Dear Members and Friends:

Our Spring meeting will be held on Saturday, April 20th at the Belle Cooledge Library, 5600 South Land Park Drive, 95822 from 1:30 until 4 (or as close as we can get!) It will be our 32nd Anniversary. We will celebrate! I don't know of any turtle club this old and still gaining in popularity. We try to bring the best and latest information to one and all. Our Facebook page has brought even more members and friends aboard and I appreciate all of your good words and encouragement and fresh ideas. Our meetings have continued to be crowded, lively and fun.

I am sure your turtles and tortoises are wide awake by the time you read this newsletter. Feel free to bring one or two to the meeting to show off. Please keep them in containers because if they are on the floor, you will be handed a mop to clean up the entire room. I'll be bringing one you will be very interested in seeing, in fact, I think I'll bring two. You won't know whether to laugh or cry. A little of both will be appropriate. They are leopards. One you know and one you don't.

Your pets will begin laying eggs soon. Are you prepared? Do you want to leave the eggs in the ground? Or do you want to incubate them artificially? Or do you you want babies at all??? You can always buy expensive incubators but homemade ones work just as well (altho there was a mishap here a few weeks ago). If you will come up to the front table at the meeting, you'll see several examples of homemade incubators. I know a lot of you hang out in the back of the room and you miss some good displays up front. Don't be shy. Oh wait a minute. You want to be closer to the food!! Remember, Munch and Mingle at 3!! But I will allow you to have a drink if you are thirsty.

By the way, the anniversary cake will be up front so nobody 'accidentally' opens the container, cuts it up and eats it ahead of time as happened 5 years ago. It works better this way. We all get a piece!! And I know where the knife came from. And I'll have something to stick the candles into.....

Our plant 'sale' has been terrific at each meeting. The plants are 'free with any donation' and it has worked out nicely. And many thanks to all who donate the wonderful assortment of cacti and succulents, geraniums and everything in between. Special thanks to Angie Tamantini and her son Steve. Angie pots them up months ahead of time to get them going and Steve does the deliveries, always with a smile. Ruby and Alan Nakano are also huge contributors to the stash out front. They also deliver many snails to my doorstep which they collect during their morning walks. I couldn't do it all alone and appreciate everyone's help and 'dues plus'!! So when April 20th rolls around, I hope to:

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING!!

Spring Hints:

Your desert tortoises may not be fully awake yet so don't panic if they are not eating. Give them a drink and set them outdoors and as the weather warms up, they will return to normal. Be sure to give them a drink and check their eyes, nostrils and open the mouth to note if there is a foul odor or anything suspicious. Also, patrol the yard and look for anything small and harmful they might possibly eat. I stepped on a long pin I had accidentally dropped on the lawn while doing some sewing. I'm glad I stepped on it. I'd rather have it stuck in my toe than in my tortoises neck or worse! Hair accumulates (human and pet) and plastic blows into the yard from elsewhere, speaking of which, tell your neighbors not to spray their trees with any insecticide since the residue blowing into your yard can be deadly to your pets, especially if it lands on your turtle pond. Long strings of bermuda grass can choke them to death since tortoises don't seem to have a reverse button. Patrol often to make sure nobody is upside down. They turn over accidentally by trying to climb on objects or during mating or fighting. Prevention Prevention Prevention. That's the key to having your pets for a very long time. Please contact the club if you have questions of ANY kind. No question is stupid or embarrassing.

I thought the winter would never end. I hate trapping the leopard tortoises in the greenhouse for months but it is how I manage to keep them safe and healthy. Chester, the ancient Elongata, winters in there too and manages to behave himself very nicely. In fact, they all have settled into wintering in the 8X10 greenhouse and nobody tries to get out. My Stanfield heat mat has been working for 22 years. I believe I got my money's worth, don't you? It is on from October through March and I do use a thermostat with it as well but rarely have to turn it up high. Low works well. Kane also has mats.

I am happy to feel the warmth at last, altho it was not a bad winter. There were nights when temperatures dipped into the 20's but lots of sunshiny days to keep everyone warm and happy. Out in the yard, all was quiet except for a few Russians and Greeks deciding not to hibernate but sit in the doorways of their houses in the daily sunshine. I notice this happening every winter for the last few years.

I have to admit that it is so much easier for me when the tortoises are in the greenhouse, since the threat of raccoons is much less and everyone else is pretty well hidden from any predators. They do stay in or under their doghouses in the yard. My pond area is totally overgrown and you can barely see where the water is underneath all of the plants surrounding it. I don't plan on cutting anything back either but letting it have a very natural appearance. The turtles like it better that way too.

There have been a few turtles turned in but are probably not available for adoption unless you want to devote your everyday lives to them. Otis, (red eared slider) is my main concern. He was turned in to The Bunker after the owner found him upside down in the yard with all four limbs destroyed by a raccoon. So here he is, doing well, healing nicely and eating like a champion. But he can't walk or swim, so he is quite challenged and therefore, so am I, trying to figure out how to make him comfortable and enable him to swim somehow and most of all, protect him from predators as well as the other turtles who would cannibalize him. Right now he is living alone in a tub and I place him on and off his ramp periodically during the day being careful to not put him in full sun. He's got lots of personality and is not inclined to bite and seems unaware of his disability. So wish Otis well, everyone. Any ideas???

There's been an incubator malfunction and this is a first! Two clutches of Leopard tortoise eggs hatched without incident. When I checked the third batch of 12, I saw that two eggs had holes in them and I could see a baby inside. Ok, I closed the incubator to let Nature take its course. The next day, no change. By the third day I began to worry. Why wasn't there any further movement and why hadn't any other eggs shown signs of hatching? So I picked up the two eggs and was very sad to see that there was no movement inside. Dead. And as I am typing this, the rest are way overdue and I'm afraid that the entire clutch was lost. Why? Who knows? This was my 'other' incubator which I've used many times without any problems. The temperature was good as was the humidity. I guess it was just 'one of those things'. It's all part of turtle and tortoise keeping. I hope all of you have a terrific springtime with your pets. Take time to be outside enjoying them as often as possible. They are so very special as are all of you, my friends, for caring so much and doing your best for them.