Sherman the Tank

This is Sherman, yet another addition to our little family :)

For a long time, ever since 2004 which was the first time I was petsitting for Staci & Chris and their two beautiful basenji babies Gus & Ike, I’ve wanted to get a tortoise. 

That probably doesn’t make much sense, but during that time I also looked after Daisy.  She belonged to their neighbour who was also away so it was a sort of 2 for 1 deal.  

She was the first tortoise I’ve ever cared for and I was amazed by how beautiful she was.   I thought that if I ever got a tortoise I’d want one who looked just like her. 

As you can see from this photo I took of Daisy,  I did indeed do what I said and get a tortoise who is a lot like her!   Don’t they have the most beautiful shells?! 

This photo (and the one at the top), shows just how small Sherman is.   He was born in June 2006 in Nijmegen, which is about an hour away from here. 

I found the breeder online and was thrilled to finally find someone who breeds the exact species I was looking for.  A Western Hermann’s Tortoise (Testudo Hermanni Hermanni).   Finally, I found one!

After communicating by email for a while with the breeder, we decided to take a drive over there to check them, and him, out.   We planned on possibly picking one out and then going back for it at the end of the month when we have more money (yeah, I went a little spend crazy at x-mas hehe).    We wanted to see what kind of guy was breeding them, what kind of conditions the animals were kept in and if he was someone we wanted to buy from.  I didn’t want to buy from someone who didn’t give our new baby the proper care for the first months of his life.

When we got there we were amazed.  The guy had some amazing terrariums set up inside and great enclosures outside as well.  He had sugar gliders, hedgehogs, loads of frogs and lizards, prairie dogs and all sorts of other beasties.  He gave us a tour around all of them while I oooh’d and aaah’d and thought how awesome it all was.

We got a really great feeling from him.  He had everything there for the torts that were needed and made sure we knew all we’d need to do to care for him after we get him home.

Xander and I both agreed on what one we wanted and it was actually HIS idea to take it home right then and there!   Normally I’m the NOW NOW NOW one in this relationship but I was actually ready to wait a few weeks this time.  I certainly wasn’t complaining when he mentioned taking Sherman home with us right away.   I was thrilled!  I was also a little concerned because we weren’t at all prepared for him yet.  We had no enclosure for him, no UV light, no vitamin powder or mostly anything we needed for him at all. 

It was already 4:30pm, we were over an hour away from Rotterdam and the shops were closing at 5pm.  We had to find something, and find it quick!

Thankfully the breeder lived literally a minute away from a small pet shop where we were able to find some of the things we needed. We got bedding and vitamin powder for his food and then ran across to the supermarket and bought some greens to feed him.

We also swiped a cardboard box from there to use until we are able to get a proper enclosure for him.   He’s so small that even the grocery store box seems huge in comparison in the photo.   Just to give you an idea of how small he is, his food and water are in PETRIE DISHES!  He is small enough to walk into the petrie dish full of water to soak himself.  

We’re both terribly in love with him already.   He’s so friggin cute!   Xander named him, because he claims that he never gets to name the pets.  He said he wanted to call him Sherman the Herman but I thought that was kind of dumb… so we settled on Sherman, or … Sherman the Tank.    I do realize that he just threw an ‘S’ on the front of the species name, but while it may be completely unimaginative… it is cute.