Nemo's little friend

Nemo is still being monitored and his next vet appointment is next week. He is now bathing on his own each morning, sometimes with a little help. But he does his complete Zen bath and we haven't had to place him in the inescapable soaking tub for about a week. He has also been eating most of three shrimp every other day. I still give him 2 ml of baby food with his vitamins mixed in to make sure he's getting the proper nutrition.

With Nemo's lethargy, possibly empathy pains from my lethargy (?), we've talking about getting him a companion. We didn't want another box turtle because of aggression with another mail and mating with a female. While looking for live earthworms at Petco a week ago (ewww), we saw two Russian tortoises. Their care was nearly identical to Nemo's. Brian and I bantered back and forth about it. What if they didn't get along? What if it helped Nemo by having another creature who was eating and running around being curious in his territory? Pros...cons. Yesterday, we made the decision.

Lucy (name goes with Linus and Schroeder) is our new addition. She is one fast little tortoise. She is much lighter than Nemo even though she looks stocky. Her shell is the size of my palm and I am the size of an average 11-year-old. First there was curiosity on Nemo's part while Lucy hid inside an igloo prepared with reptile bedding and misted moss. Nemo knew something was in his territory. He was funny stalking around. He finally gave up looking and went into his big garage. Lucy came out of hiding, saw Nemo in the garage, and raced toward him literally bumping her nose into his side. I'm not sure if she was trying to snuggle or climb on top of his shell, which we later learned is a penchant of hers. In any case, Nemo wasn't about to budge. He just stood his ground and the two remained under the garage napping.

Later, when Nemo relocated to behind his summer home, Lucy once again ran over to him and climbed atop his shell perched there like it was her safe place. Nemo wasn't amused but didn't fight it either. Each found their own sleeping spots last night and stayed there till I came down this morning. Lucy likes being on the basking log. Nemo prefers his snuggly blanket under the summer home and now with a warming pad. Lucy voraciously ate a grape and then a piece of watermelon. I moved her food dish with a huge pile of leafy greens near her but she ran for cover under the iguana. About an hour later when I checked on her, her dish was empty except for a single blueberry. I guess blueberries are out. lol. Nothing wrong with her appetite.

And so the adventure begins. Will Nemo warm up and befriend Lucy? Or will he continue to tolerate her presence? Either way, it looks to be a good fit. Lucy is young enough not to be afraid of people. I think she's going to enjoy being handled and possibly follow us around. Russian tortoises only get to be 8-10". More to come. Will try to be more active with posting. I especially would like a photo of Nemo and Lucy together.

More vitamin B & force feeding

Nemo lost weight :-( Dr. Amy gave him another shot of Vitamin B and showed us how to force feed him. Thank goodness it didn't involve a torturous looking device I saw in the box turtle care manual. I used to give medicine to and force feed bunnies so I have the technique down. Brian holds Nemo and I hold the syringe of food and try to coax him to open his mouth. I think he was actually hungry this morning so he opened his mouth fairly often and easily. Second and third feedings today was a lot of patience on my part and a lot of resistance on his part.

We are feeding him a mixture of baby foods: turkey, corn, peas and a vitamin enriched canned food for sick cats and dogs. mmm, yum. At least we KNOW food is in his tummy now. The objective is to get his digestive system going normally and then good eating habits will kick in. The veterinarians conferred and believe Nemo may be much older than the 10 years we were told. He could be going into a natural "geriatric" mode. Except that doesn't explain his very active behavior a year ago.

Our next appointment is in two weeks. If Nemo isn't better by then, Dr. Amy wants to take an X-ray to see if something else is going on. I sure hope that's not the case.

Does anyone remember the Maypo commercials? Here comes the airplane...... Nemo was not happy in the above photo.

Proof of Shrimp

Ahhh! Caught in the act. Nemo downed four shrimp the other day and I caught him with shrimp on his face. hehe. He's had quite the appetite. Boring--shrimp and bagel bite--but he is eating heartily. And we've learned he only wants to eat when he looks at us longingly holding his head up high. When he does that, I'll also fix some of his overall turtle diet in his dish. I do know he will eat when he needs to eat. I just never know when that will be. In the meantime, protein is good. Bagel bite is non-nutritious but apparently not harmful and he loves it.

I wanted to share a product I found if you are a turtle owner too. It's called Reptomin Softgel by Tetrafauna--for land turtles, tortoises, iguanas, and fruit eating reptiles. It is moist, yummy looking, smells yummy, does not need to be refrigerated, and stays moist for 8+ hours. That means I can mix pellets or other drier food in it and it too will stay moist. Easy clean up too. I'm all for no smell, no mess, no bugs. I've ordered mine on the internet--just internet shop for the best shipping deal. The major pet supermarkets have some products from Reptomin but I've not seen the Softgel. It might be on the shelves in some areas of the country. I do sprinkle the calcium powder on it because Nemo loves his cuttlebone. Anything to make food other than shrimp more appetizing.

Today was an almost full basking day. Nemo lounged under the lamp but not on his log. This morning he was lounging under the kitchen table staring out the back door looking quite contemplative. I've probably shared many similar pictures but this was TODAY's picture. He hasn't stayed out in the open for too long until recently. He's getting back into the Nemo habits he first had after settling into his new home.