Dear Members and Friends:

Our Spring meeting will be held on Saturday, April 20th at the Belle Cooledge Library (corner of South Land Park and Fruitridge Road) from 1:30 until 4. Our guest speaker will be Roy Woodward who will talk about “Endangered Species Regulations and Amphibians/Reptiles”. Roy will include information about general herps but will focus on desert tortoises as much as possible and wants you to feel free to ask questions at any time about a point that interests you during his presentation.

Roy was born and raised in Fort Bragg, CA and now lives in Elk Grove. He holds a doctorate in botany from UC Davis and formerly was the manager of the endangered bird and mammal program at the California Department of Fish and Game. He traveled the world for several years working for Bechtel Corp. and is very active in the California Native Plant Society where he serves as the Plant Science Program Director. Currently he leads the natural resources inventory and monitoring program for the California State Park System.

As time permits, we'll discuss any problems you are having at this time of year. I am sure many turtles and tortoises woke up and went back into hibernation several times during the changeable weather of January, February and March and finally came out of hibernation with swollen eyes and runny noses. Often, they are dehydrated so you will want to soak your box turtles often and apply Terramycin Ophthalmic Ointment to their eyes. Make sure they go into their shelters at sundown since they tend to sit out all night if they are sick making them vulnerable to predators. Water turtles rarely present a problem and desert tortoises always present a problem. Don't let conditions worsen.

There will be a raffle and an auction at this meeting. Two small Sulcatas will be available but please don't bid on them unless you have the time, patience and facilities to take care of them when they grow to 100 lbs a few years from now and cannot get cold.

If you have any quality turtle items you no longer need, please consider donating them to the club to help raise funds and a million thanks to those who have already done so. We couldn't survive without your generosity and DUES PLUS!!

SEE YOU ALL AT THE MEETING!

Spring Hints Worth Remembering: Tour the yard. Repair broken fences at the turtle and tortoise eye level because if they can see out, they will always try to get out. If there is a dog on the other side of the fence, he will react to hearing the tortoise walking back and forth by trying to enlarge the space, dig under and come into the yard. Clean up the yard as much as possible. Get rid of all of the little rocks the tortoises enjoy eating and beware of long strands of Bermuda grass. Put a spring on your gate so if anyone accidentally leaves it open, it will close by itself. I can't tell you how many times this inexpensive device has saved my critters from escaping. Watch for raccoons and opossums. They are everywhere and NOBODY is immune. Be prepared for egg laying and don't bother loosening the soil because the turtle or tortoise will never dig in a nest prepared by a human being. They loosen the soil by wetting it as they are digging. Patiently watch, but don't interfere. For indoor incubating hints, call the club for information.

The snapping turtle finally has a new home. Unfortunately, it's still in my yard. Having survived his second winter in a garbage pail, with no prospective home in sight, I went to the Home Depot and came home with a 55 gallon Rubbermaid tub. My husband was standing on the porch nearby watching as I hosed out the tub and then filled it half way with water. The time came to switch the snapper to his new home. I turned the garbage pail on its side to dump out the water and as I gingerly lifted the pail up, my husband said in a worried voice, “Is that “thing” going to kill you?” I smiled as I slowly let the turtle slide from the garbage pail into the new roomier tub. I wasn't going to take a chance on lifting him up since he has grown larger and fatter due to his hearty appetite and restricted movements - just like people! He seems quite content in his new tub and thanks to all who have tried to find him a new home back east. For now, all is well and we should give him a name. Any ideas?

The Leopard tortoise eggs laid on the night of September 11, 2001 by Miss America were not fertile. They were odd shaped eggs, which I will bring to the meeting to show you. They were large and elongated and I suspect they should have been laid the year before. Blondie laid 6 eggs on Sept. 22 and then 6 more on that infamous Halloween night fiasco of wet hair, flimsy nightgowns, bare feet with a full moon lighting up the occasion. The Sept. 22 eggs began hatching on January 22. Then on March 3rd, (which was my 50th wedding anniversary) my gift was seeing 3 of the Halloween night eggs, hatching ! Who needs gold or diamonds? The next day, two more of the 9/22 eggs began hatching. I know that eggs don't always hatch at the same time, but six weeks in between? I have no idea who the father of the hatchlings is. It could be Tarzan Jr., Tillie or Fernando. The hatchlings all resemble their mother who is named Blondie because of her light color.

There is a desert tortoise here with an above average IQ. At 1 pm Monday, 3/18, I put two desert tortoises out for fresh air and sunshine who had come out of hibernation. 5 pm - brought one back inside - the other one was nowhere to be found. 6 pm, finished dinner, searched for it, no sign. 7 pm, 8 pm, 9 pm, 10 pm, 11 pm - searched everywhere, no tortoise. 11 pm to 7 am - restless guilt filled night with the image of dead tortoises spinning in my head. Tuesday, noon - missing tortoise observed emerging from the dog house on the covered patio after enjoying the evening nestled on the cats' heating pad. He returns to this spot (the cat is not thrilled) nightly while the other tortoise simply goes to sleep wherever he is when night falls and I have to bring him indoors.

TORT ALERT

One of our club members recently contacted me because her redfoot tortoise had developed swollen back legs, could no longer walk and stopped eating. Upon going to the vet, it was discovered that the tortoise had a huge open sore all along the area where the skin and shell meet. On closer examination, the vet could see a rubberband - which had wrapped around the legs, etc. and caused all of the trauma. When the owner was told of the rubberband, she suddenly was sickened remembering what she had done last summer. The tortoise kept getting “lost” in the yard and was difficult to find to bring her indoors at night. The owner decided to put a bright sticky note on her back and when that didn't hold very well, she placed a rubberband around the tortoise to keep it on and the rest is history.