Hi All,
I just sent the following message to Joe via the "Contact Us" area on Carolina Pet Supply. I also wanted to post it here because: 1) My computer did something weird and I'm not sure the original message actually went through, and 2) Because I want to see if anyone else on the forum is from Alaska and ask how they get supplies for their torts. Just to let you all know, I live in Juneau, and even though we have a small pet store here they don't have many of the things listed on CPS. Everything I currently have for my set-up I've acquired during trips to visit my family in PA or by ordering via the internet. Shipping to AK can many times be cost prohibitive depending on the method used - since Juneau is pretty much an island, USPS is the cheapest method, however many companies only ship via UPS or FedEx and to here that means 2nd day air or overnight (=$$$). So, if anyone has any ideas on how I can order things a little more cost effectively or has any idea of companies that will actually ship via USPS, I would greatly appreciate hearing about them.
Thanks,
Carrie
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Hi Joe,
This is Carrie from Juneau, AK, and I have a question about possibility of ordering from Carolina Pet Supply.
Since I live in Alaska, we don't have access to the various weeds and other plants you have listed as part of a good diet on russiantortoise.org in the winter - the summer is another story, but that's beside the point. I feed my two torts (Man'ka and Sasha) quite a variety of the greens you also have listed, as well as some other stuff, being sure to rotate regularly so they don't get bored with or used to any one thing, but these are all store bought and organics are not always available. I have learned for your site and the forum I'm on, however, that there is also a lot of importance in feeding them fresh "weeds" and such, but being in Alaska doesn't really allow for that kind of diet in the winter.
Having said all this, I am wondering if it would be possibility of me placing an order through Carolina Pet Supply and having it delivered to AK? I had bought some of the spineless cactus plants from you back in January when I was visiting family in PA and just brought them back here with me on the plane. I would now like to purchase a couple more of those plants, as well as a thing of the salad hay and a variety of the organic seeds that you have available. I see, however, that under your shipping section that it says that you currently do not ship to AK or HI. I am wondering if there are any exceptions to this? When I placed the order for the cactus plants and the Grassland powder it was shipped to my mom’s in PA via USPS, and we obviously get delivery by them here (for anything that’ll fit in them, their flat rate mailers are a godsend for shipping stuff back and forth to/from the east coast), so I’m wondering if there might be a possibility of placing an order for what I’ve mentioned above and having it shipped to Juneau?
In relation to this, if an order is possible, what would be the best seeds to order and grow indoors? I have an area of my house dedicated to plant growing, fitted with special grow lights that give my plants all they need indoors during the winter and subsequent lack of light/heat outdoors. We have lots of dandelions in the wild here, but won’t get to see those for at least another month, and I already grow things like nasturtium in my garden, so I’d like to know what seeds would be good/simple to maintain indoors year-round?
Sorry this is so long and wordy, but any help you could offer or exceptions to your shipping policy you could make would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Carrie Hoover
