Dear Members and Friends: Our SUMMER meeting will be held on August 16th from 1:30 - 4 at the Belle Cooledge Library, 5600 South Land Park Drive, 95822. However, the meeting will be preceded by the TURTLERAMA on July 19th, see the flyer below for details. I had to switch dates due to library schedules and children's school schedules, many of whom have to go back to school in the middle of August. This caused the State Fair to move from August to July as well!! It will also be fun for the new members to attend the Summer turtle club meeting a month later instead of waiting until the end of October....

First let's talk about the TURTLERAMA. Many of you signed up to exhibit or help at the Spring meeting in April. If you did not and you want to help or show your pets, PLEASE let me know. And try to bring a table if possible because the library does not like their new tables to be lugged outside, except for the two old ones they have. If you are selling anything, please do it away from the main entrance to the library since they frown on it. For those new to the club, the 'live' turtle and tortoise displays are outside of the library room, it's nice and shady there all day and the educational displays and the popular 'Kids Corner' are inside. We can always use helping hands to set up and take down displays and bring drinks to the exhibitors or give them a few minutes off. Thank you all ahead of time for making our Turtlerama the best show in the West!! Your displays are wonderful, I'm so proud of each and every one of you.

The summer meeting will be 4 weeks after the Turtlerama and we will have a lot of new faces there. It's always fun because eggs are hatching and our pets are awake and alert and roaming about, feeling good, enjoying the warm weather. Bring a pet for Show and Tell and let me know if you'd like to do a presentation about one of your special turtles or tortoises. Or you may have special techniques to show us. We are all interested and ready to learn and enjoy. Don't be shy!!

SEE YOU AT THE TURTLERAMA ON JULY 19th and AT THE MEETING ON AUGUST 16th!!!

 

 

Summer Hints: On hot dry days,make sure your box turtle pens are well hydrated and try to protect everyone from the afternoon sun. Check frequently for anyone upside down and/or sitting in the sunshine a little too long. Some of them want to commit suicide for unknown reasons and they know how to do it. Check frequently for egg laying on warm nights, especially if there is a full moon. You have a couple of days to decide whether to incubate them artificially or just leave them in the ground. If you leave them, try to mark the nest and also protect it so other turtles don't dig in the same spot which they are inclined to do. Try to feed everyone the best foods possible because they need the nutrition in order to make it through the long winter hibernation. Take time to enjoy your pets and make notes on their activities and share with us all of the fun or odd behaviors you see going on. Good luck this season with hatchlings. I know how wonderful it can be and also how frustrating it is when no eggs hatch. GOOD LUCK!!

 

 

AT THE BUNKER

I'm sitting here writing while the temperature outdoors is soaring over 103! Fat Betty didn't predict this heat!! There is no breeze and I've watered everyone and they are quiet for the afternoon except for a few Hermann's tortoises who seem not to notice heat, cold, wind or even darkness in their pursuit of their mates. We've had many shelled guests At The Bunker enjoying their little vacations, I try to keep them separated from my own residents but most of them enjoy climbing out of the 'hotel' area and into the general enclosure and that's when the fun begins, trying to put them back where they belong which is a very secluded overgrown area they are supposed to enjoy!!

I haven't mentioned 'Helen Keller' in awhile, the gulf coast box turtle who became blind around ten years ago (I don't know why, perhaps she was not hibernating deep enough?) but she is doing fine. She is spending all of her days and nights (she doesn't know the difference) on my patio sniffing around searching for food. I try to put her under an overturned pail with a doorway cut out so she is near the food and doesn't stray too far from it. She can be dangerous because if you try to hand feed her, she can seriously bite a finger so I tell people who want to try, to push the food in front of her with a stick. She'll eventually bite it, but it sure is frustrating to watch......

I'm happy to say that I now have three ladies willing to share room in their ponds for the homeless turtles I have been deluged with for so many years. I am SO relieved. I was never set up for water turtles and it is a burden cleaning out the little pond and I feel sorry for the few turtles of my own when it gets overcrowded and very unhealthy for them all. So THANK YOU for your kind hearts.

Facebook has been quite a boon for the club. I really enjoy everyone (around 900 now I think?) for your fun remarks and stories and all of the help you give to others and also for being very kind when crazy stuff comes up and we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings and so handle problems with good humor. There's still tons of bad advice out there 'on the Internet', some so shocking and deadly but people believe what they read because it is -'on the Internet' .......why would anyone believe that the proper way to incubate eggs would be to put them into a plastic bag in the sun????? And please use your common sense regarding feeding and realize that in the wild, nobody goes out and chops up vegetables into bite sized pieces and feeds this to the tortoises on a plate. This is why there are so many overgrown beaks. We must feed our pets food they can bite on like corn on the cob and snails and also let them eat off of the ground, or a stepping stone or any hard surface and if yours are indoors, then please put the food onto a clay saucer so they bang that beak on the hard surface which will prevent it from overgrowing into something grotesque. And don't bring them in when it rains......they all love the rain, especially if it is lightening, and will come running out, no matter what time of the day or night, for a meal of worms/bugs/snails or to enjoy the rain, and wind and have a good long drink.

Take this time to improve your pens. I got a great idea two years ago at the Yolo County Fair. They had many mini-designs for outdoor gardens and each one would have been perfect for box turtles or tortoises. I took photos of them all and, well, I have the supplies to fix up my main enclosure, but no time. Perhaps I should encourage the help of the visitors to the Bunker, hand them a shovel and a hoe as they come in and show them where the new stepping stones are to be placed??? Sounds like a plan to me!

 

 

FOR SALE: Beautiful Redfoot hatchlings - 6 months - 1 year old $75.00 each, cash only please. Contact Corrine 707-648-1037 or email: turttort16@yahoo.com