Oh Goody, We're getting a Tortoise

[erincon23]

My DS14 has sold quite a bit of Legos and other things on ebay recently, and decided he wanted to buy a turtle. After talking to pet shop people, he's decided on a Russian tortoise. We'll probably go pick it up today -- we got the aquarium and other stuff the other day. Does anybody have an experience with a tortoise? Anything to watch out for? How often do you feed the thing -- twice a day like a dog? The information we got says to take the food out of the aquarium after about 4 hours so it doesn't spoil, but do you replace it then with fresh food? The actual animal he's getting seems very friendly -- he's been into the Petsmart twice and has held it both times, and the Petsmart people said that this one was very nice, but they wouldn't recommend this other one because it doesn't like to be picked up, so that's good (we had a bad experience with a hamster that bit him, so I immediately became the hamster's caretaker and only friend -- I don't mind picking up almost anything, after growing up with 4 brothers who always had small pets). Any advice will help!

Erin

 

[Mermaid02]

I'm jealous. Seriously, I really want one.

Keep in mind- the tortoise could outlive all of you........

 

[ferrytale]

We have 3 - well, 2 box turtles and a red foot tortise(which gets bigger than the russian), and they are pretty easy to take care of, my DH & DS(5) take care of them. Roxy, our tortise, is funny to watch in her tank and she is a bit of a pig. She would eat 24/7 if we let her. At first we were feeding her once a day, but then found out we should really only feed her every other day. She loves this apple paste stuff we got at Petsmart, it looks weird, but smells good b/c it's made from apples. We also have pellets for them, and give them fresh fruit & veggies. Their favorites are oranges, bananas, & carrots.
They are not super messy, or smelly, and we put them in the bath tub with some warm water for a few hours on the weekends.
In the warm weather we have a big outdoor box that we built for them that they stay in and LOVE - it's funny to see that they have such personalities.

Good luck with yours! Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to answer - I'm not an expert, but have picked up a lot of info in the past year.

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

Why on earth would you bring a pet home for which you knew so little about its care?

Please learn, and learn fast. Torts require specific care and specific diet. Do you plan on hibernating them? Do you know how to do that? Do you know why to do that?

You need to get in touch with a vet that understands torts and can educate you fast.

 

[wdwmom2]

My advise would be to wash your hands after handling your tortoise. Reptiles are know carriers of salmonella.

Enjoy your tortoise!!!

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

We love tortoises, and DS10 asks for one everytime we look at them at PetSmart. I would hope that all of your questions and more should be answered by the person you are buying it from. Especially-how big is it going to get? We were at a fish/reptile shop looking at all the critters, and they had the cutest little tortoises-smaller than a baseball. They were so pretty, they looked like they were carved from ivory. I asked about them, and how big they got, and they pointed over to a very large pen with a similar looking gorgeous tortoise who was about the size of my old 32 inch TV set-not flat screen- and said, "that one is almost full grown." So my thoughts of this cute little tortoise crawling around my house went up in smoke...

Is your DS prepared to have this tortoise into his senior years? The life expectancy is about 50 years!

 

[ferrytale]

We always wash our hands before & after touching the turtles, even though the most risk of salmonella is when they are under 4" for turtles. The Russian Tortises do not get that big, maybe a little bigger than a box turtle but definitely doable in a large aquarium(or so my DH says, his brother had one when he was a kid). While they are interesting and you can learn a lot about them, it is not necessary to be an expert before buying one. Learn the basics about their care and live span, and learn the rest as you go and you'll be fine. It'll be a good experience for your DS.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

We always wash our hands before & after touching the turtles, even though the most risk of salmonella is when they are under 4" for turtles. The Russian Tortises do not get that big, maybe a little bigger than a box turtle but definitely doable in a large aquarium(or so my DH says, his brother had one when he was a kid). While they are interesting and you can learn a lot about them, it is not necessary to be an expert before buying one. Learn the basics about their care and live span, and learn the rest as you go and you'll be fine. It'll be a good experience for your DS.

The risk of salmonella is pretty much 0 if the are from the U.S......from anywhere else...you never know. But here is the US they were fed raw poultry on the farms they were being raised and bred on. Not the case anymore! But you should still always practice handwashing!

 

[Sparx]

http://www.russiantortoise.org/care_sheet.htm

this is very informative. please learn up all you can about it. reptiles are hard animals to care for if you've never had one before, and they may be unintentionally hurt by the owner not recognizing red flags.

also, you need to find a vet who will see tortoises.

 

[kilee]

We have 2 Russians and 1 Sulcatta (I think I might of spelled that wrong). We've had the 2 for several years, we only adopted the sulcatta a few months ago.

They require a lot of care, so be prepared. Here are a few top things to make sure you are doing to avoid them getting sick/dying:

-The temperature is very important. You will need to make sure you are using the heat day lamps and then switching to the night heat lamps (the ones that simulate moonlight). They cannot go w/o heat overnight and they need the day/night cycle just like humans to thrive.
-The cage needs to be kept very clean of their feces. It doesn't smell.....but even a few days worth can make them sick quickly.
-Their diet is very important. You need to make sure you are giving them the right balance of vitamins and nutrients. It is more time consuming than a dog or cat because you have to feed them fresh greens. During the winter months we rely a lot on dandelion greens, collards, turnip greens, ect. Romaine and iceberg are not healthy for them. Our's also like: pumpkin (fresh steamed), squash (steamed to make it softer), and brussel sprouts. They also get other vegetables and fruits but in small quantities at not at every meal. They should not be feed citrus among other things. Their food needs to be cut up/shredded/diced for every meal as they can only eat small pieces. So, it's time consuming to make their meals. We feed ours twice a day. It usually takes about 15-20 minutes to get the 3 dishes of "salad" ready. Also, make sure to factor in the cost. Don't forget the calcium supplements. They cannot live on turtle food alone either.
-Lastly, be sure to find an exotic pet vet. The average vet does not have the knowledge to care for them.

They can develop respiratory illnesses very quickly if the heat is not right, they are not fed right, or the cage is dirty. These illnesses are dangerous. We had a brush w/ one and it was scary. Thankfully we caught it right away.

On the funny side (well maybe not so funny)---their poop is often runny and does not come out of the carpet easily. Make sure to let them play on wood or tile floors that are warm to save yourself the heavy clean up. Oh and they poop a lot.

 

[okeydokey]

We have a tortoise and she loves melon and tomato. She eats greens and my DH feeds her some kind of mineral powder too. She also loves clover.

 

[Micca]

For more info contact a Shell station

 

[erincon23]

For more info contact a Shell station

We've been learning about the tortoises for days -- DVC, I don't think you can assume we didn't know anything about them just because I had forgotten to ask that one question. We've spent probably three hours talking to experts at pet shops and others. We have the name of a local vet who specializes in reptiles and amphibians. Thanks, Sparx, for that website -- I actually found that today, and some of the info conflicted with other info we had received (and the salesman at Petsmart had told us we would find conflicting info), but seemed very sensible.

The tortoise (whose name is Elliott, which it would have been whether it was a male or female -- don't ask me why) now lives in our house. My son is having a hard time leaving her alone to get acclimated -- he keeps wanting to rearrange things when it looks like she's having a hard time getting around (she's just burrowing, and seems to be managing pretty well), so we have to remind him to let her be for a while. The guy at Petsmart says she loves zucchini, and everyone there said they really loved her and they're sorry to see her go. Andy already talks about how he'll be an old man when Elliott dies, and he's looking forward to having her for a VERY long time! This has really been a good thing for him to do -- he has some school anxiety issues, and this has been a big confidence booster and incentive. Should be fun! Thanks everyone for your tips -- any more?

Erin

 

[StitchFanZ]

We have two russian tortoises. We've had one about 7 yrs and the other about 5 years. They are really interesting and compared to all the other animals we have, are extremely easy to care for. They love salad stuff - so I'm able to grow most of their food in our garden or greenhouse. On hot days, they really enjoy going outside for a 'walk'. One of them will take off and speed across the yard. The other just likes to hang around in the tall grass. Other then an occasional heat lamp bulb, the only expense we've had is from one vet visit due to one of thier eyes getting an abcess.
Enjoy!

 

[surfergirl602]

We've never had torts, but we have 8 turtles! We just bought two new hatchlings today. We used to have a turtle rescue when we lived in NY, and we brought them all with us when we moved to OK. Our den is now the "turtle" room. There are three tanks in there! lol

The hatchlings are Crush and Squirt. lol