sweet thing ya'll did for the desert tortoise Mare. It makes me furious when someone deliberately trys to kill helpless creatures! I always wonder how they would feel if the creatures were the ones behind the wheel of the car & ran over them? I think the desert tortoises are beautiful. There are rescue plasces where they need people to adopt them. The laws on them are if they are in Arizona, they have to stay in that state. Same with if they ate in California, the adoptee has to be in that state to keep them. It has to do with keeping what few there are anymore in the states they are found in. You never own the desert tortoise from the rescues, only its foster home so to speak.

As a child I watched Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler on 'Wild Kingdom' every Sun night. I loved the huge land tortoises they had on there. Always wanted one, but never knew where to get one til I got back on the internet in 2010 after staying off for 14 yrs.

[coltfire]

The rascals do know where to get free grub! :th_hehe: In all that space it is really a miracle your coastal python came home.:th_biggrin: I had 2 coastal carpets when I had my other snakes.

I did have one of my burms, my albino male get out of his enclosure & was loose in the house for 2 months. He was only 4ft at the time, not a threat to any other critters & I didn't have my birds then. We had built a custom set of cages 4 high for the big kids. Topaz was in the very bottom one & I missed a small place in the front corner when I sealed the door & side together. He found the spot a week after living in the cage & pushed out by the door. I hunted everywhere & couldn't find him, but I knew he was still in the house. He was too big to squeeze under the door & there were no other openings he would be able to get out of.

On my days off I searched for him & left food out lying on a reptile heating pad, but he never took the bait. I left the cage door cracked a bit with the rat inside. One morning 2 months later I had just came home from work & was checking all my critters when I saw him under a table just staring up at me. I grabbed him up & hugged him, I couldn't believe he was just right there finally! he was a bit thin, but he did just fine for those 2 months.:th_LOL: my big guy nevr had an enclosure the house being his enclosure, now i lived on 12 arcers, some how he worked out how to unlock the sliding door and screen door, i came home one day to thinking had be broken into, only to find monte was missing , searched hi and low ,thought he had been taken or he was gone on the property, well just as the sun was going down out from under a plant box on the deck comes monte heading str8 back inside , the following day was when we seen him unlock the doors and go out and sun himself, he never did learn to close the door , then another time i had him out on the hill just letting him get some sun and roam on grass when a customer came to buy a bike (i sold dirt bikes at that time) so i asked my son to watch him which was all good 15 min later son comes down to see what im doing , i thought he must have put him away, couple hours later asked where monte was son went um i left him out side now this was around 200m from house , looked every where could not find him but as soon as the sun was going down across the back deck he came.

[Mare]

my big guy nevr had an enclosure the house being his enclosure, now i lived on 12 arcers, some how he worked out how to unlock the sliding door and screen door, i came home one day to thinking had be broken into, only to find monte was missing , searched hi and low ,thought he had been taken or he was gone on the property, well just as the sun was going down out from under a plant box on the deck comes monte heading str8 back inside , the following day was when we seen him unlock the doors and go out and sun himself, he never did learn to close the door , then another time i had him out on the hill just letting him get some sun and roam on grass when a customer came to buy a bike (i sold dirt bikes at that time) so i asked my son to watch him which was all good 15 min later son comes down to see what im doing , i thought he must have put him away, couple hours later asked where monte was son went um i left him out side now this was around 200m from house , looked every where could not find him but as soon as the sun was going down across the back deck he came.

Sounds like Amigo! He knows where home is, just like your snake!

[mrgoogls]

great looking torts! I would LOOOVE to get one, but during the winter they wouldn't be able to stay outside were I live and I don't have room for an indoor pen. summer is the easy time :D

[Turquoise]

great looking torts! I would LOOOVE to get one, but during the winter they wouldn't be able to stay outside were I live and I don't have room for an indoor pen. summer is the easy time :D

Thanks Kenny. They could live where you live outdoors, but they have to have a nice large house that a heat lamp & pig blanket could be added to. Plus a big pile of hay to bury themselves in. Even down here in Texas I will have to build Toodle Butt a large house & heat it. Our winters are so unpredictable being in the 80s one day & all the way down in the lower 30s & snowing the next. Only to be back up to the 80s two days later & all the snow is melted. We do get down in the low teens & negative temps, it just doesn't last as long as the upper states temps do.

[mrgoogls]

Thanks Kenny. They could live where you live outdoors, but they have to have a nice large house that a heat lamp & pig blanket could be added to. Plus a big pile of hay to bury themselves in. Even down here in Texas I will have to build Toodle Butt a large house & heat it. Our winters are so unpredictable being in the 80s one day & all the way down in the lower 30s & snowing the next. Only to be back up to the 80s two days later & all the snow is melted. We do get down in the low teens & negative temps, it just doesn't last as long as the upper states temps do.

I know they COULD live here outside in winter. but I don't have outlets near where a pen would be to heat them. so I would need a lot of extension cords and my parents don't want cords laying through our backyard :D