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spring!

Even though there are snow showers in this weekend’s forecast, spring has finally made it to my house! After months of moping around and ignoring her expertly prepared romaine and squash (presented on a paper plate! on top of a sheet of newspaper!), Tortellini has finally decided that it’s time to wake up.

She generally has a winter-time lull, where her eating slows down or even stops for a few weeks, but this time she took her hibernation seriously. She’s been ignoring her food for months! I was starting to get a little worried, but the google assured me that Russian tortoises can, indeed, hibernate for half the year if they set their minds to it.

As reassuring as that was, though, there’s just something creepy about hibernation. All that not eating! It defies logic.

So this morning, I plopped Tortellini down directly under her heat lamp. I put out a fresh plate of spring salad and lima beans within easy turtle reach. And then I left for work.

Much to my dismay, when I got home, she hadn’t eaten. All she had done was rotate herself 90 degrees, so that she was no longer looking directly at her food. And her head was tucked oh-so-tightly into her shell.

A short while later, though, the husband noticed that her head was out, so I made my move. I unzipped the terrarium, and held a lima bean in front of her face. After an agonizing wait, she finally snapped at the bean and almost snagged it. (Having eyes on the side of your head makes it hard to eat lima beans out of someone’s hand. Just sayin’.)

After another agonizing wait, she tried again and finally got it. While she worked on that bean, I made a call to refill a prescription, and then I fed her another one. I followed that up with a piece of romaine, but she wasn’t much interested, so I let her be. Since all she has to do is turn 90 degrees and take a step forward to, you know, eat a whole plateful of turtle yumminess all on her own.

So yeah. Spring! It’s here! Snow showers and all.

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