New Aldabras

[muddoc]

A friend of mine and I started talking about getting some Aldabras on a trip home from a reptile show in December of last year. We decided to make some calls and get some. Well after almost 7 months, they finally got here. The Icelandic volcano caused 2 delays in shipping from the Seychelles, but the wait was worth it. I just got these guys today and got them home. They are a bit lite for their size, but we found out that they do like Mazuri tort diet, and I have a bag full ready to go. They area that they are in was also seeded with Bermuda about 6 weeks ago, and is full of clovers. So, I think they will be happy in their new home. I also found some kudzu growing on my property, so they will get some of that as well. Lastly, I have a planned visit to the local market to get old fruits and veggies from them on disposal day.

Enough of my talking, here are te pics that I know everyone always wants.

Here is a pic of them both when they got home. A good soaking, and a light scrub of the shells to clean them up a bit. They both drank a good bit when they hit the water, which is good, because they both urinated on the way home.


Meet Pong. It is the larger one of the two.


Meet Ping. The smaller one.


Here is a shot of Pong's imperfection.


Ping's imperfection is shown here.


Here is a shot of Ping and Pong when I introduced them to their new enclosure. (p.s. they are named after a teacher of mine in highschool that had a pair of ducks with the same name. I thought the names were great, since they aren't gender specific, and we don't know the sexes yet). Sorry the grass is so long, but we just got back from vacation and haven't cut it yet.

This last pic is of the enclosure for the time being. It is made out of 1" PVC and 1" x 1" mesh on the side and 1" x 1/2" mesh on the sides. The mesh is attached in the corners with fence ties, and UV resistant zip ties in the middle. There is some expanded PVC on 2 sides and one half of the top for shade. They are positioned under a tree that allows them shade for about 75% of the day. The full sun is early morning sun, which should not get them too hot, although we will watch it closely over the next couple weeks. The enclosure is secured to the ground with U-stakes, so that they cannot lift it, nor can animals get in. We made this enclosure for now, so that it could be moved if they start to demolish too much flora in the area. I will start building there next enclosure in the next couple weeks. Next up is a 16' x 16' cinder block enclosure, that will eventually be the corner of a one acre pen. That will take some time, but time is one thing I have with these guys.


Thanks for looking,

[gangsta]

really nice Tim! Ours are around 175 lbs now. Takes alot to move these tanks lol.

[muddoc]

I can't wait for them to get that big. However, I am not in a hurry.

[gangsta]

I can't wait for them to get that big. However, I am not in a hurry.

Doesnt take long man haha! Get ready!!!

[mxrider42]

Very nice pickups!!! I want to get some tortoises but I need to wait till I out of my apartment. One Day!
Trey

[joepythons]

They are cool looking Tim

[Boanerges]

Definitely some cool new additions Tim

[West Coast Jungle]

I love me the torts. Those are some fine looking fellows. I'll stick to leo myself as I dont have a big yard.

Congrats on the new lawn mowers

[Arabesqueboa]

Congrats they both look great!

[J.Vandegrift]

Nice torts. I love my snakes, but the Torts are the best. I picked up a couple Galapagos torts back in 1999 when the Daytona show was still the Orlando show. They are really starting to look impressive. You'll be amazed at how fast they grow. I barely feed mine anything but the grass they forage for and they still put on nice growth and are solid as a rock. I used to feed a bunch of mazuri, but now they would go through a bag a week which gets pretty expensive. One of mine has a split scute as well. I have heard it is from being incubated too hot so they are almost always females when they have the extra scute. Good luck with your torts.