Nemo outsmarts the hand that feeds him

Last week turned out to be a game with Nemo. He loved his salmon and shrimp so much, I began to hide a pellet of tortoise food to help get him proper nourishment. I carefully hid a single warmed mushy pellet in each shrimp "belly". He gobbled them up. Yay! The next day I gave him a bit of salmon wrapped around warmed mushy pellets (only 2-3 would fit). He gobbled that up too.

The next day I hid box turtle pellets in the shrimp. Apparently he doesn't like them. He has never eaten them alone either. He turned his nose up the salmon that had only the tortoise pellets in it the next time. When I realized he was going on strike or somehow no longer trusted the shrimp or salmon, I wanted to make sure he still would eat. I returned to basics--the bagel bite with salmon inside. No extras. That little stinker ate the top of the bagel ball off leaving the salmon and lower portion of the bagel!

I give up...for now. He had plain shrimp yesterday. He did nibble on at least one but left a path of destruction. He must have walked through the small pile of shrimp because it was strewn along about a foot long path. Meanwhile Brian has been working on the outdoor plans for our tiered hill including Nemo's spa area. We can only hope he will enjoy the outdoors on at least a limited level and eat some real turtle food. His enclosure will have earthworms. Yuck for me but I don't have to watch outside. He did have a dead spider in front of him yesterday though. I don't know if he killed it or found it. It never was eaten though.

The lead photo for this entry is Nemo snuggled amidst his circle of stuffie reptiles that keep him safe from curled wrought iron legs. He looks so comfy. The other photo is his rediscovery of the jungle gym wine rack. It looks well guarded with Bronson and the hippo...