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Look at who I woke up today!

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liquorice allsorts

liquorice allsorts

Adult Guinea Pig
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This is my tortoise Lucy Lou!
lucylouaftershehadabath.jpg

i woke her up today after her hibernation and she is currently on my heated kitchen floor looking very grumpy! :))
lucylouaftershehadabath2.jpg
I gave her a bath after i woke her up, washed her face and i am keeping her indoors, hopefully tomorrow it will be sunny and she can go outside for a while! :)
 
Oh wow, how long has she been in hybernation for? Where do you keep her when she is?
 
:)) I would have been grumpy too! That must have been like woken up after a nice snooze in the afternoon! How long do they hibernate for?
 
she goes into hibernation in october, she gets very sleepy, keeps burying herself in the garden, and stops eating, i need to make sure her stomach is empty before i put her in her box, a heavy wooden one with a screw down lid, so she has to do a last "poo", then she is packed in loads of shreddede paper, and put in ou brick garage ,on a shelf high up. she was brought for my 11 th birthday- i will be 50 in April, so she is very precious . Usually i get her up mid march, but because it has been unusually warm, i decided to look at her , and she was awake, and is currently trundling round our kitchen floor!
 
WOW! She is 39? That's amazing! I can't imagine what she's been through with you, no wonder she is so special! How old can they live until?
 
:{:{:{:{ rushes down the cellar to look at Kermit....no she is fast asleep...phew. I usually get her up 2nd week in March. Will keep an eye on her from now though. Had ours just over 30 years. Same as yours she gets very sleepy and keep burying herself in garden. I usually haul her out of the dirt and pop her in a box down the cellar in hay. I check her every week or so for a few weeks and then that is it....
ps what is Lucy Lou? Kermit is a spur thighed Mediterranean and they look almost the same....
 
no she is about 70, because she was adult when we got her, a vet gave us an estimate age for her a few years back, she was one of the poor tortoises broughrt in from morrocco when they were allowed to ship them in , stacked one on top of the other in boxes, in the 60 s, she could live to 1oo!
 
suem said:
:{:{:{:{ rushes down the cellar to look at Kermit....no she is fast asleep...phew. I usually get her up 2nd week in March. Will keep an eye on her from now though. Had ours just over 30 years. Same as yours she gets very sleepy and keep burying herself in garden. I usually haul her out of the dirt and pop her in a box down the cellar in hay. I check her every week or so for a few weeks and then that is it....
ps what is Lucy Lou? Kermit is a spur thighed Mediterranean and they look almost the same....
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no ours is a morroccan spur thigh, your cellar is probably colder than outr garage so dont panic! i will take a photo of her again, next to a tin of beans or some thing, so you can see how big she is! when your s is awake, would love to see a photo of her
 
wow that's really interesting!
I know there's notmany about nowadays so no wonder yours are precious. I remember my mums friend having one when I was little (I'm twenty eight) and my mum telling me about them hibernating and up until only a few years ago I thought people actually buried them in the garden for hibernation! :o:red
Good job no one bought ME one!
My mums friend used to put hers in a box in the shed wrapped in a blanket and hay etc
 
70! That's amazing but sad how she got here, lucky she has such a fab home now! I find the idea of hibernation so interesting, I would be so scared the first time you put them away :))
 
Awww grumpy tortoise :(|) ... so beutiful though, how amazing to have a pet that can share your life with you for so long .... if only guinea pigs lived that long ...... xoxo
 
Happy new year Lucy Lou! Tortoises are so cool my mum had a tortoise when she was little and it free roamed with their surname painted on its shell, it would forever run off for miles and miles and people would bring it back to them :)) unfortunately said tortoise hibernated in my grandads greenhouse in the soil and my grandad didn't know and he went and turned the soil over with a spade :...
 
Oooh, gorgeous! I love torties, they have such a personality. Love the photo of her next to the can of soup! :)) My mum had a tortoise but she gave him away to someone who had more space for him...broke her heart I think as she loved the wee man to bits but thought he deserved the much larger space that this person could give him. He was a rescue from someone who bought him when he was tiny then got bored as he got bigger...olds story. But I used to love watching him eat, he used to shuffle over and nudge you for attention too!
 
herriotfan said:
Bless her, looking forward to her weed treats I expect. Mine are still too small to hibernate just yet. Maybe I'll be brave enough next winter.:...
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how old are yours? i think they need to be a certain size and weight to hibernate, get some good advice from an expert before you do itx
 
ok, I might have a really stupid question here, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. How come they go in hibernation if they are inside where its warm? Or do they have to live outside? Would they still go to sleep if they werent in the cold? Sorry if I'm being naive, just dont know much about them and its very interesting :)
 
She's so lovely and a wonderful age too. I love tortoises.
 
liquorice allsorts said:
how old are yours? i think they need to be a certain size and weight to hibernate, get some good advice from an expert before you do itx
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Mine are only babies still. According to the Jacksons Ratio they're not big enough. It's more to do with size than age for hibernating.
The older of the two is almost big enough but I'll wait until they can both hibernate. They spend lots of time together, follow each other about and sleep together so if I do one and not the other then somebody is left without a friend. :(
 
Humfred said:
ok, I might have a really stupid question here, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. How come they go in hibernation if they are inside where its warm? Or do they have to live outside? Would they still go to sleep if they werent in the cold? Sorry if I'm being naive, just dont know much about them and its very interesting :)
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Not all torties hibernate. It depends on which breed they are.
Also some people never hibernate them simply for the reasons you state i.e if they live indoors in the warm.
Have a look on this website for loads of info on torties. :)

http://www.tortoisetrust.org/
 
Humfred said:
ok, I might have a really stupid question here, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. How come they go in hibernation if they are inside where its warm? Or do they have to live outside? Would they still go to sleep if they werent in the cold? Sorry if I'm being naive, just dont know much about them and its very interesting :)
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well ours is in the garden all day in the summer, but brought in at night, as it gets too cold, and i worry about afox getting her, i think you are asking why they are hibernated in a box with bedding? where they might get warm? well , if they get a frost on them, it would kill them, so the insulation stops that happening, but they have to be in a colld outhouse, or cold cellar, as the air temperature in a house would wake them up.
 
Gearra-mhuc said:
Oooh, gorgeous! I love torties, they have such a personality. Love the photo of her next to the can of soup! :)) My mum had a tortoise but she gave him away to someone who had more space for him...broke her heart I think as she loved the wee man to bits but thought he deserved the much larger space that this person could give him. He was a rescue from someone who bought him when he was tiny then got bored as he got bigger...olds story. But I used to love watching him eat, he used to shuffle over and nudge you for attention too!
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yes ours will find us in the garden if she is hungry and follow you until you give her more food, and boy , can she eat! you need to move your fingers really quickly , because if she gets them in her mouth it really hurts!
 
Wow! Thanks for all that, I have found this thread fascinating!
 
liquorice allsorts said:
yes ours will find us in the garden if she is hungry and follow you until you give her more food, and boy , can she eat! you need to move your fingers really quickly , because if she gets them in her mouth it really hurts!
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Oh, don't I know it! Reg caught the end of my finger once when I was feeding him a dandelion, he completely crushed it, it was incredibly painful. Still worth it to see him happily chomping away.

Boy they can eat...and boy can they, um, manage the other end of it too! :)>>>:))
 
whe Kermit gets up I will take a photo of her, might have to be next to asda soup though!:))
 
Gearra-mhuc said:
Oh, don't I know it! Reg caught the end of my finger once when I was feeding him a dandelion, he completely crushed it, it was incredibly painful. Still worth it to see him happily chomping away.

Boy they can eat...and boy can they, um, manage the other end of it too! :)>>>:))
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yes and does nt tortoise poo stink! once when i was young, i was laying on the grass in the garden, (we had more than one tortoise then)one came up and bit my toe! think it must have thought it was a turnip or some thing! certainly made me move very quickly!
 
She's gorgeous. drool I love tortoises and am completely fascinated by them. Really interesing reading. Thanks. x
 
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