Sunday, January 04, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Pets need special care and surroundings to survive in city
By JOAN WHITELY
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Southern Nevada schoolchildren soon will be guessing when Mojave Max, one of the desert tortoises at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, is going to emerge from winter hibernation.
Tortoises -- which start hibernating in September through early November -- come back out in March or April, according to the Tortoise Group, a local nonprofit organization.
Then in the late spring and summer, mature females may dig nest holes and lay eggs, which are about the size of a pingpong ball.
Tortoise hatchlings are born from late August through early October. Each is usually about 2 inches long -- as measured in a straight line drawn in the air above the curving shell, from front to back, excluding the limbs. Each is immediately ready to live on its own.
Because a tortoise's nature is to live mostly in solitude, even babies are great at escaping. They can stand on their hind legs, they can wriggle through tiny cracks, they become swiftly aware when an exit presents itself, which is why the Tortoise Group recommends a low, step-over barrier be in place when a yard gate is temporarily open.
The Tortoise Group also instructs pet owners to convert open-grill gates into solid surfaces, also to minimize escape. And it tells them to install a gate footing of brick or concrete, so a tortoise can't burrow out of a yard under the gate.
The group publishes a 28-page booklet on the details for raising healthy tortoises in captivity. Above all, do not raise them indoors or on a diet of lettuce, emphasizes Betty Burge, one of the group's founders. The booklet shows a photo of a rescued tortoise, whose shell dome is caved-in and cracked, because of a lack of calcium while fed a lettuce diet.
As yard pets, tortoises still need a burrow to get out of midday summer heat and for winter hibernation. Generally, each tortoise needs its own burrow, in a section of yard at least 15 feet by 15 feet that will remain completely dry. Burrows should not be along property walls, because a neighbor with irrigation problems could easily flood out a burrow.
The group's booklet details the exact degree of downward slope, length and tunnel diameter a burrow requires. A tortoise should fit its burrow snugly, so that winter air cannot circulate around the shell, which would cool the animal during hibernation more than is desirable. As a tortoise grows, it enlarges its burrow.
The Tortoise Group has stopped adopting out hatchlings because of poor survival rates. It now supervises adoptions of tortoises who measure 7 inches long, near maturity.
Tortoises can grow up to 15 inches long. They become sexually mature when they reach about 7 1/2 inches in length, rather than at a specific age. Their life span can reach 70 years.
In addition to a constant, shallow, clean, shaded water supply, tortoises need a balanced diet to thrive. When Burge and her fellow advocates started educating pet owners, the only prepared food mix available was one designed for iguanas. Now a tortoise-specific chow is available through the Tortoise Group; the diet is usually sold only to research facilities and zoos, according to Burge.
An overcrowded yard will lead to stress diseases among tortoises. Constant courtship can stress females and lead to overcrowding, so the Tortoise Group adopts out only multiple tortoises of the same sex, preferably females. Males may continually challenge each other, which can be another cause of stress leading to poor health.
Some family dogs and cats can coexist well with tortoises, but the owner needs to monitor their interactions at first, Burge says.
If a puppy can't tolerate a tortoise or a family is moving away, don't just drop off the tortoise in the desert. The particular desert may be inappropriate, or a yard-habituated animal may be unprepared for the abrupt switch, she explains.
If for some reason an owner can no longer keep a tortoise, he or she can call the tortoise pickup service (593-9027), which is part of the federal Desert Tortoise Conservation Center outside Las Vegas.
The service picks up unwanted and stray tortoises, as well as any found by developers when they disturb desert habitat before construction. Developers must pay $500 per acre for tortoise conservation before they can disturb habitat.
It remains illegal to take a tortoise from the desert as a pet, or to remove a tortoise from Nevada, even one that has been a yard pet, Burge notes.
