Animal Diaries Archive

Igloo And Goliath Love There New Grass!

5 November 2004

Aldabran Tortoise spend most of their day sitting around basking in the sun, wallowing around in water, or doing their favourite past time - eating! The Aldabran boys, Igloo and Goliath have a great appetite and even after their mixed vegetables of six-eight kilograms plus lucerne, they still insist on grazing for the rest of the day. We must ensure that the grass remains lush year round however with a couple of 150kg tortoises walking over it this is more difficult than you might think. It takes some planning and regular turfing.

The enclosure is turfed in sections, the surface is prepped and aerated, and the turf is layed. This is our first stage for this summer. The section is 120m squared which is only a fifth of the way. Once laid the tricky part is next – keeping the boys otherwise occupied as they don't trash it! The boys just can't get enough, they love eating it as well as digging it up which keeps us on our toes all day long! All the hard work is well worth it though, As we've got to keep Goliath and Igloo happy!