If Dynamo needs a shell repair, this might come in handy

This (via Boing Boing, via Fark), tells the tale of a desert tortoise getting a fiberglass shell repair after surgury. "Cactus" had three enormous bladder stones removed. In order to mend the wound, the vet sealed the fiberglass with 5-minute epoxy.

This was particularly interesting towards the end:

The surgery hasn't seemed to faze him.

"He came around within 24 hours. He's a mellow little guy," said Fitting, a fan of all desert tortoises.

"These are really very wonderful animals," he said. "They're very gentle and curious, and orange and red are their favorite colors -- in the wild their best and most succulent food is the red and yellow flowers on cactus."

Desert tortoises are also extremely imperturbable.

"You know the tale of the hare and the tortoise?" Fitting said. "These guys don't consider themselves in the race. They couldn't care less. They've been around 200 million years. They've seen dinosaurs come and go, and they're one of the reptile lines that survived the wipeout 65 million years ago. They're very laid-back."

Foggy Water

dyners in clean water
Originally uploaded by 917press.

Whitney and I have been nice then naughty to her turtle Dynamo lately. I brought her home some feeder fish a couple of weeks ago (nice) but then we put off cleaning her tank for another two weeks (naughty).

So yesterday morning we changed her tank. Afterwards, Dyner's eyes were irritated, which we learned was probably from the bacteria in the old bad water, plus that we should change her water a day or two after feeding her fish. Lesson learned.

The last night, her water, all 30-some gallons were milky foggy. It was almost as murky as the water we just changed, though in a milky way, not a greenish way. On her basking shelf we noticed a broken egg, and on the bottom of the tank was at least two eggs-worth of shell, if not more.

Dyanamo frequently lays eggs underwater and then eats them, but this was the first time she had laid one out for us to examine, even though it was broken. First off, the egg was very large relative to her size, about the size of her head. Much larger than a quail egg. Secondly, the egg white was very gelatinous. There leaves very little doubt to the relation between reptiles and birds.

So now, as penance for our laziness, we'll be changing her water twice in as many days.