When your large shell-less assistant insists on keeping you on the vet-recommended “healthy tort eating plan,” you have to take your opportunities to chow whenever they present themselves. For instance, perhaps you find yourself out on the lawn one day, along with your assistant and your small, loud, feathery brother. You are wearing some sortContinueContinue reading “Day 23: Crunching Clover”
Tag Archives: tortoise care
Day 20: Alligator Fluffies
Everyone needs a best friend in life. If you are small and appetizer-sized and delicious, it can be wise to choose a bestie that is bigger and ferocious. Of course, if your chosen bestie is too ferocious, you might be afraid to be friends with them, thinking you might end up as lunch instead! ButContinueContinue reading “Day 20: Alligator Fluffies”
Day 17: Malti’s Menu
To hear paleontologists tell it, feathered and shelled beings likely share some common ancestors. And those ancestors were BIG. They were big in size (think “school bus” and you won’t be far off) and also big in appetite. So if you like to eat, you get it honest. But this can be hard to explainContinueContinue reading “Day 17: Malti’s Menu”
Day 14: Hibernation Instinct
Being cold-blooded is not for weaklings. This is true in the summer, when temperatures can elevate to the point where everything just feels, well, HOT. This is also true in the winter, when everywhere you go and everything you touch and everyone you see is so COLD. But not all cold-blooded shelled beings hibernate. Hibernating,ContinueContinue reading “Day 14: Hibernation Instinct”
Day 11: Tortoise Sneezing Fit!
The large shell-less assistant here….. One reason “Love and Feathers” became “Love and Feathers and Shells” is because, well, our little flock expanded. First there was one new shelled being, and then there was a second new shelled being, and then there was no avoiding it – we weren’t just Love and Feathers anymore! TheContinueContinue reading “Day 11: Tortoise Sneezing Fit!”
Day 8: Shelled Snuggles
When you are little (whether you happen to still look little or not), snuggling just comes naturally. Just because you were born with a shell on your back doesn’t mean you can’t snuggle with the best of them. If you have a shell and happen to live with one of the large shell-less beings, snugglingContinueContinue reading “Day 8: Shelled Snuggles”
Day 5: Tortoise Twins!
When you are (sort of) small and cute with a shell, you will very naturally begin to attract admirers. Some of those admirers may start to send you fan mail. Other beings may want to know all kinds of things about you – like what you eat and what your home looks like and whoContinueContinue reading “Day 5: Tortoise Twins!”
Day 2: Little Turtle, Big Turtle
You just never know when you are going to wake up and discover you are bigger. For example, let’s say all of your life you have been a little tortoise. But then one day, the sun comes up and suddenly you notice you are not so little anymore. Unfortunately, it seems you are the onlyContinueContinue reading “Day 2: Little Turtle, Big Turtle”
Malti Explains Redfooted Tortoises: Tortoise Tunnels
Often when someone meets Malti for the first time, their biggest curiosity is about her personality. Is she friendly? Does she know me? Does she like to play? Does she bite? From my limited experience with pet tortoises, I can say the answers to these questions (as best I can tell) are yes, yes, yesContinueContinue reading “Malti Explains Redfooted Tortoises: Tortoise Tunnels”
Malti Explains Redfooted Tortoises: Handling
Malti is the first tortoise (land turtle) I’ve ever cared for. I did keep (well, technically my mom kept) five water tortoises – all sliders of some sort – when I was a girl. I bonded with one of them, but I never handled them except when we were cleaning their tank. So I reallyContinueContinue reading “Malti Explains Redfooted Tortoises: Handling”
Love & Feathers & Shells 