Cricket Contest

[tia0010]

Mr. Turtle has outgrown his condo so now he has to chill out at the Y until his cage is cleaned. He is not happy about it either. Don’t worry he made it back to his home in no time. Unfortunately he had a temper tantrum after making it back to his cage and messed it all over again. I think he’s in teenager mode.

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[tia0010]

He made it home safely and feels much better.

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[Zoodulcis]

Ah, kids these days, never appreciating the things you do for them.  He does look a little grumpy pants in this picture.  What a nice clean home he has to go back to!  How old is he?

[tia0010]

Mr. Turtle is a rescue we believe he is about 6 months old. Prior to now we would put him in a  tub but he grew and he couldn’t keep his tail straight. He is a very grumpy dragon and only tolerate rate me because I support his 100+ cricket a week habit. Hopefully soon he will trust me so I can let him run around his room while I clean his cage.

[Zoodulcis]

Are you able to handle him at all, or it too soon after rescuing him?

[Zoodulcis]

Or is it too soon after you acquired him?

[tia0010]

We have had Mr. Turtle for 3 months now, so far we have tried holding him 30 minutes a day as well as hand feeding him worms. He loves it when we talk to him and seems to actively watch tv from his cage, he also appears to love music. He is very happy and content enjoying the family from his cage only. Once we open his doors we have to chase him around to get him out, he doesn’t bite but will scratch. PetsMart actually let us adopt him because he was too big to sale. They said he was as mean as a snake since he hatched. Ironically his name is Mr. Turtle because we were in the store to purchase a turtle but I felt so sorry for him. My daughter has autism so our work around for getting the lizard instead of the turtle was simply to name him Turtle.

[Zoodulcis]

Sounds like there is hope for Mr. Turtle becoming a sweetheart, eventually.  Enjoying the sound of human voices is an encouraging sign.  He may have been mishandled when younger, and this may take quite some time to overcome.   30  minutes per day is quite a lot.  I wonder what would happen if you gave him a day or two off each week, just as an experiment, to see if he is reacting to handling by going into stress mode daily, and it is too much for him if he has bad associations with handling.  Just a thought, but you might give it a try just to see if it makes any difference in his attitude.  If it does, please do share it with us as this may be of use to other readers.  Or if it doesn’t, or you find something else that does work wonders, please share that as well!

[tia0010]

We tried the 30 minutes a day thing that last 2 days. Now give him plenty of Reggae music (he loves it) and tv time. He gets out every Saturday for his bath and cage cleaning. He is also let outside every time it rains for as long as we can stand it. Since he has gotten so big I ordered him a little leash. I’m hoping to let him play on the floor and see if he will freely come to us. If he doesn’t I won’t have to worry cause at least we can catch him. It arrives tomorrow so wish us luck.

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