# Identification on a tortoise



## blossom (Mar 12, 2010)

Is it safe to super glue a identification tag onto a desert tortoises shell? If not does anyone have any idea's on have to id a runaway tortoise and his safe return?


----------



## Tom (Mar 12, 2010)

I wouldn't glue anything to their shell. Find a good reptile vet (there is a list here on the forum, for the whole country) and have them microchip your tortoise. Its a little injectable computer chip that's about the size of a grain of rice. Just about every city animal shelter, vet and animal rescue has the readers and knows to check the tortoises for the chips. I prefer the AVID brand of chips. I don't care for the Home Again brand. These chips work world wide.

One problem for tortoises is that the microchip only lasts about 20 years, so you will have to re-do it every couple of decades.


----------



## Shelly (Mar 12, 2010)

I stick paper return address labels on mine. they fall off after a couple months, but I have thousands.
Microchipping won't help if you tort is found by Joe Blow walking down the street. An address label will.
You can glue a more permanent tag to their shell with a SMALL amount of epoxy, or super glue gel.


----------



## Maggie Cummings (Mar 12, 2010)

I agree with Shelley, superglue a metal tag to the carapace... you just have to make sure it glues inside a scute and not on a growth line.
Bob is microchipped and after doing it I realized that the punk who picks him up won't care about returning such a cool pet. So he'll throw Bob in his backyard which is full of truck tires, old toys and old dog poop and rotten apples off the tree and Bob will be dead in 6 months...


----------



## Tom (Mar 12, 2010)

Ladies, with all due respect, if Joe Blow on the street or some punk steals your tortoise, a glued on tag or stuck on address label won't help either. If I were a tortoise thief, the first thing I would do is go home and grind off that incriminating tag. Wouldn't you? If I'm Joe Blow and I want to keep the neat-o free tortoise, I'll just peel off the label and chuck it.

If, however, there is an internal, unremovable, electronic marker, the good guys (most people) will be able to get your baby back to you and the bad guys won't know its there. This could help incriminate them if you are ever lucky enough to find them.


----------



## chpete79 (Mar 12, 2010)

If we could only get them to wear collars.....haha. I live on the 34th floor...if my Redfoot Troopa figures out how to use the elevator I'm screwed.


----------



## Kymiie (Mar 12, 2010)

chpete79 said:


> If we could only get them to wear collars.....haha. I live on the 34th floor...if my Redfoot Troopa figures out how to use the elevator I'm screwed.



Well when he does figure out how to do it, take pictures like maggie did when bob did a dissapearing act x


----------



## Yvonne G (Mar 13, 2010)

If you did it correctly, you would have the sticker provided by the Department of Fish and Game stuck onto your tortoise's shell.

Everyone who has a desert tortoise is supposed to apply for a permit to keep that tortoise. When you are granted the permit, they also include a sticker with your tortoise's own special number. It is a peel and stick sticker. When your number is fed into the computer, it comes back with your name and address.

You clean off a spot that doesn't get much wear and tear, right in the center of a scute and put on the sticker.


----------



## Shelly (Mar 13, 2010)

Roachman26 said:


> Ladies, with all due respect, if Joe Blow on the street or some punk steals your tortoise, a glued on tag or stuck on address label won't help either. If I were a tortoise thief, the first thing I would do is go home and grind off that incriminating tag.



First off buster, who you calling a lady? 
Second, most lost torts are just that. LOST, not stolen. Leave a gate open? Poof! gone..
...but most will eventually be found by an honest person who would be happy to return it if they knew who the owner is. An ID tag will do the trick. But how many people would think of checking for a microchip.
How about a compromise.. microchip your tort, then glue a tag on him that says "Please check for hidden Microchip"
Yvonne, my tort wore off his "official" ID tag in about 6 months. How do you keep yours intact?


----------



## Laura (Mar 13, 2010)

I would tag them so its visable and do the chip as a back up. Kinda like your dog.. HOWEVER I can tell you.. that most torts or turtles that end up at Animal Control or a shelter.. dont get scanned! I dont think people even think about doing that! BAD I KNOW!! reading this, I know I will change that.. but birds torts etc.. dont get scanned.. 
We should probably all contact our local shelters and tell them that more Tort owners are chipping thier pets and when a stray one comes thru the doors.. they need to be scanned!


----------



## Yvonne G (Mar 13, 2010)

Shelly said:


> Yvonne, my tort wore off his "official" ID tag in about 6 months. How do you keep yours intact?



Sh-h-h-h! Don't tell anyone: They're in my desk drawer.


----------



## Shelly (Mar 29, 2010)

Well, it had to happen sooner or later....
Yesterday Rover slipped out through an open gate, almost literally between my legs. Before I even realized he was gone, I got a phone call from a nice lady who found him a couple houses down the street while she was walkng her dog. I had written my phone number on him with a Sharpie. Thank God I did that. He's home safe and sound.
A microchip would have been useless in this situation. Sharpie to the rescue!


----------



## Yvonne G (Mar 29, 2010)

This would have been a terrible tragedy! I HATE it when those sneaky tortoises get loose. They just seem to have "open gate radar."


----------



## Shelly (Mar 29, 2010)

emysemys said:


> They just seem to have "open gate radar."



You got that right! This tortoise in particular NEVER hesitates if there is a chance to escape, he goes for it every chance he gets. That's how I ended up with him in the first place, he was a runaway that a neighbor found, and we could not locate his owner.


----------



## TortieGal (Mar 29, 2010)

The grass is always greener on the other side! Glad he's home safe.


----------



## Nay (Mar 30, 2010)

Hi,. I like this chipping/ID idea. I agree that although a great thought, most people (so far) do not think 'microchip" on a tort. I wonder, is there a universal place to inject them? I know my Leopard would be really hard, anything I do to her she is sucked right in.
I really think you would have to find a way to say, 'chipped" as Shelly pointed out. and Laura great idea to call our shelters. The one I called today said there is no place to chip a tort.. Nice eh? Good thing they only do cats.
Good thread. and Shelly so glad to hear the happy ending. Did all this happen after the thread was started??
Na


----------



## Yvonne G (Mar 30, 2010)

I was looking back at the original poster and realized that we've never shown Blossom the courtesy of a...





to the forum!!!

We hope to see pictures of your desert tortoise in the near future!!


----------



## Maggie Cummings (Mar 30, 2010)

I think whomever told you that you can't microchip a tortoise has his head up his...you know what.
You microchip a tortoise in his neck right behind his head. But that means having a tortoise who doesn't suck his head tight inside, I touch Bob's head and neck and face regularly but even at that he sucked his head in at the Vet so we left him alone for a bit the she walked around behind him then sapped the chip in when he wasn't paying attention...


----------



## Nay (Mar 30, 2010)

Maggie, yes I agree, I wanted to just point out(like we need more evidence) of the ignorance of the info out there. This was from a cat shelter, so what could I really expect? But they were listed under shelters so I wanted to see what the average person was told if they called. 
And yes , when I went to give shots to my Leopard, it was very difficult to get that thigh out. Can't imagine the head, I probably could hold out my little ornate's head.. But I am just not so sure about doing them. Maybe my big guy Jack. He's kinda like your Bob, (only on a much smaller scale). And someone would absolutely find him, he's very social. My ornate, gee I lost her for months in her own pen.....


----------



## goodsmeagol (Apr 5, 2010)

A lady at work gave me a newspaper article from the UK.
Concerning 'Freeway' a Hermans that successfully walked across 5 lanes of rush hour traffic on M25.
It was picked up by a dude, he took it to some place, found a chip that was actually an American #. They discovered it was a Tort that was legally imported as a pet into the UK when the family moved back home.
Microchip success story if I have ever heard one.
And one lucky tort!


----------

