Switch is a Caspian Greek Tortoise or so named a "Testudo graeca buxtoni" by Danny the Tortoise God on the Tortoise Forum. Switch was originally named TWITCH and called a Russian male. Well, at least we had the sex right! I managed to mess up his name by calling him Switch. Too bad too because Switch loves to "twitch" when he is pissed and wants you to put him down. Anyway.... You see, one of my great dog breeder friends,Dina, the Godess of the APBT decided that tortoise breeding was not her thing and gave me Switch and another little tortoise I named Splash, who was called a Greek female. I guess because I have had ET my Gopherus Tortoise for 15 years (thinking he was a Texas Tortoise who turned out to be a California Tortoise, thanks to Yvonne who is the desert tortoise queen and ID'd him through a picture) I was presumed to be the tortoise expert NOT! But, I happily took these little guys and after five months of quarentine, decided I should find out more about them. Hence - the photos and ID on the tortoise forum. I was pretty sure that the male was the Greek and the female was the Russian and not the other way around but hey, I studied castrating pigs, goats, sheep, cattle, a few cats, and horses - not tortoise reproduction. I had no idea how to sex these little guys so I trusted the forum experts to do that for me. They obviously know a heck of a lot about tortoise parts! I was really impressed with their husbandry - especially when someone named Meg90 even asked me what his SCL was! WOW, I know we evaluate scrotal circumference on bulls and rams but I had NO IDEA they did it on tortoises. I just couldn't WAIT to find out how to measure THAT! OOPS - later found out it stood for straight center line. Not quite as exciting as Scrotal Circumference but hey, either way Switch was 6"! (Ain't that what they ALL say!)
This guy is way tooooo cute!!
The next thing I learned is that my desert tortoise, ET, HATED Switch.
He really cramped T's lifestyle. I thought I was going to have to haul out
the break stick for a couple of tortoises! Guess THAT wasn't going to
work. Man, I would put some money on ol' ET! He was the MAN!!
Another amazing thing I learned was to seperate Switch and Splash because they are
different species and might share germs. I had no idea that tortoises each carry
their own set of microgranisms that can cause a great deal of damage to other
species.
On the forum, someone named Chad who has a TON of kids, a TON of animals and an amazing wife built this hella habitat. I just had to resort to my California 80's lingo to describe it because it really was hella bad! What do they say now....SWEET! There was no way my guys were getting a castle! Instead, I did a quick revamp to the old feed trough that Switch came in and Splash moved into a 55 gallon tank in the office. I set up the old doggy X-pens for yard time so they could help me keep down the dandelion population. I also learned on the forum that tortoises eat dog poop and the Good Lord knows I gotta lotta that! Dad will be thrilled with the new weed killers and poop patrol. Ya, I kinda think I will continue to do my own de-pooping of the yard and leave the weeds to the torts! OK - so now that we had that done and each had his or her own habitat, next came the food problem.
Switch was a darn picky eater. ET was easy, he would eat anything -including a set of ear plugs complete with 2 foot chord (back in 1994), my toes, and Funny's tail. Switch and Splash were a different story. They ate Romain lettuce and that was it. My friend told me that she fed them bananas and grapes but something told me that too much fruit was a bad thing. So, back to the tortoise forum to find out what to feed these guys and if they could eat the same things ET eats (minus the toes, the dog, and ear plugs!) I found a great post with about 5,000 things that various tortoises can eat and I only had a clue as to what about 5 of them were. Looks like I didn't remember much from my crops class! Luckily someone suggested spring mix and I knew what endive was so it was a start. I also knew that ET was a great fan of dandelion and luckily for me, Dad specializes in a growing it all over our yard. Go DAD!! I even bought them each their own cuttlebone for calcium and I was REALLY proud of them when I found them gone -escpecially Switch and Splash. I know ET eats them because he has for years. I was all ready to praise the Lord for my tortoises good health when low and behold, Funny barfed up two brand new cuttlebone right at my feet. Crazy old bag!
