JOURNAL SENTINEL (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) 16 November 10 Local tortoise gets national TV spotlight (Jackie Loohauis-Bennett)

A Franklin, Wis., tortoise who ate seven wood screws, staples, shards of glass and 42 pebbles with a chaser of caulk will be featured on National Geographic Wild Channel’s new show “My Dog Ate What?” airing 8 p.m. Wednesday Nov. 17

Freddie, the omnivorous African tortoise, edged canine competitors out of the spotlight because of the sheer volume and variety of what he ate, according to Julia Frazier, a National Geographic Channel spokeswoman.

Normally, tortoises’ staple food is not staples, but lettuce, and Freddie’s preference for hardware led to a life-threatening case of indigestion in 2008. The rapacious reptile owes his survival to surgery performed by veterinarians at Milwaukee’s Animal Emergency Center in Milwaukee. Paul Gibbons took a bone saw and cut a flap from the underside of the shell, cut the screws and other building materials out of Freddie’s intestine. (Word of warning for faint-hearted viewers: There will be x-rays of Freddie’s reptilian intestinal tract shown on the program.)

For the surgery, Freddie received a blood transfusion from Mango, an African tortoise at Hoffer's Tropic Life Pets store in Milwaukee.

The procedure may have made veterinary history. According to Andrew Linklater, a veterinarian at the Animal Emergency Center, “As far as we are aware this was the first blood transfusion ever administered to an African Spurred Tortoise.

Today, Freddie survives happily with his owner, Lisa Stachowiak. But he may have more eating binges in his future; at age seven, Freddy remains a mere tortoise toddler: members of his species can live to be more than 100. Says Stachowiak: "Freddie loves to explore the house and find new hiding places in corners and closets. He also enjoys sunning on the outside deck in warm weather, or just lying in the sun inside the house in colder weather. He has a very good appetite, especially for his favorite foods like green beans, tomatoes and raspberries. He also looks like he is in love when he sees a banana."
WI Press: Local tortoise gets national TV spotlight

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