Tortoise Dreams (by Grandma's Tortoise Mom)

Poor Grandma! This business of soaking her during hibernation, per Dr. Johnson's orders, is giving poor Grandma bad dreams. You can tell by this soaking experience on Nov. 18 that she's asleep and wondering what's going on. The water was room temperature, but a little too deep so she couldn't hold her head up and kept dropping it into the water and blowing bubbles out her nose when she snorted awake. Also we realized that we only knew her weight after soaking, so had no idea if she was actually taking water into her bladder through her cloaka. Note to self: do better next time.



Two weeks later, December 4, we weighed Grandma before soaking, then used just enough water in the soaking pan to cover her cloaka for 20 minutes. It was 51 degrees outside and 53 degrees inside her burrow, so not a temperature shock to her system. We used room temperature water and tried not to disturb her with light or noise, including my voice. I'm sure you know she always perks up when she hears my voice. So we whispered and kept her in the shade. But it was still a rude experience and at one point she looked up at me like she was having a very bad dream.





Then we carefully dried her off, weighed her again, and discovered she had only "gained" 7 grams. We're not even sure that's water that made it to her bladder! It could be just what we couldn't gently dry off of her. Note to self: check her starting weight next time and then decide what's best for her. Maybe a call to Dr. Johnson?



Here she is all dried off and ready to go back into the winter burrow two weeks ago. Not exactly like going to the spa, but we did our best to help her. She didn't have such a tough time today so she can tell you all about it herself (see below). Thanks for letting me fill in a little for her. Love, Tortoise Mom