Our tortoise is doing well and she is happy with the accommodation. In addition to a modest habitat presented in a photo, she also has 25 square meters of our living space ( that's only the kid's room) to practice her marathon marches, which she does daily at least three times.
Now when she knows the place and items, she rolls across the room over all kinds of obstacles.
She is by the way incredible fast and when she has enough of walking, strangely, she knows exactly in what direction is her terrarium.
When she comes under it, she starts walking in circles obviously trying to figure out either where is that place or how to fly into it. At that point, she needs our assistance.
What can you see in a photo?
That is a miniature cactus we bought in a store. That one has no pricks, so it is no danger to Merlin. She also eats cactuses and agaves.
The entire animal is a bit bigger than my thumb, which is just slightly above 5 centimeters. Crow or a seagull can easily swallow her whole.
A plant that you see behind a tortoise is a part of her natural habitat ( it is called pursley and it is a widely spread weed that humans can also eat, it is highly nutritious) and it is planted in a separate pot under the soil of a terrarium so that tortoise can't de-root it while burrowing. Well, she is rarely burrowing now, as she feels rather safe. But, she is quite fond of eating pursley.
I put a few small pine cones inside and she likes pushing around those like balls and that ugly big one she was using for a while as her camouflage when she went to sleep. Now she is sleeping under the pursley because she figured out that she can push out a pot and comfortably sleep in a nice green shade.
On the left, you can see a yellowish flat surface which is one of two platings that I use to serve her food. I put her a few berries because she likes those, but I gave up on daily fresh lettuce because she likes munching on her small "forest" better.
I placed sea shells and pebbles strategically because the tortoise was very intrigued with the dark walls of the box constantly confusing them with the passages.
I guess with time she figured out that walls are warm and attract light far better than pebbles, so she is frequently sleeping leaning against them, or just "sunbathing" (the terrarium is equipped with UV lamps and a heating lamp).
Anyways I think I will need to get her some natural dark rock because I find her napping like that in all sorts of weird positions. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it.
She also does the same when I put a pile of sage or immortelle - prostrate across it and just seems to be extremely satisfied with it and doesn't hide it.
Tortoise is 100% aware of our presence and the most interesting part of her behavior is when you realize that she is carefully observing you, what you're doing, and estimating your size. Don't forget, she is the size of my thumb.
I have also a parrot who is considered a very intelligent animal, but he is a social animal and certain communication skills are normal. But, I didn't expect this level of "contemplation" from a reptile which is solitary and you know, it is a ...reptile.
Cover image attribution - photo is mine and @wrestlingdesires asked to tag when I have some images and when I make a post containing new info on our tortoise. As you can see a tortoise is a real modeling queen. She has also a very #POSH get-up. Only 200+ million years of evolution as a designed bragging right. LOL
Contact info
Session (Oxen): 05c9f58a59882e1c459ec59fc6bedf7203c448e23cecd2c7cfe25e6732fb5c5371
Discord: aschatria#1254
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascha3a
