Pet Stores

It's hard to get a Greek Tortoise anywhere else, so we go to pet stores, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Pet stores have numerous animals all in one place with pet accessories, pet care products, pet habitats, pet smells, and almost any other pet-related commodity you can think of! Those of us who love Greek Tortoises also have a love (if not of affection then of necessity) for the pet store around the corner.
Like many others, walking out the door of the pet store with a "new" Greek Tortoise stirred the same feelings experienced by a driver taking that beautiful new machine out of the dealership lot for the first time: excitement to the point of giddiness.  Unfortunately, not all pets in these stores are as brand new as one might hope, and none of them come with a five-year warranty.

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Tortoise Terminology

This is a running glossary of sorts.  I will be continually adding to it as I think of new words and terms that would be of interest to the keeper of Greek Tortoises.  Please feel free to comment on either my definitions or on terms that you would like to see included (along with a suggested definition if you happen to have one).  To find uses of these words within The Greek Tortoise Guild, I suggest inputing a term into the "Search The Greek Tortoise Guild" search field at the top right of the blog.
(Note: Along with my other posts, these definitions are given as they apply to Greek Tortoises, and though many definitions are universal, these do not necessarily apply to all chelonians.)

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Greek Pyramids

"Pyramiding" is a condition that the experienced keeper of Greek Tortoises (or any chelonian for that matter) will surely know about. However, for novices, this affection is either unknown or at the very least misunderstood; until a few weeks ago, my level of comprehension was a lot closer to the latter.

I thought that Pyramiding was a general doming of the carapace, almost like a bubble was caught inside the shell and was gradually making it taller and more convex. I also was under the impression that pyramiding was caused by a diet severely lacking in nutrients and just abhorrently poor in general (something like using white bread, dog food, meat, or some other heinous "food").

Not so.

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The Three Stages of Breakfast

When I got up this morning Hector and Phoebe were very ready for breakfast.  This is how they looked while they were waiting for me to put food in their dish (they knew what was going on):

As shown below, we have to make sure that they are separate from each other and have enough food directly in front of them. Otherwise, Phoebe (she tends to do this a little more than Hector) will see Hector eating food in her periphery and will want to eat the same food since he seems to have more food than her.  She will try eating food that Hector already has in his mouth and will accidentally bite his head (anyone that has watched a tortoise walk, eat or climb knows that they do not have good coordination).  Another scenario that has happened several times is that Phoebe will start eating Hector's food and will completely inhibit him from eating at all.  This is one of those time when Hector shows his personality.  He bites Phoebe, and he's not too picky about which body part he attacks--whatever is closest is good enough.  Fortunately, this is a very rare occurrence.

We did pretty well this morning at estimating how much they would eat.  Some days are better than others because their appetite will vary somewhat.  Even these last leaves Hector would eat if we fed them to him by hand (it's quite hard to eat something flat that's on a flat surface when you don't have hands or even lips--oh the trials of Chelonian life).  Phoebe might eat them too, but Hector was the only one still awake (Hector eats more and longer and Phoebe goes to sleep first, generally speaking) while I was leaving for work when I took this picture.

A Tasty Treat

I don't understand why, but Hector and Phoebe love to bite our fingers.  In fact, sometimes to get them to eat something that we know they need but refuse to eat, we'll hold the food a little to the side of their heads so that our fingers are right in front of them.  Right before they chomp down we move the food into their mouths--success!  If they really don't like the food then they will spit it back out (which is quite funny to see since they can't "grab" food with fingers), but this technique usually convinces them that the food we're offering is worth-while.  I have an idea or two as to why they do this, but nothing too concrete.

An idea that I have is that they have formed such a strong association between our skin color and food (since we often, but not always, feed them by hand) that sometimes our skin looks even more enticing than the food we're offering.  The problem with this theory is the fact that they will continue to bite a finger for several minutes until they finally give up on the idea of getting any food for all the energy being spent (or they are tired of the salty taste of our skin).

Oddly enough, while Hector and Phoebe bring the total number of Greek Tortoises we have had to five, they are the only two that have ever exhibited this behavior.  If any of our past Greek Tortoises ever bit a finger it was on accident while we were feeding them.  (A notable exception to this rule occurred with Sampson I as seen here).

They don't even care how big the skin is, they just like to chew on it.

Yes, this hurt a little.

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.

"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.

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"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.