I spent a lot of my day yesterday hanging with my kids. By kids I mean my pet Russian Tortoises; Lana and Doc. If you were not sure that I am truly a nerd I will divulge the secrets of their names.
When I first got Lana I knew next to nothing about Russian tortoises and I certainly had no idea how to sex them. I jumped the gun and named her Jean-Luc. I was really into Star Trek at the time, well that's a lie I am still really into Star Trek, but I thought there was no better male tortoise name then that. So I walked around referring to her as him for about half a year before I found the right information online and found out she was in fact a she. I felt bad having to change her name and her sexual identity but I knew I had to. So keeping with the Star Trek motif I tried hard to find a name that would fit. I was going through Voyager at the time and there was a character named B'lana Tores. In my head I was like of course I could call her B'lana Tortoise! I know, I'm super clever ;) She she became Lana so it's easier for others to say and comprehend.
With her new name intact and her sexual identity back to where it should be she was happy. She roamed her enclosure and got into trouble a few times by escaping and roaming the world at large and I loved her. First off I want to explain why I jumped into the land of tortoise ownership in the first place. I think I have stated it before but I hate death, I just don't deal with it very well and I take pet deaths just as bad as human deaths. So I did research and found that most captive Russian Tortoises live about 80-100 years. I thought to myself "Hell yes, I won't have to bury them! They will have to bury me!"
After about a year and a half of having Lana I thought she might be lonely all those long years and I should find her a shellmate. I did my research this time and found out that if you put two females together they will fight and can kill each other so I opted for a male. The only bad thing about males is that they breed and I wasn't really prepared for having baby tortoises running around. When I brought Doc home and put them together she tried to kill him. It was terrible to see her, almost twice his size, biting the scales off his legs and ramming him hard with her shell. I had to separate them.
While they were separated I had to name him. I landed on Doc because there are three doctors that I really love in media; Doc Brown from Back to the Future, the Doctor from Doctor Who, and the Doctor from Star Trek Voyager whose name is just the Doctor as well. I thought why not just call him Doc and I get to think of him as all three! So they lived next to each other in my apartment, they both went about their days clawing the plastic house around them to and to basically annoy the hell out of me on a nightly basis. Every time I put Doc in with Lana she would do the same thing and it was really frustrating as a father, you really just want them to get along. So I gave up. I let Doc live in his tub and Lana in hers. They were side by side and they built their nesting areas next to each other where their walls touched. I thought it was weird but about 4 months later I had to clean out their cages and I just put Doc in with her while I cleaned. I came back to find them snuggling under her heat lamp with their heads resting on each others. It was so cute and amazing and from then on they were ok with each other. I thought that since Lana was still double his size he would not
Fast forward to about a year later and she is acting really weird. She is walking in circles around their enclosure rubbing her butt on everything like a weird squatting dance. I went to the power of Google and found out that she was starting to nest and get ready to lay her eggs. I was freaking out and trying to stop her. I tried to talk her out of it but I could tell she didn't want to hear anything from her dad, so I just let her do it (not like I really had a choice). She laid her eggs and looked up at me with such a weird sense of accomplishment that I didn't really know how to take it. Sadly I wasn't prepared or Doc didn't actually fertilize her eggs but they didn't hatch. I was super bummed out when I had to bury them in the yard... One good thing came from it; some really pretty mushrooms grew out of the spot where I buried the eggs.
Well the main reason for this post is that I have caught Doc mating with Lana on numerous occasions as of late and she is looking up at me with those pregnant eyes again...This time I hope I will be better prepared and if anyone wants a free baby tortoise after I hatch them you are more than welcome to them.
When I first got Lana I knew next to nothing about Russian tortoises and I certainly had no idea how to sex them. I jumped the gun and named her Jean-Luc. I was really into Star Trek at the time, well that's a lie I am still really into Star Trek, but I thought there was no better male tortoise name then that. So I walked around referring to her as him for about half a year before I found the right information online and found out she was in fact a she. I felt bad having to change her name and her sexual identity but I knew I had to. So keeping with the Star Trek motif I tried hard to find a name that would fit. I was going through Voyager at the time and there was a character named B'lana Tores. In my head I was like of course I could call her B'lana Tortoise! I know, I'm super clever ;) She she became Lana so it's easier for others to say and comprehend.
With her new name intact and her sexual identity back to where it should be she was happy. She roamed her enclosure and got into trouble a few times by escaping and roaming the world at large and I loved her. First off I want to explain why I jumped into the land of tortoise ownership in the first place. I think I have stated it before but I hate death, I just don't deal with it very well and I take pet deaths just as bad as human deaths. So I did research and found that most captive Russian Tortoises live about 80-100 years. I thought to myself "Hell yes, I won't have to bury them! They will have to bury me!"
After about a year and a half of having Lana I thought she might be lonely all those long years and I should find her a shellmate. I did my research this time and found out that if you put two females together they will fight and can kill each other so I opted for a male. The only bad thing about males is that they breed and I wasn't really prepared for having baby tortoises running around. When I brought Doc home and put them together she tried to kill him. It was terrible to see her, almost twice his size, biting the scales off his legs and ramming him hard with her shell. I had to separate them.
While they were separated I had to name him. I landed on Doc because there are three doctors that I really love in media; Doc Brown from Back to the Future, the Doctor from Doctor Who, and the Doctor from Star Trek Voyager whose name is just the Doctor as well. I thought why not just call him Doc and I get to think of him as all three! So they lived next to each other in my apartment, they both went about their days clawing the plastic house around them to and to basically annoy the hell out of me on a nightly basis. Every time I put Doc in with Lana she would do the same thing and it was really frustrating as a father, you really just want them to get along. So I gave up. I let Doc live in his tub and Lana in hers. They were side by side and they built their nesting areas next to each other where their walls touched. I thought it was weird but about 4 months later I had to clean out their cages and I just put Doc in with her while I cleaned. I came back to find them snuggling under her heat lamp with their heads resting on each others. It was so cute and amazing and from then on they were ok with each other. I thought that since Lana was still double his size he would not
Fast forward to about a year later and she is acting really weird. She is walking in circles around their enclosure rubbing her butt on everything like a weird squatting dance. I went to the power of Google and found out that she was starting to nest and get ready to lay her eggs. I was freaking out and trying to stop her. I tried to talk her out of it but I could tell she didn't want to hear anything from her dad, so I just let her do it (not like I really had a choice). She laid her eggs and looked up at me with such a weird sense of accomplishment that I didn't really know how to take it. Sadly I wasn't prepared or Doc didn't actually fertilize her eggs but they didn't hatch. I was super bummed out when I had to bury them in the yard... One good thing came from it; some really pretty mushrooms grew out of the spot where I buried the eggs.
Well the main reason for this post is that I have caught Doc mating with Lana on numerous occasions as of late and she is looking up at me with those pregnant eyes again...This time I hope I will be better prepared and if anyone wants a free baby tortoise after I hatch them you are more than welcome to them.