Weighty Matters

The scale doesn't lie: I've been eating! I've gained 156 grams in two weeks! My weight is up 90 grams since my last weigh in and that was before my weekly soak! Plus yesterday I took my first drink of water on my own since my surgery. It was out of the tree well, quite fancy as tortoise drinks go. You know we only like fresh, running water. Rainwater is like Perrier to us tortoises. Clean, refreshing and worth flushing the bladder to stock up on a new supply of water.

Tortellini weighs 3900 grams after hibernating all winter. I have a lot of catching up to do but now weigh 3190 grams after two weeks outside, with lots of "salad bars" and prodding by my tortoise mom and dad. But just two days of sharing the new burrow with Tortellini is reminding me to get busy being a self-feeding tortoise again.

I even came out of the burrow by myself this afternoon. I didn't stay long, but I did sniff everything and see what Tortellini was up to. Of course she was busy eating every flower in sight, plus my salad. Maybe she's finding that being my burrow mate is a pretty good deal afterall?

Day Nine

Like I said, I did eat a lot the first few days and was pretty active. I even gained 66 grams so I weigh 3100 now. That's pretty light for me still so I need to eat a lot of protein-rich foods to gain weight and build muscle. So I keep finding a salad bar wherever I go.



Even though they keep dragging me out to try to interest me in food, I'm a mid-morning tortoise, and just not interested when it's closer to my bedtime. You know what they say about early to bed and fairly early to rise, makes a tortoise healthy and able to go mano a mano (really, gular horn to gular horn) with Tortellini.

Maybe they'll finish landscaping my burrow soon. I do like my new reed awning for extra privacy. The lizards are always a little surprised when they see me tucked in behind the doorway. You can almost see them putting on the brakes before they scurry away. My work is done. It's good to be outside but it will be better when that barricade comes down.