Dear Members and Friends:

Our Spring meeting will be held on Saturday, April 7th, at the Belle Cooledge Library starting at 1:30 pm. The library is located on the corner of South Land Park Drive and Fruitridge Road off of I-5. This will be a meeting celebrating our 20th Anniversary, therefore, there will be cake! Reminiscing will be allowed so try to bring your own memories of past meetings and turtle stories to share with everyone.Of course, other turtle and tortoise questions will be answered as well. Don't forget to bring your turtles for show and tell. Raffle items will also be appreciated.

Our Winter meeting was well attended. I showed two of Andy Highfield's videos on hibernation and afterwards, instead of having a lively discussion about what we had just seen, everyone decided the meeting was over. There were plenty of snacks left, we held the raffle and we did a lot of socializing and it was great seeing you all at that time.

The club has done extremely well over the years. Many of our original members are still in the club and I am regularly signing up new members. I notice other clubs raising their dues to $25 or even up to $40 a year, but due to the generosity of our members, I've never even thought of raising the dues. By not raising the dues the club remains accessible to young and old, rich or poor, frugal or extravagant. The bottom line has always been getting the information about turtle and tortoise care out to the public and we have done a great job. Our membership hovers around the 975 mark, which is outstanding. I thank you ALL for your extra dues and donations and continued support, and that is why the club is so successful. Special thanks go to Shirley Waterman for manning the sale table under the most hectic conditions. I don't know how she does it!! She also sets out the refreshments. You are amazing and greatly appreciated.

SEE YOU ALL AT THE MEETING

Spring Hints

Coming out of hibernation is almost as scary as going into hibernation. We don't know what to expect. Give your tortoises a once over. Feel the weight. Offer a drink every day. Offer food. If a few weeks go by and he is not eating, you might want to see a vet or call the club for advice. Some tortoises take a long time to become fully awake while others wake up and start eating immediately picking up where they left off before hibernation. Stop, Look and Listen. Stop what you are doing and pay attention to the tortoise. Look at his limbs and neck area for signs of sores or swelling. Listen for breathing difficulties. If everything looks ok, he'll probably be acting normally in a short period of time.

Fat Betty lied about spring coming early. She went back into hibernation when she discovered more rain and cold were arriving. Many red-eared sliders were turned in for adoption for various reasons, mostly because they outgrew their aquariums which are not good habitats to begin with and are difficult to keep clean. I thoroughly enjoy confronting people and telling them that aquariums are for FISH. Because it was winter and none of the turtles had been outdoors, they continued to live indoors - in my laundry room sink, going out on warmer sunny days. They did fine and are now outside in the pond with the others, basking the days away. Anyone interested in adopting some of these precious homeless turtles? They have great personalities.

I recently discovered one of my favorite box turtles underneath her doghouse. She was the turtle whose shell was half torn off by a dog and after I somehow managed to save her life, refused to return her to the family because I knew the dog would kill her the next time. She's had a good life here………….but I certainly was surprised, when I lifted up the doghouse to peek underneath, to see her hibernating upside down! I have no clue as to why she was upside down. There was no room to turn over under there. As usual, it's another Bunker Mystery.

Hibernation did not go well for some of the Bunker residents who chose to come out of their safe doghouses and, behind my back, go down into the large holes in the ground left behind by the rotting roots of the huge maple tree. I was afraid this would happen and my worst nightmare came true. A few days after my discovery, with a heavy heart and little energy, I had to clean out the water turtle pond because the sun was turning the water green with algae. As I lowered the bucket into the water to start emptying the pond, the first thing I saw swoop into it was a brand new baby red-eared slider. It took me by surprise, and as I held this very tiny turtle in the palm of my hand, tears were welling up in my eyes and everything fell into place at that moment. Life Goes On.

SHELTERS - DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH?

A shelter is very important to our turtle and tortoises well being. Without a suitable shelter, they have no choice but to burrow underground. Chelonians need a shelter to sleep in, to get out of the sun or to escape a predator or another aggressive tortoise. Several can occupy a shelter and it is important to keep the shelter as clean as possible because there is a lot of pooing going on in there as well as hiding and sleeping.

Wooden structures make the best shelters. You can build your own as fancy or plain as you like or buy a doghouse - but with doghouses, you should modify the doorway so it is only slightly larger than your largest tortoise. They enjoy the security of a small entrance and the darkness inside.

My tortoises do not have much use for the plastic igloo- like doghouses. I suspect the doorways are too large and the domes too high inside to give the tortoises the comfortable feeling they long for. I don't feel the plastic igloos give as much protection from the weather as the wooden shelters do.

Box turtles enjoy being in small doghouses or wooden structures not much larger than they are and you will often find several of them cramming themselves together in the tiny space. Mine prefer to be underneath the doghouses and homemade shelters and it is amazing to see absolutely no turtles inside of the doghouses and all of these little faces, including the face of the frog, peering out from underneath when food is expected.

For water turtle shelters, I've been recommending adding a Spanish style roof tile to the pond forming a “cave” enabling the turtles and even your goldfish, the opportunity to hide in case of a raccoon or possum attack. Other than that, water turtles don't seem to require hiding places and plunge into the “safety” of their pond if they feel threatened, although baby turtles need a lot of plants and driftwood in order to hide from natural predators such as birds.