[chrissie B]

hi all hope you can hepl with this one .
went out into the yard yesterday to see what the dog was barking about and saw what i hought was a stone in the yard got  a bit colser as it had a pattern on it and was amazed to see it was a baby tortoise about the size of a 50 pence piece , dont know how it got there .
so far ive got it in a shallow box with some veg and managed to get it to drink today so happy about that other than that should i just leave it alone , i know they are native here but its so hot and dry here at the moment and im wondering if there are any more it must have hatched near by .
chrissie b

[Oliveview]

We were driving along our track this morning and there was a HUGE tortoise standing at the side of the road.  We have told some of the Spanish neighbours we have it, incase it is a lost pet.  There is no green vegetation about now- too warm for that or any water for it. !  I´ll keep it  in our garden in a penned off area and hope we can find the right owners for it.  I might enquire at the zoo in Sevilla (I think there is one) if we can´t find the owners.
So since we have lived in our house we have found: A new born lamb,abandoned!  2 abandoned new born puppies, Jumbo (our dog, mother abandoned and pregnant) and now a tortoise. 

[tosca100]

Hi Chrissie. Baby tortoises are independant from hatching, the mother has nothing to do with them after laying the eggs. If you live in a rural area there should be plenty of food for them at this time of the year, though I imagine it's already drying up (we uaually go out in May when everything is at full blossom ready to go over). They are made for your climate so if you have fields or woods or scrub around it will make it's own way in the world. However, if you go all maternal and can't bear to send it on it's way, I suppose you could keep it as a pet, don't know what your rules are on that. They eat mostly dark green vegetation, but will eat fruit and veg too.

 Let us know how you get on.

[Oliveview]

Our tortoise was abandoned by a neighbour- he didn´t want it anymore, so let it go 2 months ago.  I have found a man who will re-home it along with his other 6 tortoise.  At the moment it is in with our ´blind in one eye´hen.  IT likes plums!!  Trying to find green weeds is the hard part.
Pamela