Good home wanted for grumpy tortoise
May. 16th, 2013 01:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
woolymonkeyGrumpy because currently confined to the greenhouse. We need to find a new home for Speedy before he escapes again. (See previous posts for that saga.) It should be easy as there's a very limited supply of tortoises in this country, but we would prefer it if he went to a friend, or friend-of-a-friend, so we can still have news of him occasionally.
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bugshaw, tamaranth and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ozymandias_cat get first refusal as they provided a lovely home for him all last summer. I'm fairly sure they don't want him permanently though.
The difficult bit is keeping him in. Walls or steps are the only thing that's absolutely guaranteed to stop him, but a fence mostly does the trick too as long as it's good and solid along the bottom. Until this summer, I would have said the minimum height needed to keep him in was only 4 inches, but I'm revising that upwards now. Lets say 8 inches. And solid. And vertical. That log-roll edging was very successful when we used it in Surrey. Town gardens tend to be easier to tortoise proof than country ones. Wire fences are no use at all unless they extend into the soil. He goes straight through hedges.
Feeding is straightforward. He eats lettuce, dandelion, cabbage, and various fruit and veg. He knows not to eat anything that might be bad for him. He can go 6 months without food so you don't have to worry about him if you go away for a week, as long as he gets enough calories over the summer to fatten him up for hibernation. He'll eat a lot on hot days and nothing on cold ones. Books say he should have water available, but I have never seen him drink. He goes wild for strawberries.
Shelter is also easy. Atbugshaw's he had a box and used it. With me, he's always rejected what I provide in favour of sleeping under a bush. So you can suit yourself on this as long as he has either a plant or a roof to provide a bit of cover and shelter.
Hibernation. He seems to prefer making his own arrangements if he can bury himself in the garden, but will let you do the box in the shed thing if you want to. I used to do it when I was nervous about him, or when we've needed to move him, but he seems to wake up livelier and happier if he's just left to sort himself out, so that's easy too.
Vet care. It might be a good idea to microchip him if you can find a vet who'll do it, though we've always settled for painting our phone number on his shell. As far as I know, he has never been to the vet and is good at taking care of himself.
Safety. Books say poisonous plants and ponds are a risk. I say poisonous plants are the best ones to grow because he leaves them alone. I would have worried about steep-sided ponds, but he's just spent 10 days hiking along the edge of the Washpit Brook, including the bit with concrete sluices, so that's probably another area where he can take care of himself. He's lived a long time, and wouldn't still be here if he didn't know what he was doing. But he will walk into roads, lawnmowers, etc so needs to be protected from those.
Pluses of Speedy ownership
He's weird and interesting. You will learn a lot about reptile metabolism. Once he knows you feed him, he will come 'running' towards your feet when he sees them (but see below). If you can manage to stop him escaping, the rest of his care is very undemanding. From November until March you can forget him altogether.
Minuses
He squashes delicate plants. He leaves surprisingly smelly poos in random places. He bites your feet if you don't feed him. (He has no teeth but his gums are hard.) He chases cats though they have no trouble getting away from him. He tries to escape. Unless you have access to a lot of dandelions or lettuce that he can't reach to destroy, you will need to buy leaves for him in summer.
Other stuff
We don't expect access visits or anything, but it would be lovely to have an occasional email or lj post e.g when he starts hibernating or comes out again.
We don't know his age or life expectancy. He must be at least 50 because I've known him since I was 14. He was already a big tortoise then and I'm 49 now. He could be 100! So he could die of old age this year or outlive us all--we just don't know.
If you think you can give him a good home, if only for a while, we'd love to hear from you. We urgently need to get him to a place where he can have a bit of space without the danger of escape, so even having him for a few weeks would be a big help if you have a suitable garden. If we can't find a good temporary or permanent home for him soon, then we will try animal rescues.
bugshaw, tamaranth and ozymandias_cat get first refusal as they provided a lovely home for him all last summer. I'm fairly sure they don't want him permanently though.The difficult bit is keeping him in. Walls or steps are the only thing that's absolutely guaranteed to stop him, but a fence mostly does the trick too as long as it's good and solid along the bottom. Until this summer, I would have said the minimum height needed to keep him in was only 4 inches, but I'm revising that upwards now. Lets say 8 inches. And solid. And vertical. That log-roll edging was very successful when we used it in Surrey. Town gardens tend to be easier to tortoise proof than country ones. Wire fences are no use at all unless they extend into the soil. He goes straight through hedges.
Feeding is straightforward. He eats lettuce, dandelion, cabbage, and various fruit and veg. He knows not to eat anything that might be bad for him. He can go 6 months without food so you don't have to worry about him if you go away for a week, as long as he gets enough calories over the summer to fatten him up for hibernation. He'll eat a lot on hot days and nothing on cold ones. Books say he should have water available, but I have never seen him drink. He goes wild for strawberries.
Shelter is also easy. At
bugshaw's he had a box and used it. With me, he's always rejected what I provide in favour of sleeping under a bush. So you can suit yourself on this as long as he has either a plant or a roof to provide a bit of cover and shelter.Hibernation. He seems to prefer making his own arrangements if he can bury himself in the garden, but will let you do the box in the shed thing if you want to. I used to do it when I was nervous about him, or when we've needed to move him, but he seems to wake up livelier and happier if he's just left to sort himself out, so that's easy too.
Vet care. It might be a good idea to microchip him if you can find a vet who'll do it, though we've always settled for painting our phone number on his shell. As far as I know, he has never been to the vet and is good at taking care of himself.
Safety. Books say poisonous plants and ponds are a risk. I say poisonous plants are the best ones to grow because he leaves them alone. I would have worried about steep-sided ponds, but he's just spent 10 days hiking along the edge of the Washpit Brook, including the bit with concrete sluices, so that's probably another area where he can take care of himself. He's lived a long time, and wouldn't still be here if he didn't know what he was doing. But he will walk into roads, lawnmowers, etc so needs to be protected from those.
Pluses of Speedy ownership
He's weird and interesting. You will learn a lot about reptile metabolism. Once he knows you feed him, he will come 'running' towards your feet when he sees them (but see below). If you can manage to stop him escaping, the rest of his care is very undemanding. From November until March you can forget him altogether.
Minuses
He squashes delicate plants. He leaves surprisingly smelly poos in random places. He bites your feet if you don't feed him. (He has no teeth but his gums are hard.) He chases cats though they have no trouble getting away from him. He tries to escape. Unless you have access to a lot of dandelions or lettuce that he can't reach to destroy, you will need to buy leaves for him in summer.
Other stuff
We don't expect access visits or anything, but it would be lovely to have an occasional email or lj post e.g when he starts hibernating or comes out again.
We don't know his age or life expectancy. He must be at least 50 because I've known him since I was 14. He was already a big tortoise then and I'm 49 now. He could be 100! So he could die of old age this year or outlive us all--we just don't know.
If you think you can give him a good home, if only for a while, we'd love to hear from you. We urgently need to get him to a place where he can have a bit of space without the danger of escape, so even having him for a few weeks would be a big help if you have a suitable garden. If we can't find a good temporary or permanent home for him soon, then we will try animal rescues.
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no subject
Date: 2013-05-16 01:15 pm (UTC)I hope you find Speedy a good home.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-16 03:20 pm (UTC)In a quiet suburban area they can probably rehome themselves happily for decades, but we have motorway, dual carriageways, farm fields, major building site...
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Date: 2013-05-16 04:00 pm (UTC)Incidentally, this reminds me of Baby Edward - and it's not feet he's biting ;/
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Date: 2013-05-17 10:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-16 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-17 10:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-17 11:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-17 03:09 pm (UTC)His total displacement over the 10 days he was missing was less than half a mile. He probably covered the first third of that on the hot bank holiday monday when he escaped.
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Date: 2013-05-19 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-20 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-21 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-21 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-20 11:56 pm (UTC)