Dear Members and Friends:

Our Summer meeting will be held on Saturday, July 16th at the Belle Cooledge Library (corner of Fruitridge Road and South Land Park Drive) from 1:30 until 4. The meeting will be followed in four weeks by the TURTLERAMA (see flyer below) and, with your help, I'd like to make the Turtlerama bigger and better and more interesting than ever before. You have to admit that a lot of our displays are over 20 years old and we are in need of more up-to-date displays. Let's put our heads together at the meeting and make some changes.

Bring your ideas and we'll go over each and every suggestion. And please sign up for the Turtlerama. Let me know if you can exhibit, what you will exhibit or if you can help that day.

Donations have slowed down for our raffle so please look through your stash of turtle items and see if you have doubles or are tired of some items. We'll try to have box turtle eggs on the raffle table - if the weather settles down and they get into the egg laying mood!

Many thanks to Michael Rajkumar for his wonderful presentation at the last meeting. I believe Michael was touching upon some new information that has come out regarding pyramiding in hatchling tortoises. We all have different opinions on this phenomenon, mine being that they simply eat too much under our tender loving care. A study done in Vienna showed that it wasn't excess protein, excess calcium or excess anything that causes the shell lumps and pyramids. It was the lack of humidity! The higher the humidity, the smoother the shell. Their theory is that the hatchlings spend their first few years of life hiding in damp grass - which is probably true. They even recommend 100% humidity be available to African tortoise hatchlings at all times.

I'm going to try it with my Leopard hatchlings. They are not pyramided, but then, they are not smooth either. There is so much to learn........

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING!!

SUMMER HINTS

Use a 'mister' in your box turtle enclosure on hot dry summer days. Your water turtles will also enjoy the moisture. You want to keep the Sulcatas, Leopards, Russian and Desert tortoises in a dry environment but always have clean bowls of water available but not in full sun for obvious reasons. If they won't drink, lay a hose on the lawn and let the water run for awhile and they may prefer to drink that way. It's ok if they decide to go under the sprinklers too, as long as they are dry before retiring for the night. Put some chairs on the lawn so the tortoises don't have to go far to find shelter. I mow at sundown when I am sure everyone is in their shelter, but I patrol first, of course. You can never be too careful. Always be alert for predators. They are everywhere.

Red eared sliders, red eared sliders, red eared sliders, there does not seem to be an end to the deluge of homeless sliders. I am afraid to answer the phone and when I do, 90% of the time it is a person needing a home for their one to five sliders because they either want to travel, the kids grew up, they are tired of taking care of them, they are too big, they are sick, or a raccoon or possum has done some damage. Finding homes for all of them can be challenging. Keeping them clean until a home is found is even more challenging because as soon as you clean the water, they mess it up again.

After a very long cold springtime, warmer weather finally arrived (sort of) at the end of May. I felt terrible keeping Blondie and the other Leopard tortoises in the greenhouse for 8 months but it was much too cold at night to let them out during the day and besides, I never would have been able to find them at night to put them back in. Once out, they sprung into action, eating the grass they love and enjoying real sunshine and refreshing breezes in their faces. There are a few small Sulcatas here available for adoption, but please don't ask unless you are prepared to take care of something that will grow quickly to 100 to 200 pounds and excretes like a camel. And the Sulcatas can't get chilled and do not hibernate. They need lots of room for grazing in a safe and secure environment.

I continue to be amazed by the color of the Leopard tortoise who hatched in the greenhouse last October. While his 'littermates", who hatched in the incubator in the bedroom, are the usual pretty black and white, he has retained the sandy color and is easily identifiable when you see them all together. His shell is plain with no markings at all. I thought he would have changed by now. Mother Nature knows better. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the future.

I had invited guests for a family BBQ over the Memorial Day weekend. I cleaned and cleaned outside, trying to make the yard pleasant. Each time I spruced up the patio by the kitchen door, one or more of the tortoises would walk by, lift up the rear end and squirt out something vile. I must have mopped the patio a dozen times the day of the cookout. It was planned for later in the day and I was hoping that the tortoises would be in their shelters by the time my guests arrived. The tortoises did go into their doghouses, however, when they saw the activity and smelled the food cooking, they had to come out and investigate. Joltin' Joe, the Marginata, followed by four Greeks, Tillie the male Leopard and Fernando, a formerly very shy Leopard tortoise meandered onto the patio with their heads held high looking for a handout. I gave my guests bananas to feed them and while I was in the kitchen preparing our dinner, my guests groans and gasps indicated to me that what was going in one end was coming out the other - BIG TIME! It very well could have been my last BBQ.

ENJOY THE SUMMER!