Well it's the 4th of July weekend and an all to common problem that I'm sure most tortoise owners have faced, who's going to take care of my tortoise(s)?! For me an other breeders this is an especially difficult problem... Besides all the adult torts, there are close to 100 babies that require quite a bit of care and attention. I'm the kind of person who has to have things done my way so it's hard to find that person you trust with all the responsibility.
What I do to prepare for a short trip is make sure everything is 100% perfect when you leave: clean water and food dishes, fresh food, sprayed down thoroughly, cleaned enclosure, and an extra long soaking right before departure. Sure no one can take care of them as well as me (or so we think...) but 99.9% of the time I'm sure our torts will be fine when left in the proper hands.For the person who is watching your torts make sure besides telling and showing them what to do, write out detailed instructions for them to refer to and check in with them daily to see how things are going.
Young torts need to be checked on and taken care of a MINIMUM of twice a day. Tell whoever is watching them to look out for ones that are flipped over. A drastic, yet worthwhile (in my opinion) step to take is to place a security camera in front of the enclosure. Not necessarily for security purposes but it's nice to be able to check in on them with a live feed to the cell or internet (surprisingly not that expensive) to make sure everything looks correct and even more importantly none have flipped over.
Hopefully this helps some of you prepare and eases some worry when you leave your torts, I know all too well how stressful that can be. Now lets hope this doesn't jinx my trip...
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