I have been considering buying another tortoise for my son. The Sulcata I have is my daughters and he wants one of his own. There is a Russian tortoise on my local Craigslist. I sent an email to the poster asking a few q's about the tort. The person said it was a male, approx 5 years old, 4 1/2" long and in good health. Does this sound right? The reason they stated they were rehoming him was because he is aggresive to their female. They are asking $40. Is that a reasonable price? Are they easy to care for?

I think that is a real good price. Not sure about the size because I don't know how old mine are to compare. Russians are super easy and have a bunch of personality. Each of mine has a uniqueness about them.

Melissa at the petstores here they range from about 80 to 100. I have seen them on occassion on sale for 65-80. So I would say 40 is a really good price.

Ive been checking Craigslist for months for a tort to avoid getting one from a petstore. I really want to get this one, just need the cash. LOL never enough money!

Good price, and for a male that is on the smaller side of average. He could be that young, but likely isn't. Males can be fully grown at that size, tho' many get up to 5". He won't get much bigger than that tho.

If he is being "aggressive" to the female, though, then he is likely of breeding age (and this is how they "court" their girls), and so I'd say he's gonna be at least 8 - 10 years and fully grown. However when you're looking at a 100 year lifespan, he's still a baby!

Go for it, he's likely a great tort!

yea looks like a great tortoise. also russians dont get to big, so that wont be a problem. where do you plan on keeping him?

Well I would have to get/make everything set up for it. I would have to have an indoor enclosure for winter.

Russians are IMO the number one pet tortoise . But please instead of finding a good deal, find a breeder with captive born tortoises. THere are even some forsale on this site.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for a good deal. I honestly can't afford the torts sold here. I was hoping to find a lower priced, healthy tort that needed a good home.

No I am saying there are some captive born Russian tortoises for sale right now. http://tortoiseforum.org/russian-hatchlings A lot of the tortoise told on here are pretty expensive. Im not sure how much they are but I don't think it would be much more.

There are huge benefits to buying a captive born tortoise from a real breeder it may be worth the extra investment even the extra wait to save up the money.

Or even look on petfinder.com. Russians are always up for adoption. Call around , put in applications to places like the turtle recuse of long island and other turtle and torotise rescues. Just do a google search "tortoise rescue" more then one will pop up.

This post was last modified: 04-24-2008 03:46 PM by Redfootedboxturtles.