Hello Hello, If you read the last blog post you already know I said there would be a surprise! Well the time has come! Readyyyyyy,... Lets first start with backstory. Around April or beginning of May I came in contact with a lady ( don't want to use names without permission) She had two tortoises up for adoption both were "greek" tortoises. I have room for a few more rescues so I told her I could take them in. She then said she had two more total of 4 that needed homes. I still had room and no problem at all. She sent me pictures and automatically knew they were not all greeks. They were a blend of a few different species. She lived roughly 5 hours north of me and decided to come down and drop the tortoises off which is great because I love meeting the owners of rescues and show them all the other tortoises and turtles. After a few weeks and a few reschedules we planned on June 9th as the day she would drive down and drop the four off. I ended up making a separate outdoor enclosure one equipped with hides and a burrow. Lots of tall grass and a water dish. The morning came and she arrived. The tortoises all looked happy and healthy. The tortoises all ranged in size from 4inches to 6inches. One tortoise has a little bit of abnormal shell growth I'm guessing from diet and bullying. Besides the growth the tortoises all clear eyed and alert. We put them into their future enclosure and left them alone to get use to everything. This will be the first time they are outdoors 24/7. I will be keeping a close eye on the four and make sure they are basking and doing things that normal tortoise do. It was great to meet the owner of the tortoises she was awesome person and I know these tortoise came from a loving home. She made it back home safely and minor traffic. I placed a big plate of food for the tortoise and walked away. They ate a bunch of the food which is great signs. I left them a lone as much as possible since they been through so much already for one day.
AFTER DAY 1 :
After the first day of getting the tortoises. I noticed they all were fairy shy and didn't move much. The enclosure gets shade early and around 1030 am sun starts to hit. Around 1130 am the tortoise were seen basking and exploring. I ended up taking pictures of each tortoise and sending them to Chris at Garden State Reptiles. I wanted to get a confirmation on what these tortoise were and exactly what subspecies we are dealing with. Chris from Garden State tortoise has always helped me out and is a great friend of ours, he is doing great work check out his website, him and his wife are true turtle and tortoise heroes! He got back to me and the verdict is!!!! Two of the tortoise are marginated, One is a Greek tortoise and the last one is a eastern Hermanns tortoise. The sexes are a pair 1.1 marginated, the Greek is a female, and the Hermanns is a male. This was a surprise as we thought it would be getting all Greek torotise but now we have three different species. It is also an exciting moment for us because we have species that we didn't plan to have but now have a chance to keep. Eventually they will be all in groups and in the future part of groups of their own species. Right now they are going to be growing getting bigger and stronger and just loving life. I did not feed them on the second day just had them get use to the day, the sun and shade timing. Explore the hides and different little nooks.They all explored then just napped for the afternoon. From my observation they seem to be getting use to outdoor living, the different smells, breeze, sun, shade, substrates, plants etc.. They seem a little timid as well since they have such a big area to explore. They all hid under grass patches and used one hide as a sleeping area on day two.
DAY 3 and 4:
Day 3 I was at work most the day, After work they were all sleeping and in there nap mode. They did come out around 5-6pm after the cool down. They then hunkered down and slept for the evening. Day 4 which is today I was off and been observing them all day. They were more active today then the other day and they really seemed to explore and learn things. I fed them again and they all ate a good amount. They then went off and explored. I will see tonight if they are finding their sleeping spots and getting comfortable and a routine going. It can take a few weeks to adjust but they seem ahead of schedule. I haven't taken many pictures as I don't want to bother them much I will soon though. I will post what I have taken so far. I will also have a update blog post on them as we go. I will have a few blog post on all my tortoise keep an eye out. If you become a member you can get update reminders on when I blog and new ones posted. Thank you all again for the support. We are super excited about these rescues and excited to share the journey.
Kyle