# I finally decided.



## Thomas tortoise (Apr 10, 2022)

Alright. So my parents and I went to the tortoise farm and we learned A LOT. And my parents saw everything he had for the tortoises and they decided I can keep my sulctata since he gave us a great idea for what to do in winter! In fact instead of just keeping my sulctata they are letting me get two more from this sulctata farm. He is gonna try to hatch them out as females and then I'm gonna get two from him cause my parents said I could breed tortoises and if I get the babys now they will be ready to breed when I'm a lot older and more experienced and probably with my own house, land, ect. He is selling them for $100 apiece and he takes pretty good care of his tortoises. He has aldabra, leopards, and sulcata tortoises he also has pet foxes, dogs, cats, pygmy goats, horses, pigs, and cows. And he breeds most of them. But he mainly does tortoises. He keeps about 20 sulcata tortoises together in one BIG pen. OH and one more thing. Say I get two from him and get a male and female and they are brother and sister could I breed them since they are siblings? And Would that matter?


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## Maro2Bear (Apr 11, 2022)

What? You visited a real tortoise “farm” with so many torts & no pictures to share? You have to share some pix. Good luck on your adventure.. 

Be very leery of someone who tells you they are going to “hatch them out as females”. What happens when all of your tortoises turn out to be male?


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## Thomas tortoise (Apr 11, 2022)

Maro2Bear said:


> What? You visited a real tortoise “farm” with so many torts & no pictures to share? You have to share some pix. Good luck on your adventure..
> 
> Be very leery of someone who tells you they are going to “hatch them out as females”. What happens when all of your tortoises turn out to be male?


Well then I guess I'll find homes for them. PS. sorry I didnt get pictures I was just so excited and so busy petting all the tortoises I forgot. . Especially the aldabras. He had three aldabras and two of them were 15 years old and I couldn't even lift it a inch of the ground. It must have been 150 pounds! But I'm going back in 6 weeks to get the baby tortoises and then he will have baby foxes by then so I'll try to get as much pics as I can. Unless I go wacko again and forget.


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## Tom (Apr 11, 2022)

Thomas tortoise said:


> Alright. So my parents and I went to the tortoise farm and we learned A LOT. And my parents saw everything he had for the tortoises and they decided I can keep my sulctata since he gave us a great idea for what to do in winter! In fact instead of just keeping my sulctata they are letting me get two more from this sulctata farm. He is gonna try to hatch them out as females and then I'm gonna get two from him cause my parents said I could breed tortoises and if I get the babys now they will be ready to breed when I'm a lot older and more experienced and probably with my own house, land, ect. He is selling them for $100 apiece and he takes pretty good care of his tortoises. He has aldabra, leopards, and sulcata tortoises he also has pet foxes, dogs, cats, pygmy goats, horses, pigs, and cows. And he breeds most of them. But he mainly does tortoises. He keeps about 20 sulcata tortoises together in one BIG pen. OH and one more thing. Say I get two from him and get a male and female and they are brother and sister could I breed them since they are siblings? And Would that matter?


Most breeders don't start babies correctly. I don't want you to buy these tortoises and then have them die after 6 weeks of effort. Also, the new ones can't live with your older larger one, and they can't live as a pair, so are you going to house them all separately until the little ones catch up in size?

Questions to ask the breeder:
1. Does he use a brooder box set up? For how Long? Should be at least 7-10 days.
2. Does he introduce them to a wide variety of foods like weeds, grasses, flowers, and succulents? If not, you will spend many trusting months trying to get the tortoise to eat good foods.
3. Does the breeder soak daily, including day one. If not, don't buy it.
4. What substrate does he put the hatchlings on after hatching? Sand or soil is potentially fatal. Rabbit pellets and other dry substrates are potentially fatal down the road because of dehydration.
5. Does the breeder keep them in a closed chamber with warm temps and high humidity, simulating the conditions they hatch into in the wild? If not, look elsewhere.
6. What incubation media does he use? If its perlite, don't buy them. Vermiculite is fine.

More concerns:
1. Sulcatas tend to put on about 10 pounds a year. So at 2 you will have 20 pounders. At five they will be around 50 pounds. How are you going to manage that size during cold winters? They need huge warm areas to roam. You can't keep them in little areas for months on end.
2. Do you realize how many babies sulcatas produce? Do you want selling baby tortoises to be your new full time job. One female can produce 100 babies in a year. Who are you going to sell those to, and what do you think they will pay? How many hours a day to you have to devote to baby care, housing, feeding, and trying to sell them? Think about how much time a day you spend taking care of your tortoise now. Probably not a lot. 5 minutes to do food and water. Another 5 minutes to prepare the soaking tub and then clean up after the soak. Now times that by 100. 200? Do you have that sort of time? Most people don't.
3. Are you aware that once you can tell the sexes, you will need to separate them. Males should not grow up with immature females. The males mature faster and then begin constantly harassing the females who are much too small and immature to breed yet. The chronic stress can make them sick, and all often put them off their food which will further slow their growth. You don't want to allow your young female to breed until they are at least 18-20 inches, and waiting longer than that is better.
4. In time you will understand what I am trying to get across to you. As someone who has been raising, housing, breeding and dealing with sulcatas since the early 90s, I am trying to tell you that you are making a mistake. 3 BIG mistakes. This is not the right species for someone in your climate and in your position. Even in an ideal climate, these giants are a huge pain in the rear and enormously expensive to house correctly. Your enthusiasm for tortoises is fantastic, but I don't think you realize the time, space and financial commitment you are setting yourself up for. It sounds good now, but the reality of the day to day work will set in soon after you get them, and as soon as they begin to outgrow their first enclosure, you are going to have major problems.


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## Thomas tortoise (Apr 11, 2022)

Tom said:


> Most breeders don't start babies correctly. I don't want you to buy these tortoises and then have them die after 6 weeks of effort. Also, the new ones can't live with your older larger one, and they can't live as a pair, so are you going to house them all separately until the little ones catch up in size?
> 
> Questions to ask the breeder:
> 1. Does he use a brooder box set up? For how Long? Should be at least 7-10 days.
> ...


The breeder does soak daily and he puts them on eco earth substrate when they are ready. And yeah I will sell the babies at reptile shows and this tortoise farm sells them on Facebook and he gets quite a lot of people. So I'll probably try that. Also I have a neighbor who is getting a sulctata soon and I bet she knows a lot of people who wants one. Also We have a big shed and we will probably build some more soon so that will be their winter spot. I'll just insulate it and heat it up. Also he just uses cattle pannels for his tortoise pen and he checks on his tortoises every day and when he sees them start to dig out of the pen he covers the hole with rocks. Also he has a cement pond and thats the water supply they drink from. I'll get pictures next time.


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## Thomas tortoise (Apr 11, 2022)

And if I'm not ready for winter...


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## wellington (Apr 11, 2022)

Thomas tortoise said:


> Well then I guess I'll find homes for them. PS. sorry I didnt get pictures I was just so excited and so busy petting all the tortoises I forgot. . Especially the aldabras. He had three aldabras and two of them were 15 years old and I couldn't even lift it a inch of the ground. It must have been 150 pounds! But I'm going back in 6 weeks to get the baby tortoises and then he will have baby foxes by then so I'll try to get as much pics as I can. Unless I go wacko again and forget.


If his Aldabras are only 150 pounds at 15 years of age, he is really under feeding them. They should be more like 250-300. Yvonnes were about 7 years and ruffly 150-175 if I remember right.


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## Thomas tortoise (Apr 11, 2022)

wellington said:


> If his Aldabras are only 150 pounds at 15 years of age, he is really under feeding them. They should be more like 250-300. Yvonnes were about 7 years and ruffly 150-175 if I remember right.


Yeah his aldabras are a little undersize. I dont know what age he got them at so maybe he got them like that. I'll have to ask him.


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## Donna Albu (Apr 13, 2022)

Thomas tortoise said:


> Yeah his aldabras are a little undersize. I dont know what age he got them at so maybe he got them like that. I'll have to ask him.


If he did not keep them warm enough, they also will not grow much then. Colder weather plays havoc with digestion. Less food absorbed = less growth. That would apply to all of his tortoises, including his sulcatas. Remember they also need sunshine to properly digest their food, so keeping them in a shed until it finally gets to 80+ degrees is not the ideal environment.


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## Thomas tortoise (Apr 13, 2022)

Donna Albu said:


> If he did not keep them warm enough, they also will not grow much then. Colder weather plays havoc with digestion. Less food absorbed = less growth. That would apply to all of his tortoises, including his sulcatas. Remember they also need sunshine to properly digest their food, so keeping them in a shed until it finally gets to 80+ degrees is not the ideal environment.


He has a giant heated shed and giant pen for them to choose if they want to be in the shed or in the pen cause there is a little tortoise door.


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## Jacqui (Apr 14, 2022)

Sounds like you really enjoyed yourself. Baby foxes are so cute, you will want to take one home.


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## Thomas tortoise (Apr 14, 2022)

Jacqui said:


> Sounds like you really enjoyed yourself. Baby foxes are so cute, you will want to take one home.


I did enjoy it all! The only reason I dont want a fox is because their poop sticks like skunk and they make loud noises at night. Thats what the breeder told us.


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## Jacqui (Apr 14, 2022)

Thomas tortoise said:


> I did enjoy it all! The only reason I dont want a fox is because their poop sticks like skunk and they make loud noises at night. Thats what the breeder told us.


Lol good reasons.


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## Thomas tortoise (Apr 14, 2022)

Yeah. And to think people actually have pet foxes. I mean I understand why they would have a fenec fox but one they size of a...Lab dog? But as playful as a lion cub. No thank you!


Jacqui said:


> Lol good reasons.


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## Lyn W (Apr 22, 2022)

I would seriously reconsider Thomas. 
I admire your enthusiasm but I'm worried for the torts. I think you should use this time as a young teenager to learn as much as possible about caring for the tort you already have and wait until you're older and have your own place with plenty of room for more sulcatas if that's the route you want to go down. The more torts you have the more space you need. One sully needs a large room over winter so 3 will need an even bigger indoor space. 
Please think about the torts welfare.


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## JasperFossils (Jul 30, 2022)

Lyn W said:


> I would seriously reconsider Thomas.
> I admire your enthusiasm but I'm worried for the torts. I think you should use this time as a young teenager to learn as much as possible about caring for the tort you already have and wait until you're older and have your own place with plenty of room for more sulcatas if that's the route you want to go down. The more torts you have the more space you need. One sully needs a large room over winter so 3 will need an even bigger indoor space.
> Please think about the torts welfare.


I know this is old but still.

I got to agree with this. I got my first tortoises (THB) as a present for my 9th birthday. I am 16 now. reflecting on when I was younger, I do not think young kids should keep tortoises. for the first few years my mother did most of the work because I was so young. take in consideration that kids want something sometimes only for a few months, and then get bored and don't want them anymore. Kids don't see in as well that getting tortoises is a choice for LIFE, these things can get old. it isn't like a hamster that will be dead in a few years. I am 16 now. now I am responsible enough to handle the animals and their needs. 

and Thomas. how old are you? big tortoises like sulcate before you have your own place is a no no
getting a tortoise before the age of 14/15 is also a no no (except if your mother is willing to do almost everything for you).


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