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

Time flies when you're sleeping.... (yawn) by Grandma

It looks like I aced today's weigh-in that my tortoise mom and dad put me through every two weeks. Usually I have to be SOAKED too. Oh the humanity!!! But they started weighing me before and after soaking and noticed that it's just not effective, and might even be stressing me into losing more weight. For instance, two weeks ago, I weighed at 3161 grams fresh from the burrow, with my eyes still shut tight. Then after a 20-minute soak, I weighed 3168 -- only 7 grams! I could be hiding that in my lady turtleneck or in my, ahem, bikini area. Anyway, it's likely no actual water is hitting my bladder because my cloaka is shut just as tight as my eyelids.

So my tortoise mom and dad reviewed my weight history and decided that this soaking business isn't helping and might even be stressing me by disturbing me so much. When I soaked back in November, I couldn't hold my head out of the water as I was so sleepy so they vowed to use less water next time, and also to weigh me before soaking to see how much water I was actually taking in. Anyway I weighed 3180 grams after soaking on November 18. But then I weighed 3161 grams when they checked me two weeks later. So maybe soaking makes me LOSE water instead of taking it in? Whatever it is, I'm just so glad I got to skip soaking today.

So now I'm back in my burrow, tucked way in the back where I've been digging in. The burrow is staying a steady 51-55 degrees even though the outside temperature dropped to 31 degrees a few times. And I'm staying dry despite getting 1.5 inches of rain this week, but the burrow is well insulated with dirt and the opening is sealed with wood and foam to keep cold air and water from getting in.

All in all, it's good to be a tortoise right now. In this burrow, I'm definitely more snug than a bug in a rug.