Elliot emerging in the morning from his rosemary turtle cave. He warms himself in this pose for about 20 minutes every morning.
I kept reading about desert tortoises and thought that Elliot's legs looked so different than all the images I was seeing. What are those pointy things on his front legs? (they are scales)
Thank goodness for google images. I finally found a site called The Sulcata Station and emailed a photo of Elliot to them. Yep, that is what he is, they confirmed. Once Gary and I got over the shock that this tortoise is going to be over 100lbs and live 80-100 years we've been working on getting things set up for Elliot before he gets too large! He definitely has a voracious appetite. We are working on switching him to Bermuda grass hay--it is a slow process. Because he was raised on mixed greens.
May I help you?
Elliot likes to hang out most of the afternoon snoozing by the front door. It is so funny to see a tortoise at your front door staring in. He mostly likes to watch the kitties. He's a really friendly tortoise and follows you like a dog. My father-in-law thinks it is the funniest thing to watch him come when you call him.
Such cute elephant-type back leggies. Definitely a creature of habit. Retiring to the rosemary bush turtle cave around 4:00 pm.