Meet The Tortoise Crew! Humphrey is up first!

What To Do With Our Office Garden Area

When we designed our new office, we made an enclosed garden area so that all of our operatories could look out into a pretty space. With a little reconfiguring from the landscape architect’s pretty boring plan we got stuck doing, we were able to make a pretty nice little area. But it was still missing something. We had originally thought that maybe a koi pond would be fun. The main problem is that during the summer, that area gets absolutely blasted by the sun. And, you can’t really see them from inside the building. I really was afraid we just couldn’t maintain a temperature in the water that didn’t cook the poor fishies.

Desert Tortoises for Our Desert Garden!

With that off the table, I remembered that the Arizona State Game & Fish had a desert tortoise adoption program. I’m not sure they even really charge you for the adoption, but they used to ask for $20, which isn’t much. So we looked into what it would take to build out the garden for a tortoise.

Preparing For Our New Friend

The main thing you have to do is to make a proper burrow. It can’t be out in the sun. It can’t be too big nor too small. It needs to be somewhat close to water, it needs to be dry, and it needs to be a bit cooler inside than out, which means the whole thing needs some insulation.

The Department had instruction on how to do it and it was pretty easy. We got everything we needed from Home Depot for about $80. The water-resistant plywood was definitely the most expensive thing. There are alternatives, but the plywood made the most sense for us.

So, we cut the plywood to size, used the trim pieces we cut off to reinforce the plywood due to the amount of weight of the dirt that was going on top. We then used a spar varnish to keep the moisture out of the wood. We used about six cement blocks as a base, and then put the plywood over top. We then build up the sides with rip rap. The stone helps to keep the dirt contained on and around the burrow and helps eliminate erosion when it rains. We then put some rocks on the dirt to keep it tamped down and set more in place. We finished it out with some wood chips.

Picking Out Our New Tortoise Friend

With our burrow made, we sent the Department photos of our set up as well as our application. They double check that any tortoise they adopt out is going to a good home. And with that, we were approved for adoption. If you are approved, the Department will have you schedule a time to stop by and pick up your new tortoise friend! Be warned. Picking out your new tortoise friend is so hard! They have baby tortoises all the way up to the big boys. And it was a big boy we picked. There are too many tortoises up for adoption, but the Department does a great job in keeping them fed and housed. They each have narrowish runs and a big pipe for a burrow. And, the smarts ones know, that if someone new comes by, they should haul shell out of their burrow to say hi! And that’s how we picked out our big boy.

It's Humphrey! Welcome Home

Yeah, I like lettuce. You gotta problem with that!

Humphrey (we had a naming contest last year) was super friendly and came right on out to say hi – and get some of the lettuce I was holding. Each tortoise is different and some are definitely more active than others. We knew we may have people who would want to stop by and say hi, so we wanted a tortoise that liked people. And Humphrey loves people. Especially people with lettuce!

We’ll talk a bit more about Humphrey on our next post and about the yearly cycle for these desert tough guys! Ok, they’re tough, but sweet. They may be scaly, but they’re still loveable!