Hello Again from Viktor and Winston

Greeting 4th Graders!

Here is my good friend Winston. He is a Russian Tortoise, and is about the size of your hand. He likes to eat fruits and vegetables like lettuce, carrots, fruit salad paste, and bananas. Carrots are a rare treat for Winston; they are like candy for you kids on Halloween, and make him very energetic. 

Something important to remember is that reptiles can be herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores, that is  they can eat vegetables, meat, or both. Winston is primarily a herbivore, I on the other hand, am a carnivore.

These are pictures of me being fed a rat by my friend Chris. I know some of you might have rat friends as pets, but everyone of us needs to eat, and meat is the only thing I can eat. As you can see, I am being fed in another container (other than what I live in) a dead rat. Being fed in another place than the one I live in is so I do not associate my living place with predatory, aggressive behavior. 

Chris and Deb choose to feed me dead rats so that I don't have to kill them myself. The last time I tried to eat a live rat, it bit me in the head, and I started bleeding. Killing my food could also make me more aggressive and hard to handle. I don't want that.

When I eat, I don't chew my food like you do, I eat my food whole by disconnecting my jaws and swallowing it all in one big bite. I do this because I do not have big flat teeth in the back of my jaw like you do to mash the food up, my teeth are only used to latch on to my food.

You should not try to eat food like this yourself.

Mmmm... that rat was yummy! Now I don't have to eat for another 3 weeks or so.

I'll let you know how much I've grown after the next time I shed my skin.

See you next time,

Your friend,

-Viktor