u/Turtlecabra

Slummin it for now…

I’ve already had to patch the box…she’s had it for less than a few hours.

I left her old box outside with the intention of cutting it up before tossing it. She decided to destroy it further

Like any good tortoise that is spiritually a cat, she loves boxes. To that end, I always ensure that she’s got a box in her indoor pen.

The last one, a Home Depot heavy duty moving box, must have been her all time favorite. Of course as she is a sulcata, she absolutely demolished it.

She is now sulking over the loss of the box that she destroyed.

It’s been 4 nights and she absolutely is avoiding the new one (not a Home Depot moving box). She will sleep next to it, push it around, wedge herself behind it…anything but sleep or chill in it.

Sigh. I guess it’s time to make a trip to Home Depot.

Yet she huffs if I dare wake her up on the weekdays.

She must really have wanted to be let outside.

I'm sure most of you know how much my boy hates my mother, but today has reached a new high. Watermelon is a seasonal rare treat LuLu gets maybe twice a year, but he *loves* watermelon. Fastest he'll run is if he sees a watermelon.

My amazing mother had some leftover rinds and decided LuLu deserved a treat in this high heat. And boy did LuLu come running. . . right past the watermelon to attack my poor mother. A low speed chase occurred with my mother barely able to sidestep out of the way. I shudder to think what could have happened if my mother wasn't such a fast walker.

(In all seriousness, he has attempted multiple times to ram her and bite her ankles. He never does this with anyone else, and is actually very polite and friendly. His vet was surprised how lovely he was as a male sulcata. No idea why LuLu hates my poor mother 🤷)

So Chris from garden state tortoise recommended one of these holee roller toys for stimulation during feeding time. It’s made of natural rubber. Nothing hard nor sharp and it compresses.
And it mostly worked!

Not captured..when the easy to reach greens were finished she sat and stared at me until I emptied the harder to reach ones still stuck in the center.

Was time to walk her in today. Instead of waiting by a gate like she always does, I found her posing in the middle of a ring of fallen petals.

Didn’t eat them like she normally would have, just decided to plop down instead, holding as still as a stone until she saw me, looked around a bit and followed me inside.

In her indoor “night” (she sleeps till nearly 2pm everyday) pen, ready to get let outside. She will sashay to the door and stare into the camera.

This isn’t just a quick clip from a video. She was making that face for a good few minutes.

She looked down part way through it to check if I dropped food/fingers fell off so she could eat it.

“How are you this sassy???? You don’t even have ears!”
Usually when she is giving me this look.

What nonsensical thing do you say to yours?

She is not amused. Probably wants to speak to the manager too.

tired chonky man

Been doing this for 20 years. Sulcata going to sulcata.

Her sniff into the bowl at the single pellet is how she begs. She looks at old or unreachable food then looks at me straight in the eyes.

It’s my brother that is clearing his throat in the background. Just a coincidence that it looked like ms sassafras was grunting.

I supervise her when she eats fruit so my other tort (Greek tort) won’t steal it and get a tummy ache