Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I used to have a 14" male sulcata named Rosco but had to sell him a year or so ago. Well this past weekend I finally got around to moving his old dog house out of the corner of the yard so I could start a compost pile there and guess what I found?

I whole bunch of prickly pear cactus starting to grow!

One summer I picked a whole bunch of ripe cactus fruit for him from a huge wild prickly pear patch. Of course he ate tons of grasses in the yard and would do his business in his house each evening. By the morning it would be dried so I'd just rake it out in to the yard. Now after all of the rain we've had in Austin, the seeds that passed through him are growing.

Aahhhh, nature at work.

hey hows it going you will be happy to hear that rosco is doing fine and he fertilized his first clutch a few months ago. i am going to try to up the ratio of females in his pen this summer. the first time i brought a female around him she was in a box and rosco was on the ground and he must have known what was in the box because before he ever saw her he...well i dont quite know how to put this in a G rated form but he had a happy ending before it even started! he is a great tortoies and lives thoes optuna fruits!

Holy cow!

It's so good to hear from you. I'm glad to see Rosco is "maturing" nicely. He was always eager to show off his junk when he was soaking in the sprinkler. I kind of miss seeing him wander around the back yard but now that he's got others to mingle with I can imagine how bored he would be still living with me.

Send more pictures if you can. I'm not sure if you still have my email address.

-Tim