Dora Eats

 

Dora, the turtle, in her habitat. She is wrestling a night crawler into submission. This is one spoiled turtle. She refuses to eat the pellets from the pet store. You know, the ones that provide her with all her nutritional needs according to the label.

She wants what she wants, though. A sprinkle of dried shrimp and some moist mealworms, but no pellets. It makes me wonder about so many things. Shrimp? Seafood for a turtle? How do they get their shrimp in the wild? Who decided what should be included in the pellets that contain all the necessary components for a turtles survival? 

Yesterday I offered a cabbage leaf, but she pushed it around like a pool toy. She ate a few bits of dried shrimp floating in the water, then mounted her fake bridge to bask in the glow of the heat lamp attached to the side of her habitat.

I succumbed and washed a nightcrawler under the tap before I loosed it in her water. She pursued the worm around her pool. Toying with it, she finally opened her mouth and grabbed the worm in the middle. The worm fought valiantly, tried so hard to escape. 

The worm lost. Dora bit into the worm and then used her "hands" to tear either end off while she enjoyed her first mouthful. When I checked later, she had consumed the entire night crawler. She stared up at me when I asked her if she was happy, with contented eyes. She turned her head this way and that way as I chatted with her, reminding me of Mr. BoJangles when I sing.

She is shedding again, due to her somewhat rapid growth. Her habitat is becoming too small. I am not fond of her habitat. It resembles a dishpan with it's blue translucent plastic. I wanted a glass fish tank. I would have filled one side with pebbles and create a "pool" on the other side. It would look so much nicer that the blue dishpan she now resides in.

At the rate she is growing, we might just have to give her an outside habitat enclosed with chicken wire to keep her safe from predators and to keep her inside her area. That will be a project!

The days have been so nice, almost 60 degrees. Made me want to weed a garden. I have crocus popping out of the ground and I saw some daffodils in full bloom in a ditch yesterday. Had I had a shovel ...... the ditch is fair game, right? I checked the forecast this morning and we are expecting snow this weekend.

I dreamed about those daffodils last night. I will be putting some sort of tool that digs in my car. One needs to ready to harvest ditch flowers!