Tiny

Post your pictures and any questions here of European tortoises e.g. Ibera Spur Thigh, Ibera Graeca, Marginated, Hermanns, Kleinmanni and we include the Horsfield tortoise. Also, do add pictures of Mediterranean tortoises you have seen in the wild.
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Z&M2020
Posts: 4
Joined: 10 Oct 2020, 14:55

Tiny

Post by Z&M2020 » 10 Oct 2020, 15:57

Guys we're so glad to be back!
Zach (my son) and I haven't been on the forum for about 3 years.... :(
Don't ask why - it's too much of a long story but we're feeling 'supported' all over again.
i somehow managed to mess up my original login (MCM280) so I re-registered.
Tiny is going the vet in 2 weeks time which we're really excited about. (hatched July 2015, never been) We've found a tortoise specialist very close to where we live and we want to see if he can tell us if 'she' is a she....Having finally made it back to you guys I've just read several posts about determining the sex of marginated tortoises and looked at all your photos & comments and we still can't agree! (I think Tiny wonders what's going on, keep being picked up and turned over!) We're mixing up her habitat today and refreshing the substrate (sand & soil mix, aspen in the bedroom) and we're beginning to think she's malnourished :( we used to be really good at weighing her and measuring her regularly but looking at the stats (and lack thereof) I think we've dropped the ball...and his/her name is more fitting than originally intended....I'm really hoping the vet will think she's ok....
Anyway, I just wanted to post something to get back in the swing of things.
Mel x

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lin
Posts: 1031
Joined: 16 Mar 2017, 11:27

Re: Tiny

Post by lin » 11 Oct 2020, 00:38

Hi Mel (and Zach) Hope you are both keeping well and Tiny is doing well and not thinking he is a flip top bin :lol: .
If you want to show us another photo of the undercariage we can have another look for you as he is over 5 now so might be able to tell.
Pleased your are both back with us though Mel and its good to hear from you.
Is Zach still showing his interest like he was way back?

Lin

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Nina
Posts: 1993
Joined: 16 Mar 2017, 11:22

Re: Tiny

Post by Nina » 11 Oct 2020, 16:29

Hi Mel and Zach! Wow, great to hear from you, and to know that Tiny is thriving! Why do you think she is malnourished? I'll bet she's fine. Some tortoises -- like some people -- are just smaller. My Doris is small and although she's 6 or 7 years older than Dolly, she is now much smaller than Dolly. I hope your trip to the vet goes well, but like Lin says, do send us a photo of her underside and let us have a go at sexing her.

Gosh, it's been five years since we first corresponded, Zach must be growing up now too! My grandchildren are now living in Uganda, where Leo (he's the animal loving one) has two goats, which he loves and takes for walks every day, in addition to a number of guinea pigs (although sadly one was taken by an eagle a week or two ago), a chicken and a cat.

Let us know how you get on at the vet, and if you are impressed with them, and they aren't on our recommended list, let us know and we'll add them.

Do you have one of our Tortoise Observation Records booklets? That will enable you to keep all your records for Tiny in one place. Just send me your address -- to nina@thetortoisetable.org.uk and I'll pop one in the post to you. Whatever happened to your cousin's Horsfield (was his name Cliff?)?

Nina x

Z&M2020
Posts: 4
Joined: 10 Oct 2020, 14:55

Re: Tiny

Post by Z&M2020 » 12 Oct 2020, 09:42

Hi - sorry, wrote this yesterday afternoon but my computer crashed so it obviously didn't load/send...

Hi Both, many thanks for your replies!
We are pleased - we've had a stressful few years but things are calmer and more settled now (well, not withstanding the C-19 effect on us all, but in fact, in a way I think that helped somewhat as Zach and I were both here together for so many months and therefore and able to focus on Tiny a bit more - he and I were both sharing the same work/study space, which was lovely because it just happens to be the room that Tiny's in :) )
Yes, he is still animal mad but i'm afraid High School has taken over and he's been bogged down with study that (I think) tends to squash passion and freedom to a degree...I think he still has his heart set on Marine Biology at Plymouth Uni but at 13 years old there's still scope for things to change :| A couple of years ago he started a junior PADI course - he was desperate to do it and nagged us incessantly but i think he was a bit too young at the time and it scared him a bit. His Dad joined in with him after the initial introduction, but despite having Dad there I think he recognised that it's a dangerous sport and found the breathing/chemical mix control difficult. He very admirably said that despite liking it and wanting to do it, it made him nervous and he wants to park it up and revisit it when he is older as he feels he's still too young.
Tiny is ok (I think) but we hadn't weighed her or taken her measurements for AGES and when we did we were a bit worried as she hasn't really grown, in like forever...she's 11.5cm and 211g. When we first got her (as a hatchling in 2015) she measured 22g and 4.6cm but in all honesty, her stats have barely moved in about 2 years! (?) :( Zach is worried about her now - and is still convinced that she is a she, but to be honest I think she is a he.....our mischievous critter is sleeping right now but I will, i'll send some pictures as soon as I can. She doesn't throw herself off the apex of the log hide anymore like she used to, although she still tucks her legs in and slides down it, but her new thing is climbing as high as she can and getting marooned..... I don't know how she did it but the other day but she'd managed to get both arms and her head over the top of the box and looked like she was doing chin-ups....... :shock: I lowered the substrate beneath her to prevent it happening again. She also manged to get on top of an up-turned flower pot...until she realised she was beached and there was nowhere to put her legs to get any traction...... :lol: (i'll send pics)
Uganda! wow! those kids will certainly have some life experiences with all the countries they've lived in :) lucky them. i couldn't imagine a guinea pig being taken by an eagle though.....that's so sad :( although there's tougher jobs out there than walking your goats everyday - lucky Leo! :D i'm jealous.
I'll have a look at your vet list and definitely let you know - to be honest I think I googled The Tortoise Trust at the time to see who they had listed and when I called I told them where i'd got their number and asked specifically if they had someone who knew about tortoises. she said the main vet there has regular tort customers, and a pair that are both 12 he'd seen not 2 days previously so i'm confident that he at least sees some reptiles, who knows? we'll just have to see. I'm quite sad though, we can't go in for a full consultation as I think we would have done pre-covid. We have to phone from the car park, the vet will come out, have a chat with us, take Tiny in but only one of us can go inside while he looks at her - they're using the waiting room as the consultation room so that they can maintain social distancing, but we can't both go :( We're still arguing about it now, but Zach maintains that Tiny is HIS tortoise, not mine and he has a better memory than me so he should go and leave me in the car :lol: (I'm inclined to agree with him, bar the fact that i'm paying! :lol:)
We don't have an observation booklet but really early on I was teaching Zach some basics on Excel and he ended up creating his own spreadsheet that basically had the date, whether she'd had nutrobal, a bath and/or been in the garden that day ....it soon got forgotten about but we resurrected the weight/length stats and put them in a chart (filling in all the gaps with an 'average' since the last reading, and if i'm honest there aren't many) - hence our concern...as Zach's dad tells him: 'the numbers never lie' (he's an accountant :roll: ) so we were a bit shocked at her lack of progress given that we hadn't looked at her very closely in so long.... :( that was what did it really.......i'll email you the chart and you can see....we've started feeding her much more since but of course she's on shorter days now that it's autumn and not as interested in food as she is in the height of summer.....
Cliff !!! It turns out that my other cousin (we're 3 girls all 3 or 4 years apart) also has a tortoise! Bizarre that we all ended up owning one....Yoda is also a marginated and is now living outside, his enclosure puts us all to shame! so the 2 of us have been sending info to Cliff's mum who told us she wanted to be a better tort mummy :D we've set up a WhatsApp group and the 3 of us share pics and plant info which is great because we don't see each other very often - we're split across Hampshire, Surrey and Kent. Cliff is a Horsefield but I think he's doing ok. Cliff's mummy and our 2 families met for a socially distanced picnic in a country Park in August so I was able to point out some of the things I feed Tiny (although clearly not in great quantity!) and I think she went home with a few ideas :)
Anyway, i'd better go - still loads of laundry/ironing to get through before school tomorrow :(
I'll email the chart, and pics and let you know about the vet!
Love to all.
(Thanks so much!)
Mel & Zach
xx

Z&M2020
Posts: 4
Joined: 10 Oct 2020, 14:55

Re: Tiny

Post by Z&M2020 » 16 Nov 2020, 19:19

Hi Lin/Nina,
So, the vet trip got cancelled due to covid and it doesn't look as though we'll be able to reschedule any time soon. We were really disappointed because we were looking forward to it and wanted someone to give Tiny a 'once over' as no one ever has.
I attempted to upload some pictures here but failed miserably - not sure why.
So I will email you separately Nina as I still have your address in my Hotmail account...feel free to share whatever I send through.
(Hope you're all keeping well during these strange times.....)
Look forward to speaking to you all soon.
Take care,
Mel & Zach x

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Nina
Posts: 1993
Joined: 16 Mar 2017, 11:22

Re: Tiny

Post by Nina » 17 Nov 2020, 09:44

Hi Mel and Zach,

I just realised that I never got notified about your last post (from 12th October), so really sorry that I never responded to it and I have only just seen it! That's amazing about your cousins also having tortoises. I have to say that I am firmly on Zach's side about Tiny being his ;) --especially when he developed that spreadsheet for keeping records, so you might have been outvoted here.

It's a shame about the vet trip being cancelled, but if Tiny doesn't need a visit then that's a good thing, and hopefully it will be open again soon. Lin and I have received your photos and we'll look at reducing them and posting at least some of them in this thread. It looks to me like Tiny is absolutely thriving and I'll bet if you leave him in one of his stranded positions he will eventually learn how to get down (they are great at wiggling to solve problems like that).

Thanks again so much for the update, and I don't know why I wasn't notified about your earlier post -- it's always great to hear from you!

Nina

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Nina
Posts: 1993
Joined: 16 Mar 2017, 11:22

Re: Tiny

Post by Nina » 18 Nov 2020, 14:53

Mel and Zach weren't able to upload their photos, as they needed to be reduced in size first, so we've done that, and here are some photos of the delightful Tiny (who is less tiny now than when we first met him!). The photos show how adventurous he is (getting stranded on top of a flower pot and trying to climb out, generally patrolling his kingdom, trying out a larger flower pot when the first one became too small, and his underside (and I do think he is male (although his tail still isn't really big enough for a male). What do others think?

Nina
P.S. I can't guarantee that they will come out in the right order!
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Teddy28
Posts: 156
Joined: 06 May 2017, 10:57

Re: Tiny

Post by Teddy28 » 18 Nov 2020, 22:51

Lovely pics! Tiny looks a very happy little tort!

Z&M2020
Posts: 4
Joined: 10 Oct 2020, 14:55

Re: Tiny

Post by Z&M2020 » 20 Nov 2020, 11:44

Thank you so much for posting the pictures Nina - and for your comments Teddy28 (i do hope so - although i'm never quite sure....? funny little creatures that they are) and yes, i'm beginning to think that Zach is right - Tiny is definitely his tortoise :D
Thanks everyone! x

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