Dear Members and Friends:

Can you believe it? It's our 19th year!! And the club is better than ever thanks to all of you out there. Our Spring meeting will be held on Saturday, April 15th at the Belle Cooledge Library located on the corner of South Land Park and Fruitridge Road from 1:30 until 4 pm. Chad Inks has said he'd like to be our guest speaker and he has been doing extensive work with map turtles and would like to present a program about them. Let's have a great turnout for Chad.

I have some of the Tortoise Trust videotapes and plan on showing them when we do not have a guest speaker. Since the library personnel refuse to let us use the TV/VCR which I thought was for public library use, we have no choice but to bring our own. We need 2 TV sets and one VCR and we can hook them together so that the people in the back of the room will be able to see the video also. I have two 13 inch TV sets and a VCR but considering the amount of items I load into my car for the meetings, I'm asking for your help so that I don't have to rent a U-Haul. Please let me know if you have this equipment or even the larger unit and can help with this. NOTE: At the Reno TurToise Club meetings, the library personnel cheerfully wheel the TV/VCR combo into the meeting room.

Bring your pets for show and tell. We'll have a raffle and an auction and feel free to donate turtle items, new or gently used, to the club as a fund raiser. It is all very much appreciated and to those who have donated so many lovely items we cannot ever thank you enough!

Harold and Naoma Carty, Chowchilla Turtle Breeders, regret that they cannot attend this meeting but feel free to call them at 1-559-665-2436 (note new area code) to check on current hatchlings. We'll miss you and hope you can be here for the Turtlerama on July 22.

Our mid-winter slumber party was great. The room was crowded with enthusiastic turtle owners and the day was sunny. Dave Roberts gave us a very informative lecture about his Sulcata tortoises and there was an extensive question and answer period afterwards. The love Dave has for his tortoises is wonderful to see and he does have concerns about people buying Sulcata hatchlings without knowing how large they grow in a short period of time and do not hibernate. Since the meeting, many more people have emailed me regarding the fact that they have just acquired a baby Sulcata and what can they expect in the future. I have to tell them the truth. The tortoise will always be cute but it won't stay small for long. Most people are ill-equipped to care for Sulcatas when they grow larger. Thank you, Dave. We appreciated your talk.

Since almost everyone enjoyed the TURTLERAMA last July, we decided to do it again this year and the date will be on July 22. Please sign up at this coming meeting and I will call you to confirm matters as the date draws closer and I really appreciate your participation in this important event. I know it is an exhausting experience but well worth the effort.

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING!!

Spring Hints: Closely inspect your yard. Winter rains bring little rocks to the surface and we all know how tortoises love to eat little rocks. Clean up debris including hair (human and pet), baggie ties, pieces of plastic and foam, bits of foil, paper clips, broken flower pots, pool nets. All of these things can cause injury and death if eaten or walked on or tangled in. Keep Bermuda grass clipped short because tortoises do not know enough to back out of a snag. Provide plenty of hiding spots so that your pet will feel secure and will be able to quickly escape the hot sun or a predator or the aggressiveness of another turtle or tortoise. Keep one step ahead of your tortoise in order to keep him safe from harm.

It was February 2nd. Quite a lovely winter day. I was on my knees digging up weeds by The Greenhouse. I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I turned thinking it was the cat. It wasn't. It was a female Hermann's tortoise coming towards me with mud clogs on her back and she paused for a moment to look up at me and it was as if she were saying, "Is it spring yet?" And I said to her, "What are you, a groundhog?" And she continued on to an unknown destination. Several others were also awake that day and it was good to see my friends again.

The Bunker is a busy place now that the warmer weather is settling in. The exotics are happy to be released into the yard to enjoy their lives in relative freedom after being stuck inside of The Greenhouse all winter. They seem to know when it is time to go out into the yard because they are very quiet during the winter months, never leaving the comfort of the Stanfield heat pad, but in February, they start pacing the perimeter and when I open the door to bring in their food, Clyde and Fernando are the first ones to quickly climb over the doorsill and start running to their favorite spots in the yard, never forgetting that food magically appears by the patio door. The trick is to find them to put them inside later on because it's too cold at night in February to stay outside.

Many of the box turtles stayed awake this winter. They were not eating but seemed to be fine. The temperature never got cold enough for them. Others tried to hibernate by going into the pond with the water turtles and this seemed to help. One turtle, Strawberry, surprised me by actually swimming very gracefully under the water. I still do not believe what I saw. The three "dryer" turtles which I will never live down seem to be doing beautifully. They are hungry little guys and I do give them extra treats to make up for their rather hot and shaky start in life.

Turtles won't eat? Try playing music for them. I keep hatchlings in an upstairs bedroom. My keyboard is also in that room and when I play late at night, the tortoises always come out and start eating. As an experiment, I often keep the room dark. It doesn't matter. They want their midnight snack. Do they hear the music? Obviously, yes! And they are not fussy either. Bach or Rock will spark their appetites.

WWJJD? (What Would Just Jim Do)

Suppose you catch your neighbor spraying poison onto his trees and on his home? Do you panic? YES! The fumes will drift into your yard and can be deadly to your water turtles because the pesticides lay on the surface of the water and the turtles absorb it and do not survive. Your box turtles will burrow into pesticide laced holes and your tortoises will eat the poisoned grass.

Promptly hose down your yard and trees thoroughly. When you think you are done, do it again. Then go over and have a little talk with the neighbor or the extermination company doing the spraying. You may be surprised at how agreeable these people might be. Thank them profusely. In the event you are met with opposition, you should inform your neighbor that your yard is a "Fish and Game Wildlife Sanctuary" and that there is a fine for harming the wildlife in your yard. This should do the trick. Protect your pets. And yourself too.

We want to thank PRETTY BIRD and ZOO MED for donating items for our raffle table. Please check out the products displayed at the meeting and also their other products available in pet shops. None of our local pet shops has responded to my plea for a small donation of any kind.

TURTLE FABRIC ANYONE? I'm always looking for interesting turtle fabric in order to create items to sell at the meetings as fundraisers. Please consider donating extra turtle fabric, even small pieces will be ok, to the club. Want to sell it? We'll negotiate.

GET YOUR INCUBATORS READY. I know it is going to be a very fertile season considering the mild winter and early spring. Sometimes box turtles will lay eggs three times in one season. Most tortoises will lay two clutches about a month apart. The box turtles will also dig nests one month apart. Water turtles will nest one to three times in a season. Exotics will dig nests at any time since they are all out of their native habitats. BE PREPARED!! It is better to have the incubator stabilized for a week before putting the eggs into it and not plugging it in when the eggs are being laid.

OTHER EVENTS:

EARTH DAY 2000 at California State University, Sacramento, Saturday April 22 from 11 until 5. We'll be participating so come along and join the fun.

ANIMAL CARE FAIR: May 20th at the Sacramento County Animal Care and Regulation, 4290 Bradshaw Rd. at Keifer Blvd. We'll have a display there and there is live music at both events. Come join us. Feel free to help out too.