Joined: 7 Jan 2021 Age: 54 Gender: Female Posts: 5,042 Location: England
25 Sep 2023, 2:00 pm
yes, not many pets live for 30 years. Or a snake? Or a parrot? Although they'd hear a parrot I think elephants live for 30 years but I think someone would notice an elephant in the attic
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Joined: 26 Aug 2010 Age: 68 Gender: Male Posts: 33,227 Location: temperate zone
25 Sep 2023, 2:41 pm
KitLily wrote:
yes, not many pets live for 30 years. Or a snake? Or a parrot? Although they'd hear a parrot I think elephants live for 30 years but I think someone would notice an elephant in the attic
Parrots and turtles seem to be the two longest lived pets. Parrots are similar to humans in lifespan, probably a little longer on average than humans. There a giant tortoises on St. Helena Island that were alive when Napoleon was exiled there.
But birds and mammals are warm blooded and need high food intact. Couldnt survive on bugs in an attic like that for years. Turtles are good at fasting.
Joined: 18 Jun 2012 Age: 59 Gender: Female Posts: 20,330 Location: Aux Arcs
25 Sep 2023, 3:06 pm
It was a tortoise.I’m amazed because I thought they needed UV light. A gecko can escape and get by on bugs without supplementing light but they don’t live that long.
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Joined: 30 Jul 2013 Age: 35 Gender: Male Posts: 10,882 Location: Adelaide, Australia
26 Sep 2023, 4:03 am
For the benefit of our British friends who can't read the article, I have quoted the text below.
Quote:
Family Pet Lost For 30 Years Found Alive In Home's Attic
Photo: Getty Images
When a pet goes missing, the owners will do everything to find them, from offering a reward to hanging posters across the neighborhood. Sometimes their efforts pay off and the animals wind up reunited with their families, but sadly, other times, they are never seen again.
With each passing day of not being found, the possibility of locating a lost pet get smaller and smaller. However, once in a while, there are happy endings, occasionally coming even years after a pet has gone missing, but nothing like what happened to one family. An incredible 30 years after losing their beloved pet, it was found alive, and it turned out all that time it was right above their heads in their attic.
So how did it live for so long without help? Well the pet that went missing was a tortoise in Rio de Janeiro named Manuela. Her family just figured Manuela got out while they were having electrical work done in their house. They did exhaustive searches for her but after some time, mourned her and moved on with their lives. Aside from fond memories, they didn't think much about Manuela until three decades later, when the family's patriarch passed away. At that point, family members went to the attic to clean out some of his belongings and that's when they discovered Manuela in an old wooden speaker box, alive and well.
You might be thinking that this is impossible, but tortoises can actually go between six months and three years without food. Manuela's family think she survived by eating termite larva, and since there wasn't much water around, she probably got her moisture intake from the young insects as well.
If finding her wasn't enough of a surprise, more recently, they took Manuela for a check-up and found out she is actually male. Manuel, as he is now known, is still healthy, though he gets to eat and drink more often. No word on his exact age but tortoises can live to be 255 years old.
Joined: 27 Jan 2021 Age: 44 Gender: Male Posts: 2,391 Location: Dorset
26 Sep 2023, 5:06 am
Misslizard wrote:
It was a tortoise.I’m amazed because I thought they needed UV light. A gecko can escape and get by on bugs without supplementing light but they don’t live that long.
Yes they do. They need it to use the calcium in their diets to build their shell and bones. Their shells get all deformed if they don't get enough.
Looking at the picture it looks like there's plenty of light, and I'm guessing if it's in Rio de Janeiro, plenty of strong sunlight hours.
Even so, you'd think they'd hear it moving around up there. Tortoises aren't quiet.