Yet Another Cycling Forum
Random Musings => Miscellany => Where The Wild Things Are => Topic started by: delthebike on 13 April, 2012, 02:47:59 pm
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Billy an ex tortoise! :'(
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8EfmuaVQYLM/T4gsM7uz2oI/AAAAAAAAGqE/YEUZPtDst-o/s640/p4066392.jpg)
Harry, aka Vicious Killer Attack Tortoise, will chase anything out of his garden! Got chewed by a dog when he was two. He was given to us when he was 15.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Bo2NOFkCs2o/T4gsUeZdX7I/AAAAAAAAGqM/IKeeqZhr89k/s640/p4102168.jpg)
Jessica, a fertile female, very lazy and will, literally, sleep for months, even into spring!
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-loxTQKj4nN4/T4gspE9nUXI/AAAAAAAAGqo/Wabuz5X4DTE/s640/p4102173.jpg)
Gogo, a fast mover named by my, then, 4 year old brother. We've had him 42 years and he doesn't get any bigger or slow down!
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8J9KY5BdISI/T4gspbmshFI/AAAAAAAAGqg/06cbkA9LN9c/s640/p4102175.jpg)
Harry just chillin'.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-LWulBYU39i4/T4gsuoRqkxI/AAAAAAAAGqw/VfMFhIqex_w/s640/p9232895.jpg)
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Nice pictures. I'll have to see if our Jimmy is walking around when I visit my parents on Sunday.
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Nice pictures.
You have to have good panning skills so they don't blur! ::-)
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They can move you know :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53HtpeFEX3Y&feature=g-vrec&context=G2108388RVAAAAAAAACg
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They can move you know :P
A cat! Pah! Harry, VKAT, goes for dogs and people! 8)
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I rescued a very large tortoise, unscathed, from the middle of the A689 a few years ago. It had done a runner from the nearby house. Must have been 50 years old.
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Daisy, who lives with my parents, is asleep otherwise I would get a pic of her. She used to have a mate, Fred, but he is no more. It took five days of him not moving for my parents to decide he was dead.
We reckon Daisy is about 90 - they've had her forty years and she wasn't a spring chicken when she arrived.
She was savaged by Lucy my Weimaraner a few years ago - that was an expensive vet bill. Daisy had to be kept awake all winter in a heated box and tube-fed every day. Such fun for my folks. We keep Poppy away from Daisy (when Daisy is awake, of course)
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Hello tortoise peeps.
Eddie is a 6yo Hermanns and has gone awol. Almost certainly still in our garden area uness he's learnt to scale goodly heights and then abseil down the other side, but undetectable by humans, small and large. The only logical place for him to be is under our shed, which is raised nicely above the (earthen) ground but doesn't have much beneath it to sustain life.
If he's burrowed in and waiting for warmth before venturing out again then he's not picked a bad spot, but here in east central scotland it seems it may now be a while (days into weeks) before anything much warmer than 14/15 max, 8/10 min will be detectable.
Should we fret about him? (we are at the minute - we've only been in charge of him since December, so we're feeling a bit numptie-like) Should we just leave him be? or should we destroy the shed in a frantic effort to locate him before he perishes? How likely is it that a Golden Eagle has lifted him away? or a cat? No other animals that take entry to the garden, generally.
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Tortoises are good at escaping and, surprisingly, climbing! :o
Can you get your arm under the shed and feel around? What's the area around the shed like, can he get through to the other side of it and into open space? Is the shed area good at water run off or does it sit in a bowl and flood? Do you have a dog?
I don't think an eagle, a good Scottish eagle, will see a tortoise and think food rather than rock. A cat might possibly play with it but I can't see it being dragged off and scooped out. Put food out and keep an eye out I think it'll turn up. :thumbsup:
Our garden is sealed with old roof tiles, brick walls and paving slabs after an escape many years ago. You can pen them in somewhere with a run made of boards, just have open space, some shady area, shelter, water and food, plus grow weeds and nasturtiums. Ours like nastyurchins very much!
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Can you get your arm under the shed and feel around? yeahbut its big - about 3mx4m; have poked torch in and cannot see much...
What's the area around the shed like, can he get through to the other side of it and into open space? yes, and has done so in the past.
Is the shed area good at water run off or does it sit in a bowl and flood? good drainage!
Do you have a dog? - no.
Its just the cold that makes us fret about him, really. The barrier to the outside world is solid stone walls about 1.5m high, and the gate below, where the height from top of brick to top of board is a good tortoise length, and the bars are too close to fit through without rotating about 75 degrees...
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c204/mrmagnolia/Snapbucket/th_B584335F-orig.jpg) (http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c204/mrmagnolia/Snapbucket/?action=view¤t=B584335F-orig.jpg)
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Ours have been outside, hibernating in their boxes, when temps reach well below 0C. I reckon yours will turn up when he feels warm/hungry enough.
We've trained Harry to cuckoo clock, Swiss, standards and he comes out on the hour and half hour. ::-)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-37MZDLelmBo/T9Sxb68UiaI/AAAAAAAAG44/tMCGUk6hiuA/s640/p6107293.jpg)
it's going to rain so they've gone "indoors". Why they share one box is a mystery as they have enough boxen for one each.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-yMRe5pZ-m4o/T9SxdVUaxPI/AAAAAAAAG5A/H5EhE55J0Wk/s640/p6107294.jpg)
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And Lo!
The beast has been located.
As thought, under shed, in the inaccessible far corner, but clearly haven dug himself in and then out again to allow us to see him. If he survived last nights downpour he should be fine until he decides to emerge.
Whew.
Will return here in due course for some garden guidance re tortoise summer camp!
Thanks.
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And Lo!
The beast has been located.
;D
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Can you get your arm under the shed and feel around?
At least if you don't find the tortoise this way, you'll find the previous house owner's collection of set moustraps....
(but you've found the tortoise, hoorah!)
Which Greek was it, killed by an eagle dropping a tortoise on his head?
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Which Greek was it, killed by an eagle dropping a tortoise on his head?
I found this one and his bust seems to show the dent! ::-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeschylus
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And the combined angst of 3 girls and a lady led the high priestess and commander of all things magnolian to declare that, once the curry was finished, Eddie WAS to be extracted. Some attempts later, I entered the fray with a spade, dug a hole at the back and undermined him. A warm bath and a heat lamp session later, he can just about be arsed moving his legs a bit.
Looking: (its a visiting backside, not a magnolian one!)
http://pbckt.com/pu.OwRg7u
Recovery:
http://pbckt.com/pu.OwOS9k
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Recovery:
http://pbckt.com/pu.OwOS9k
A splendid example. Are you sure it's an Eddie and not an Edie?
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Um, not at all, now you ask. I thought his certificate would say so?
I'll check!
I'm glad he looks good to you- he is a 'rescue' tortoise as his shell is a little miss shaped owing to poor nutrition in very early years at unknown hands. I think we are his third or fourth custodonians.
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Well his certificate doesn't say boy or girl, but the vet at the royal Dick vet here in Embra said he was a boy, when we took him to have his beak and nails trimmed, and to be basic trained in tortoise care. and she should know!
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Someone I know (and, dolt that I am, I can't remember who) was telling me that they knew of a horse that made friends with a tortoise and that the two were inseparable.
The horse never started at better odds than 200-1 though.
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When I win Euromillions and get a lovely house with a huge garden, I am going to have a boy tortoise called Malcolm and a girl tortoise called Gloria. Plus donkeys called Bluebell and Idris.
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Spring greens and strawberries.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-tPbLjG3h2G0/T-WcXynXQpI/AAAAAAAAG7Q/qIqibnDgUZA/s640/p6237398.jpg)
What's that smell?
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Myimzs_5_-E/T-WcWQjNhsI/AAAAAAAAG7I/u5bnvlNoytI/s640/p6237399.jpg)
It's here somewhere!
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-WuP7p2uKrPU/T-WcZ8inY1I/AAAAAAAAG7Y/HO8ZeoTullw/s640/p6237400.jpg)
Here it is!
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-TG4k9qAz6NY/T-WcdQbO5JI/AAAAAAAAG7o/R_BbesKPVxk/s640/p6237406.jpg)
And then Indi found the strawbs and ate most of them. :facepalm:
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Our Eddie has entered a bonkers phase. I think is now 6 going on 16.
He's copping off with every shoe he can find, except my green crocs, that he just fights with. I think we will have to get him a lady friend. He's even making squeaking noises as he fights my shoes.
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http://pbckt.com/pu.OnOh4F
Eddie and the crocs.
http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c204/mrmagnolia/Snapbucket/?action=view¤t=0A43533E-orig.jpg
The winner!
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Myself and the three magnoliettes went to an evening talk at the Edinburgh (Dick) vet hospital tonight to learn about hibernating the beasts, and about care in old age (tortoise's, not mine). That'll be their problem, not mine, given that Eddie is just 6.
We are now very learned, and impressed by the number of Lothian tortoises - there must have been about 70 people there, representing about 40 tortoises.
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Eddie is great ;D
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he may be great, but he's not bright.Eddie seems once more to have absconded, this time from the front garden, which gives rise to the possibility that he is roaming the streets of Portobello dodging the foxes, buses and general viscissitudes of life. Not good: me and Mrs m are jointly horrified that we can, sort of, keep 3 childer safe but not a little tortoise.
Fingers crossed that the frosts don't suddenly descend.
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I expect he's got hacked off with the weather and got a 26 into town to get a bus to the airport to go to a country with a reasonable climate. I hope he comes back soon.
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Thanks - your hopes have helped!
Mrs m has just found the beast, still in the garden. Knackered and cold after being out through the whole of the perfect storm.
He'll be kept on a short leash now until we get him hibernated - the next emotional trauma, if we're able to go through with it!
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You need to get him a bus pass.
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I think he needs to be 8 to go himself.
And I'm not taking him.
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Pleased to hear you found him and he's not eloped with the croc.
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We've had a prang with a tortoise, this one,
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Myimzs_5_-E/T-WcWQjNhsI/AAAAAAAAG7I/u5bnvlNoytI/s640/p6237399.jpg)
and a bike, this one.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ppq0WxwSh9o/S_-i8ms0W8I/AAAAAAAAFhY/CGue4iAbsps/s640/p5282457.jpg)
The tortoise got himself between the biike and a wall. To extricate himself he pushed the bike over, aided by a high centre of gravity due to both basket being on the handlebars. The result is this!
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-RRUEBQxDDRE/UGnD-iUQ_LI/AAAAAAAAHJ4/OpHo2EgTGyk/s640/pa018109.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Ikx3-Hn0FHU/UGnD_hQaKgI/AAAAAAAAHKA/eYvvH9nF2I0/s640/pa018110.jpg)
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Eddie celebrates life:
(Dad, eddies mating with your crocs again.
Oh, I think he's finished)
http://pbckt.com/pu.O1I3yr
The boy is a beast. Bit disconcerting making the Childers packed lunches with Mrs m, to the sound of eddies, er, activities.
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Aw you should get Eddie a girlfriend!
We met a giant Galapagos tortoise a couple of years ago, he was supposedly about 350 years old, and he was so massive that he just did what he wanted. If you don't get out of his way, apparently he just walks over you. He was extraordinary.
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Eddie is giving us peace just now by hibernating. I've just disturbed him long enough to reassure ourselves that he is still alive. Nervous days...
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He's back, and 9 weeks fasting and abstinence has left him more determined than ever...
http://pbckt.com/pu.J53bAl
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Two out of three are moving.
I've built a temporary pen for them so they don't wander into the impending excavations and drown in wet concrete! Indi demolished part of it to get the spring greens I hid in one of the hutches for Harry. So the fence is now tied with zip ties and wedged in place with various garden ornaments.
Harry is outside and sunning himself and there is a plate of food, that the dog can't get to, in another hutch with a locking lid.
When they're all out they will get a bath and a lube job! :thumbsup:
ETA: pics
Harry enjoys this Spring day!
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-BoJYmTaVTps/UWVrHDo3XyI/AAAAAAAAHjQ/J6rH6R3vy3M/s640/p4100274.jpg)
The Pen! It's built high so the don't jump out. :thumbsup: Lookout towers go in next week. Work details and visitation rights will be worked out in due course. ::-)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-iGKn8LKudvw/UWVrHA875PI/AAAAAAAAHjU/MVC2bqsryH0/s640/p4100272.jpg)
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Spring has sprung early in Eddie's house and we are getting him out due to girls fears of to much hibernation:
http://pbckt.com/pu.2nbCOF
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Eddie's a handsome chap, isn't he? Lovely shell.
'Morning, Eddie!
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We thought Harry had escaped or been taken, possibly by an eagle, but he'd buried himself mid October. Today he emerged like a fugly butterfly.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-1SHLJ-b3UOY/UxyaWiWP_8I/AAAAAAAAIP8/mebKf9HXyzM/s640/p3090205.jpg)
A bit of a scrub and some olive oil for a quick buff up and he'll twinkle again.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Kljyu_9M6Xk/UxyaWsd3XaI/AAAAAAAAIP4/hVTBDnUcq8Y/s640/p3090206.jpg)
His winter retreat.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-556gWClktyA/UxyaRDzYStI/AAAAAAAAIPo/f6nAQRA7xGQ/s640/p3090207.jpg)
The other two have yet to get out of the straw bed they're in.
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Nice. We've not seen an eagle since we got Eddie.
I suspect tortoises are scarier than we think.
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Group shot in the weeds, settling down for the night.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-o92x-deTpdk/UycYnhF49dI/AAAAAAAAIQ0/WKVbVXkA-28/s640/p3170218.jpg)
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I WANT OUT!
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c204/mrmagnolia/Snapbucket/th_IMAG32561_zpsbf427800.jpg) (http://s28.photobucket.com/user/mrmagnolia/media/Snapbucket/IMAG32561_zpsbf427800.jpg.html)
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I WANT OUT!
They have no sense of size! :facepalm:
Free range tortoise eggs. Quite a haul so far.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-e2FwXe4kgdA/U9UifRX9J3I/AAAAAAAAI4Q/pyA_86U-B6Y/s640/p7270759.jpg)
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I WANT OUT!
They have no sense of size! :facepalm:
Free range tortoise eggs. Quite a haul so far.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-e2FwXe4kgdA/U9UifRX9J3I/AAAAAAAAI4Q/pyA_86U-B6Y/s640/p7270759.jpg)
Are those from your crocs?
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Are those from your crocs?
Just the one female. When the temperature feels right she'll lay eggs all over the place.
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Harry, our vicious killer attack tortoise, has a nasty looking lump on the end of his tail! Veterinary services are being sought.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-8SQgPpLHzU0/UWVrGhG51_I/AAAAAAAAHjM/KjQUygT0GjU/w603-h453-no/p4100276.jpg)
Scary!
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Bo2NOFkCs2o/T4gsUeZdX7I/AAAAAAAAGqM/IKeeqZhr89k/w603-h453-no/p4102168.jpg)
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A sample has been taken and Harry's going to stay indoors.
It seems info on tortoises hibernation has changed somewhat from what we've been doing the last 45 years. They go in an insulated box and into a fridge for three months, @2-5 C. Then kept indoors until it's warm enough for outside.
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(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Bo2NOFkCs2o/T4gsUeZdX7I/AAAAAAAAGqM/IKeeqZhr89k/w603-h453-no/p4102168.jpg)
Isn't that lump his head, Del?
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Isn't that lump his head, Del?
There's no fooling you is there Wow? It is the other end, the tail end, that has the cyst. It's not blocking anything and he can't hibernate this year. After winter we'll see if it needs operating to remove. That'll be £400 please! :o
Apart from that and his earlier calcium deficiency, hence his shell shape, when he was younger and not with us, he is in very good condition. He's also growing spurs as he appears to have come of age, about 30 years now.
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Just heading out for a ride we went to a reptile shop and bought all that's needed to keep Harry happy during his confinement in the vivarium this winter. UV lamp, ceramic heater, ceramic socket for heater, timer and thermostat (that can be set for day and night temp. and light). A bargainicious £160, half of that was the timer and thermostat.
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Blimey, that's a lot - couldn't you just get a new tortoise every year :P
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Blimey, that's a lot - couldn't you just get a new tortoise every year :P
The Southend tortoise epidemic doesn't need any more freed tortoises. They are a plague around here, they invade the allotments and eat all the greens, the parks are stripped bare. When they migrate in the spring it's like a slow avalanche moving along the roads to the beach areas and back inland for the autumn. It was on BBC news a month ago warning about the upcoming migration, didn't you see it? ::-)
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Alas we have a tortoise that has shuffled off her mortal coil and is no longer pining for the fjords. :'(
Died over night and is now pushing up the daisies.
RIP Jessica.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-loxTQKj4nN4/T4gspE9nUXI/AAAAAAAAGqo/Wabuz5X4DTE/s640/p4102173.jpg)
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Gogo in the vivarium. They have escaped from this by sliding the door and climbing over the plank!
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-sZys_r0PwTQ/VQ1ENMJmIlI/AAAAAAAAJkk/nwIF_k0Oxcg/s720/p3211592.jpg)
Not escaped but removed for viv clean out.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-WZS9i1aAvvo/VQ1ENTGLVnI/AAAAAAAAJko/y4SkTTE1x1k/s720/p3211593.jpg)
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Sorry to hear about Jessica - how old was she?
Our Eddie (aged 6 9) was wandering the garden on 15th September August last and we left him out overnight mistakenly. (were fetching him in at that stage as the weather turns grim overnight towards the end of the year; ::-))
Anyhoo - we never saw him again until this morning, when he emerged from a deep dug hole and spent the day basking in the sun. He is wandering the kitchen just now, having drunk a lot of water and then peed it out again. Thats a full 6 months of disappearance. I'm going to weigh him tomorrow and see if he had any secret cake supplies with him. I'm going to give him into trouble for having avoided the referendum as well
I'm a bit gobsmacked - I had to hunt around a bit for his lamps and such like as they have been dispersed owing to my lack of belief in his continuing existence:
Edit: diary check forces me to add another month to his disappearance. 7 solid months. I've weighed him today but we can't find his medical records to see how that compares with last summer. One of the consequences of being posted as 'missed, presumed dead' I guess. Maybe he is secretly a ' Scottish Labour' member.
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Donald
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That's amazing, Donald.
Can we see a picture of Eddie?
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Sorry to hear about Jessica - how old was she?
We think about 70, not old really more middle aged. :(
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That's amazing, Donald.
Can we see a picture of Eddie?
Sure. I have him on this phone. I just need to do that transfer upload download linkage business.
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OK, here's Eddie 2015:
emerging:
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c204/mrmagnolia/th_IMAG0729_zpsfn6i2pvu.jpg) (http://s28.photobucket.com/user/mrmagnolia/media/IMAG0729_zpsfn6i2pvu.jpg.html)
bathing:
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c204/mrmagnolia/th_IMAG0735_zpspwzbudyb.jpg) (http://s28.photobucket.com/user/mrmagnolia/media/IMAG0735_zpspwzbudyb.jpg.html)
feeding up:
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c204/mrmagnolia/th_IMAG0748_zpsbzitxqk5.jpg) (http://s28.photobucket.com/user/mrmagnolia/media/IMAG0748_zpsbzitxqk5.jpg.html)
eddie and the spds:
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c204/mrmagnolia/th_IMAG0745_zpsq0ejioql.jpg) (http://s28.photobucket.com/user/mrmagnolia/media/IMAG0745_zpsq0ejioql.jpg.html)
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Awww. He's got a lovely shell :)
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OK, here's Eddie 2015:
You might want to check his diet out.
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/pyramiding.html
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thanks Del - he was pyramided when we got him, and he has had a couple of trips to the Dick Vets in Embra. His new shell growth is fine and he was doing fine generally last year: sufficient to embolden him to think he can do it all himself!
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Our Vicious Killer Attack Tortoise, Harry,
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Bo2NOFkCs2o/T4gsUeZdX7I/AAAAAAAAGqM/w2VBtia6WusZu-friatxl-lqqIEbgZ4MQCCo/s640/p4102168.jpg)
has viciously attacked me while I was in the garden sorting out the rotary airer.
He tried to hamstring me by biting through my Achilles tendon so I couldn't run away from his homicidal intentions!
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-aj1Ipj6eOnw/V49M9V-QjhI/AAAAAAAAJxI/844xhDlPxEg4hRkBsp6IgOZw9QKVhaiPQCCo/s640/p7203590.jpg)
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Vicious Killer Attack Tortoise in action! He's already eaten the dog :o ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5OivVdwyoM
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Terrifying!
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Wow a tortoise thread... I came across this fella in the middle of Padhams Green Road in May this year, so I helped him into a field... looked like he'd already been driven over but was still quite lively and a two handed job to pick up - I thought it was a toy at first! Wish I'd taken it home at the time!.
(https://9-t.imgbox.com/Rgr9TYYN.jpg) (http://imgbox.com/Rgr9TYYN)
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Wow a tortoise thread... I came across this fella in the middle of Padhams Green Road in May this year, so I helped him into a field... looked like he'd already been driven over but was still quite lively and a two handed job to pick up - I thought it was a toy at first! Wish I'd taken it home at the time!.
Probably released when the owner decided his "terrapin" was a little too big and had eaten all the fish in the pond/tank.
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Harry, our vicious killer attack tortoise, has come out of hibernation and the hole he dug himself into ~mid October. He has noticeably grown!
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I was going to the shed when I spied a large lump of mud that was viciously looking at me! It was Harry coming out of hibernation! Noticeably bigger again!
Gogo buried himself in the garden too but being much smaller, with less mass to warm up, woke up a fortnight ago.
They'll live in the back room and vivarium until April.
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Good news, Del.
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Harry and Gogo had a mini hibernation from Thursday - a couple of hours ago, it's been that cold here!
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Tortoise racing, with cheesy muzak, what's not to like? :thumbsup:
https://youtu.be/UX3zTGgTYQo
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Our Vicious Killer Attack Tortoise, Harry,
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Bo2NOFkCs2o/T4gsUeZdX7I/AAAAAAAAGqM/w2VBtia6WusZu-friatxl-lqqIEbgZ4MQCCo/s640/p4102168.jpg)
Harry has died and at a very young age, ~35 years. He had a stroke at the end of last summer and he toughed it out until now.
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Poor Harry :(
RIP
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Sad news, Del.
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Sorry to hear that Del. :'(