# How to sell torts



## PeanutbuttER (Jul 30, 2010)

I was thinking about this today as I was driving. I recently sold all of my russians and it was a stressful nightmare. I really wanted them to go to an educated home that would be able to take care of them properly. I listed them on here as well as on Craigslist and another local classifieds and I had tons of responses. Simply finding a home is definitely not an issue in my area. Lots of people would call and I'd chat with them and then discover that they had every intention of putting it into a 10g tank. I'd talk to them and try to educate them but a lot of them just didn't seem to get it or even seem to listen (in some cases).

When I did find people who were on the right track and headed the right direction I chatted with them and everything was great. I'm actually very lucky to have found the homes for them. I can honestly say I feel like they're being well taken care of right now by my standards. I also printed out caresheets for each of them as a reference.

But I know that not everybody has that luxury. Especially breeders who have a lot of tortoises to sell. My question is how do you guys do it and feel good about it? It seems like a lot of breeders are really great about trying to educate their buyers which is something I really appreciate. My new redfoot hatchling came with probably an 8 page caresheet that is pretty dang good IMO. 

Or maybe it's just different when you're breeding them and you don't get attached as much. I was attached to mine so I honestly felt guilty even considering placing them in a bad home. I've never breed torts and haven't had any I'm not attached to, so I don't know. I know when I had pigeons I had no problems whatsoever selling babies to people. They were never named and I never considered them as pets in the same way.


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## dolfanjack (Jul 30, 2010)

Growing up all I wanted to do is own a pet store. Then in collage I worked at one and realized that to make a living I would have to sell to people I didn't want to. I gave up my dream. If you need to make a living sometimes you do what you got to do. Not a great answer but there it is.


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## kimber_lee_314 (Jul 31, 2010)

This is why I don't sell my hatchlings. I give them to people who can prove to me they know what their doing. If they can't convince me, then they don't get a baby!


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## Tom (Jul 31, 2010)

I've given this bridge a lot of thought, but haven't had to cross it yet. In about one year I'll be figuring this one out.

I also try to keep a positive outlook on things. I know that some of them will be sold to neglectful or ignorant people. This always has been the case and always will be. But the majority get sold to good people like the members of this forum. Somebody sold me my first sulcata 20 years ago and that turned out okay. I know of lots and lots of tortoises out there in the world and the vast majority of them are well cared for, much loved pets. I really believe that most of the people who are willing to spend a couple hundred bucks (or more) on a tortoise and a set up are really going to try to take proper care of it. We certainly see some exceptions, but these are not the norm in my experience.


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