13-Aug-07 - I was presented, yesterday afternoon inside the Four Corners supermarket, with two baby tortoises sitting in a tuperware bowl. I shrieked with joy, not believing they had actually hatched.

Back in April, Kelsey’s tortoise made her nest in the garden and buried all of her eggs (about 60 were counted). I had said to Kelsey that I would love to adopt the first one that came along, to have in my garden.

Looking up information on how long they needed before being born, we found out roughly three months.

With work and other commitments, I had totally forgotten about it until yesterday. With excitement I hurried home and showed them to my children who were thrilled to pieces.

Funnily enough I hadn’t a clue on how to take care of them! That’s when I started searching for information.

When babies, they should not eat our daily fruit and vegetables, it plays havoc with their digestive system. Instead they need the natural outside findings like grapes, vine leaves and wild greenery that grows on the hills.

Some other advice that I found was to buy a calcium powder, bought from pet stores, to sprinkle over the soil that they roam in. Their bones are so fragile the extra calcium is a booster.

Water is very important in their diet. A suggestion of 30 minutes in very shallow water (max. up to their bottom jaw) helps hydrate them. So today with my children, we let them have a swim!

If kept indoors, the tortoise must be taken outside every day and left in the sunlight for about an hour. Their shell needs to absorb vitamin D to develop properly. Poor care for a baby tortoise can result in damaging their shell for good.

Now that I’m committed, I will keep a record and study how their development comes along over the next few months. We’re just waiting now to see how many more will hatch!