I thought you said “Go for a Coke?” Hydrating your tortoise.

I thought you said “Go for a Coke?” Hydrating your tortoise.

I thought you asked, “Do you want to go for a Coke?”

Our Cinderella under the sea.

Which is I understand, quite uncommon for Russian tortoises.

No, silly. But she is in water.

Let me back up.

*    *    *

Yesterday, I stopped a friend at the store and inquired about her Reptile World of habitats she had built for her turtles.

It seemed  the turtle gods were against me. She  just had given all her turtles and their Central Park view digs away.

Too bad.

But then she said, “Have you ever seen it drink water?”

Actually, I hadn’t.

“Well, you have to soak them.”

Soak them? These are land creatures. That’s why I got them. NO WATER to clean. Of course, he has some water in a dish and I try to pick his greens early in the morning while they’re still damp….but soaking?

“They love it. Put them in there for 20 minutes.”

Hmm.

I went home and mentioned this to Cinderella’s keeper, my eight-year-old son.

Who immediately wanted to soak Cinderella at 8 o’clock in the evening.

No. I wanted to research this.

Guess what I was doing first thing this morning. Researching soaking your tortoise. Before I knew it, my favorite turtle wrangler was at my side with some manner of plastic container.

So I filled it with a little warm water and in Cinderella went.

Not for a Coke.

But for a soak.

She sat there a second. Freaking out I’m sure. But in a minute or two she started to drink.

Really drink.

That made me happy, but not as happy as it made Cinderella I’m guessing.

Do you soak your tortoises?

Is there anything else to soak I should know about?