Thursday, December 31, 2009

Phoebe the Night Crawler

Sometimes it's Hector, sometimes it's Phoebe, but one or both of them frequently decide that they've slept too much that day so they take a late-night stroll.  Last night Phoebe decided that 11:00 pm was an appropriate time to go clambering over the rocks in her vivarium.  In case you are unaware, Greek Tortoises are not known for their grace, and Phoebe is no exception.  For about ten minutes she was scraping around the vivarium having a grand time while we were trying to sleep.  I considered giving her a little snack but I was afraid that might keep her up longer and even wake up Hector (if he was even asleep still).  Fortunately, sleep took her again and, eventually, so it did us.

In this case, Phoebe wasn't really active for too long. Our first Greek Tortoise, Sampson I, would often get a second wind at night!  I remember one night in particular that he was clawing around for 30+ minutes; and though he was in the next room, he was so loud that we could not get to sleep.  Finally, I turned off his red night light hoping that if he couldn't see at all and he cooled-down some more that he would go to sleep.  Though it wasn't an immediate fix, he was quiet within a few minutes and we finally slept soon thereafter.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

"What do I feed my Greek Tortoise?" Part 1

My wife and I didn't even worry about this question when we picked-up our first Greek Tortoise.  The answer was obvious: "Leftovers from our dinner salads, lettuce, probably some broccoli, and just about any other vegetable.  Right?"

Wrong.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

"The Early Tortoise Gets the Lettuce, Phoebe"




Hector, as always, got up before Phoebe, started eating before Phoebe, and left nothing before Phoebe (not much of a gentleman).  Phoebe's understandable disappointment is captured well in this photo.  I can almost hear Hector taunting her.


Fortunately, it was just an early-morning snack that I gave Hector since Phoebe will sometimes sleep in relatively late. When I saw that Phoebe was up (and after I captured this poignant moment) I gave them both a proper breakfast.


They are both quite active this morning.  Phoebe is clambering over the rocks, looking quite unbalanced while trying to move a flat shell over a very uneven surface.


She just fell over backwards!  I need to get a webcam for these two, they do too many hilarious things that happen too fast to capture in a picture.