Hello from new THB guardian

[Krissie]

Hello there

I'm Krissie from Dublin, a very new tortoise owner! (Well, who owns who is not exactly clear... this little creature is training me quite well). Here is the long story of how I got here to meet you.

First a confession! Mr Chewie (7-year-old Hermanni Boettgeri) was bought at the end of March from a pet shop absolutely on impulse... The guys at the shop seemed really knowledgeable and said they'd give us a great deal (with the viv, lights, etc.) because he'd been there for many months and not been bought. And they took him out and let him walk around a bit and apparently my heart melted and... Uh, could not leave him.

They also said he was female, and did not say what the exact species was. And that they did not have any paperwork for him.

Needless to say, if someone doesn't really know much about tortoises, this didn't throw up any red flags... My partner was with me and he said I was a bit spell-bound though

So off we went taking the little guy home. Fed him some apple slices and thus the name Chewie (you can imagine the enormous crunching).

Then, as happens with pretty much anything interesting, I got a little...uh... obsessed about finding out everything ever about Chewie and his care. We were horrified to learn that the setup we bought was completely unsuitable (even the lights... and we'd gotten extra bedding, think it was the ReptiBark thing), and set up making A LOT of changes.

Chewie soon moved to a 1.3 x 6 ft tortoise table (I built this from two book-cases - one on the side and his enclosure on top on its back). He has an Arcadia D3 combined basking / UV lamp (and an extra stip-light), with soil / play sand mix for substrate, he eats only weeds etc. (I am constantly trying to identify more plants that are good for him... found plantain and sow thistle today and of course dandelions are his favourite and also there are now seeds growing constantly... plus some SW dried grass & flower mix on the way for a snuggly edible bedding in his hide) and is getting a calcium supplement daily. His behaviour changed from very quiet to a complete little nutter - well, basically like a 7-year old kid He is the might destroyer of anything that can be climbed on! And he looks really happy and energetic (except when sprawling under the basking light of course) and seems to have gotten a lot stronger. He's also been de-wormed and his beak and claws trimmed, although he'll need another beak trim soon.

YOU GUYS are to thank for the improvement in his life. So thank you! I've read thousands of pages on these forums and on tortoise trust website, and although this is my first post, I have taken a lot of ideas from you all.

The next, very very important thing is to get Chewie outside--we live in an apartment but have a large balcony, so we're currently planning to build a bigger enclosure there for the little guy (and after that, enlarging the indoor space a bit by building a second floor to his table).

x
Krissie