We Can't Allow This Site To Die!!

[Yvonne G]

It's been an awful long time since anyone posted here. Yeah, so you're havin' a heat wave. . . what else is new. Get out from under that tree and let us know what's goin' on where you are.

I'll start:

It's damned hot here! We've had a couple weeks of triple digit (farenheit) weather and the 10 day forecast says there are even more triple digit days in our future! But then, here in the Central Valley of California, we more or less expect that kind of weather and we're set up for it. I have an air conditioner unit on my roof, but it's so expensive to run that I also have an evaporative cooler. That's a unit that has porous pads all aroun the outside of it with an electric squirrel cage inside that spins around pulling air through the moistened pads, cooling it down and shooting it into the house. Doesn't work as well as the AC, but makes the house at least 20 F degrees cooler than outside.

I only have one sulcata, and he's been quite uncomfortable in this heat. In fact, most of the tortoises are uncomfortable. The only ones who get by ok are the Manouria and Yellowfooted because they live in my 'rain forest.' I have drip sprinkler emitters up on T-posts throughout their enclosures and when it gets too hot I turn that on. It sprays a light sprinkling of water over the area, cooling the air.

I sold all my South African leopard tortoises, so here lately I've been cleaning up their yard and shed so I could move the regular (used to be called Babcock) leopards over to that yard. I can only work until about 11a then it's just too darned hot outside.

I have seven fairly newly hatched leopard babies in the house in a closed enclosure, and one Manouria emys emys that hatched out with no eyes. I don't have the intestinal fortitude to euthanize, so he'll live here with me for as long as I deem he's living a comfortable life. So far he's not aware that not seeing is not normal. He moves about his enclosure just fine, finding the food and water. He uses his sense of smell because when I put the food at the feeding station, if that day's ration includes anmal protein, I can see him perk up, raise his head and his throat pumps as he sniffs the air.

The City is still working on widening my street. It's been a big dirt mess for quite a while now. Every day there are three or four big earth movers excavating and scraping back and forth in front of my house. My solar panels went from making 28 kwhs of electricity a day to 10. No sense in having them cleaned until all the earth moving is done for a while.

One of my outside cats, a rescue that showed up one day, has been determined to have sores in his mouth due to being allergic to tooth tartar. He doesn't eat because it's painful. The only cure is to have all his teeth removed. I had never heard of this problem (stomatitis) in all my years of having cats - an allergy to tooth tartar? Really? This is an older cat. He used to be a BIG beautiful orange cat, extremely healthy-looking, and now he's scrawny and unthrifty-looking. I guess I'm going to have to have him euthanized. I can't afford the vet bill to pull all his teeth. I've been offering him liquid cat food, a Friskies product called Lil Gravies, and he eats it, but I don't think it has enough calories to keep him healthy. Dang, I hate this part of animal-keeping. I don't like making those life and death decisions.

Ok, that's what's going on here. let's hear what's new will all of you!

[tortydat]

Hello Yvonne

Good to hear from you as you are right in asking where everyone is and what are we doing.

Personally I don't do heat these days and have struggled this last week even my tortoises have gone to ground for most of the middle of the day and I only see them early mornings and evenings. I have a few Horsfield, Hermanns, ibera and graeca eggs but I tend to pass them on to Gordon these days as finding homes for babies gets more and more difficult with the cost of fuel going up all the time.

Speaking of the price of fuel we are surrounded by trees so are going for a log burner to keep warm this coming winter but it can't be installed until the end of November as there is a long wait for any kind of work to be done these days.

Interested to hear about your manouria without eyes as I have two iberas the same and like you I have kept them as long as they can find their way around and locate their food. One is now 7 and the other 4.

Sorry to hear about your cat it's very difficult to make the final decision with animals and I don't envy you this.

Anyway hopefully some of the other dormant members will respond.

Take care Mary

[CherryBrandy]

255 guests today ! yaaah , all tortoise lovers no doubt.

Sorry to hear about your cat, thats sad when you have had a pet for so many years also . I was advised to get 'plaque off' for the old doggy with tartar problems apparently it is good but dogs are dogs and even plaque off doesnt avoid a poo eating little terrier. got to love him.

Well I have Chives, Hettie,Ozwald, daisy, Milly, Hilda, Pepper, Fergus, Duo, Tarquin,......Monty, Beau, Dink,...hannah and a few others who love the heat but not too hot and bury a lot and eat the lawn and bathe in their dishes. I have two adoptee blind ones (eye didn't grow) also who seem to manage but are little terraways at mealtimes - wow betide any one or thing or tortoise in the way...amazing they just know

Mary I love your dormant reference. To be honest I have felt like that for two years ! and during the heat wave, my goodness that was hot ! And I remember well the 1976 one playing rounders and riding down the beaches - it was bliss ! there was a programme recently very interesting. CB