# Do Sulcatas carry salmonella



## ShellyHunter (Nov 23, 2015)

I have had sulcatas for quite some time. My nieces and nephews and grandkids have played with them and always washed hands after. I have a new friendly 10 yr old sulfate that roams my house. I have hardwood and linoleum floors. We disinfect when he does poop. I now have a grandbabt that is crawling. Is it ok for her to play on the floor he walks all over or should we pen him up when they visit. She probably won't be near him, just playing on the floor he crawls on.


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## Grandpa Turtle 144 (Nov 23, 2015)

God never made torts to walk around a house ! The tort will be the looser . They taste test everything cords , dust balls , and they nock stuff over! We here a while back that was less then happy with us for telling her this and one day she turned her eyes off the tort and went out a door and the door closed on the torts neck and the tort was dead ! But good luck!


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## Tom (Nov 23, 2015)

Yes tortoises carry salmonella. So does every other animal. I guarantee the chicken in your fridge, your computer keyboard and your cell phone are full of all sorts of nasty bacteria too, including salmonella. I saw it on a "Mythbusters" episode.  There are two ways to look at this: 1. Kids today grow up in far more sanitary environments than they ever have in history. It doesn't seem to be helping. 2. My daughter's pediatrician told us that the reason our daughter almost never gets sick is because of acquired immunity due to exposure to all of our animals, the ranch, the tortoises, digging for worms in the garden, etc…

So you can keep everything sterile and your grandchild won't get sick at your house from your tortoise, but your grandchild might also not build up as strong of an immune system, as a kid that was exposed to more "stuff" as a baby.

Now about the rest of your post:
Your tortoise needs a proper enclosure with the correct temps and substrate for a tortoise. Loose in the house frequently results in disaster. And of course, _everyone_ who hasn't had anything bad happen yet thinks _they_ are being more careful and doing it differently than all those other people who ended up with sick, injured or dead tortoises.

Forgive my cynicism, but almost everyone wants to argue tis point with us here. We see what happens all the time, and me in particular, I work with a lot of vets because of my job and they show me all sorts of horrific things that happen because people have tortoises running loose in the house. I mean no offense. I just mean to help prevent a disaster that is all too common. Please don't be offended.


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## Jodie (Nov 23, 2015)

Welcome to the forum. Would love to see pictures of your Sulcata.


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## bouaboua (Nov 23, 2015)

Very Good advise for not let loose the tortoise in the house.


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## TerrapinStation (Nov 24, 2015)

+1 on Tom's post. I am surprised his neighbor's don't call the police for child endangerment! letting her dig for worms? But that is DIRTY! haha

The same people who may worry about reptiles/salmonella would generally let a dog lick them or even kiss them..... much more disgusting in my opinion......


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## Speedy-1 (Nov 24, 2015)

*I don't have anything crawling around on my floor grand kids or torts !  They could possibly have salmonella but , so could your toothbrush . *


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## AnimalLady (Nov 24, 2015)

TerrapinStation said:


> +1 on Tom's post. I am surprised his neighbor's don't call the police for child endangerment! letting her dig for worms? But that is DIRTY! haha
> 
> The same people who may worry about reptiles/salmonella would generally let a dog lick them or even kiss them..... much more disgusting in my opinion......


Guilty LOL! I sometimes worry about salmonella and my kids with the torts, but the dogs? NEHHH they clean my face LOL! You made me laugh...!


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## ShellyHunter (Nov 24, 2015)

I have always let my kids play anywhere and get as dirty as they want. We have always had all sorts of animals they mess with. I don't worry about kids getting germs. I was asking because my daughter in law worries about that stuff. When they are here, he will be contained so he doesn't get hurt. We live in Missouri. This year we don't have a heated shed. We didn't know we would have him this winter. Someone needed to find him a home so we have him now. Our small ones are contained. Stud(the big ones name since unfortunately he is very pyramided) has an area, by my chair, in a corner with a heat pad and lights. He stays there most of the time. He does come visit us in other rooms though.We don't have much traffic in our house. When we do, he is contained. I keep the floor swept and areas with cords blocked off. he is only in the family room and part of the kitchen. Mostly in the family room. All other areas are blocked off. He isn't contained all the time because he constantly trying to get out. Once he is out he is happy. I have never had a sulcata like him. He is very social. This summer he will have a large area in our yard with a turtle house and next winter he will have a heated shed. We are very careful with him in the house.


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