# Breed identification?



## Smashy (Oct 10, 2020)

1 year or so ago I started renting a home and the owner has 2 tortoises that live in a den in the backyard. All of the plants in the yard are tortoise safe and and I give them additional veggies and fruits as treats. A few weeks ago we discovered 4 hatchlings in the yard. We have set up a habitat for the babies and have been doing research on their care and such, but I am very curious as to what type of tortoise they are. Can anyone help?


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## Chubbs the tegu (Oct 10, 2020)

Looks like a desert tortoise


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## Chubbs the tegu (Oct 10, 2020)

And gorgeous


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## Smashy (Oct 10, 2020)

Chubbs the tegu said:


> And gorgeous


Thank you! Excuse my ignorance, is desert tortoise a specific species or kind of a catch all? Either way I really have grown attached to all of them. They each have such wonderfully different personalities. I will post more pics as well soon!


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## Chubbs the tegu (Oct 10, 2020)

Gopherus agassizii) california desert tortoise.. but ive been wrong once or twice so dont hold me to it


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## Chubbs the tegu (Oct 10, 2020)

Welcome to the forum btw!


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## Smashy (Oct 10, 2020)

Chubbs the tegu said:


> Welcome to the forum btw!


Thank you! That makes since I live in Nevada. I'm not sure where the original owner got them but seeing as they have an outdoor habitat where they live almost as they would in the wild I would imagine they are native to this general area. I really appreciate the welcome and the quick informative reply!


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## Chubbs the tegu (Oct 10, 2020)

Now the bad news lol if it is a desert tortoise i believe its illegal to own one in Nevada without a permit


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## Chubbs the tegu (Oct 10, 2020)

So we will call it a sulcata haha


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## Tom (Oct 10, 2020)

Smashy said:


> 1 year or so ago I started renting a home and the owner has 2 tortoises that live in a den in the backyard. All of the plants in the yard are tortoise safe and and I give them additional veggies and fruits as treats. A few weeks ago we discovered 4 hatchlings in the yard. We have set up a habitat for the babies and have been doing research on their care and such, but I am very curious as to what type of tortoise they are. Can anyone help?


They are indeed desert tortoises, but they are native to CA, NV, and AZ too. Its legal to have them in NV with a free, easily obtained permit. Used to be all one species, but now they've broken them into two.

I'm not sure about the laws in NV, but here in CA you aren't supposed to breed them, so says the government. Makes perfect sense. Why would we want to breed an endangered species and make more of them???

Most of the care info you find for them will be wrong, so here is the right info:





The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise


I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...




tortoiseforum.org





Those babies need to be housed mostly indoors and soaked daily if you want them to survive. So many of them die because the care advice for them is soooo wrong.

Some veggies are okay once in a while, but the main diet should be grasses, weeds, succulents like spineless opuntia (aka: nopales), leaves and flowers of the right types.

Questions are welcome!


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## Smashy (Oct 10, 2020)

Tom said:


> They are indeed desert tortoises, but they are native to CA, NV, and AZ too. Its legal to have them in NV with a free, easily obtained permit. Used to be all one species, but now they've broken them into two.
> 
> I'm not sure about the laws in NV, but here in CA you aren't supposed to breed them, so says the government. Makes perfect sense. Why would we want to breed an endangered species and make more of them???
> 
> ...


Perfect, thank you! Technically, I don't own them as they Technically belong to the homeowners.


Tom said:


> They are indeed desert tortoises, but they are native to CA, NV, and AZ too. Its legal to have them in NV with a free, easily obtained permit. Used to be all one species, but now they've broken them into two.
> 
> I'm not sure about the laws in NV, but here in CA you aren't supposed to breed them, so says the government. Makes perfect sense. Why would we want to breed an endangered species and make more of them???
> 
> ...


Thank you for all of the info! Technically the home owner is still the owner of the parents seeing as when I am no longer renting the property they (the parent tortoises) will remain at the property. I definitely was not intentionally breeding tortoises, however I did observe quite a bit of frisky business going on between the parents. In fact, the first time I witnessed the mating ritual I was alarmed by the bucking and biting that was going on, and contacted the owner. It seemed so mean lol. She assured me that it was normal. I guess I should have put 2 and 2 together and realized that babies surely would follow. I found the babies and did quite a bit of research and have already been following the directions that you listed. I have been soaking them daily but I'm concerned because I haven't seen any poops. My daughter says that she has seen what she believes was excrement but I'm honestly not quite sure what it should look like. I'm also wondering now that the weather is beginning to change how I should handle hibernation, or if they should even hibernate their first winter. This is a large part of why I wanted to identify what type of tortoises that are. I wanted to be able to properly research all of their care and requirements. The parents are quite easy as they are in the home that they have lived in for many many years and don't really require much. I would appreciate any advice that you may have on care. My family and myself have really fallen in love with these little guys!


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## Tom (Oct 13, 2020)

Smashy said:


> I would appreciate any advice that you may have on care. My family and myself have really fallen in love with these little guys!



@Smashy did you see this care sheet? It explains all the details for keeping those precious babies alive and well:





The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise


I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...




tortoiseforum.org


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