We had wanted to add a Tortoise to our reptile collection for a while but couldn’t seem to find a healthy baby from a reputable breeder at a reasonable price. I was on Facebook one morning and I can across a post from C & C tortoises about some baby Red Foots they were going to have at the Victoria expo coming up... Being in Calgary there was no way I’d be able to make it out there so I sent them an email inquiring. I received a reply from Mike C. within about 30min. He answered all my initial questions without hesitation. We had obviously done our research and tried to educate ourselves prior to making a purchase but we still had more questions... Again, Mike was more than happy to answer them and also gave us some great suggestions on methods that had worked great from him... It was then that we decided a tortoise was great for us and that this was who we were going to buy it from. Now to get the baby from Victoria to Calgary... Mike gave me a couple different options for the shipping and the prices were very similar, the only difference was the time in transit. For the best interest of the baby tortoise we decided to go with the fastest method possible... We didn’t want our new little baby to be in a box for very long. Now it was time to build an enclosure. We had seen some great ideas for tortoise tables and though this would be best. We built a 4’x2’x18” tortoise table and filled it with the substrates that Mike had recommended. This is essential to keep the humidity up for a healthy tort. Added a couple hides and some decorations and it was ready for the baby to come home. The shipping method we chose was Air Canada cargo and the transit time was only a matter of a few hours. We were so excited we felt like kids on Christmas! Never having a live reptile of any kind shipped before we were very nervous... Mike assured me he’s shipped several times this way in the past with no problems. Saturday morning came and it was time for the tortoise to come home. I received an email from mike with a few photos of the one we were to get, he was so cute and we couldn’t wait. Mike phoned me to let me know that he had just dropped off the baby at the airport and that it was on its way. He gave me all the details about the process and when he would arrive in Calgary. 3-4 hours later it was time to pick him up. We actually parked at the airport and watched for a cargo plane to come in around the time Mike had indicated. We seen what we thought was the plane so we went up to the cargo terminal. It was the plane! Our little tort had arrived. On the way home we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some fresh greens and fruit. I had written a list of food that Mike has suggested, it was all very common grocery store produce items which made it really easy. I stayed up the first night keeping an eye on the temperatures and humidity level just to make sure everything was ok. My temperatures seemed a little off so I sent mike another email. He confirmed what I had thought, it was a little low. He told me what the ideal range was and what he was using for lighting. Our setups we very similar and I just needed to add some night time heat.
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.