# How many tortoises?



## yillt (Jan 22, 2017)

I know that for some, there isn't a limit, but the question is, what is the ideal number of tortoises? How many is TOO many? Is one tortoise enough?


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## cmacusa3 (Jan 22, 2017)

This could vary on a lot of things. Space, financials, time, etc.....there is nothing wrong with having just one.


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## Killerrookie (Jan 22, 2017)

Plan to have as many that can fit on 40 acres of land. 
It just depends on how much space and money you got really.


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## Tom (Jan 22, 2017)

yillt said:


> I know that for some, there isn't a limit, but the question is, what is the ideal number of tortoises? How many is TOO many? Is one tortoise enough?



Do you mean what is best for housing tortoises? Best for the tortoises, I mean?

Tortoises are best housed alone. Groups of babies and juveniles, or adult groups with one male and several females will usually work, but not always.

How many in a group depends on space limitations and how much time, energy and money a person has to put into the project.

Is this what you were asking?


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## yillt (Jan 22, 2017)

Tom said:


> Do you mean what is best for housing tortoises? Best for the tortoises, I mean?
> 
> Tortoises are best housed alone. Groups of babies and juveniles, or adult groups with one male and several females will usually work, but not always.
> 
> ...


It was more a personal question. Like how many tortoises would you LIKE to have? Is 1 enough for you? I understand though that it does depend on space, money etc..


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## Tom (Jan 22, 2017)

yillt said:


> It was more a personal question. Like how many tortoises would you LIKE to have? Is 1 enough for you? I understand though that it does depend on space, money etc..



Oh… Well in that case, I've been trying to balance the numbers of tortoises that I _want_ to have, and the amount of time that I have to care for them all for many years now. I want a whole bunch more, but I know that having more will take up too much time.

At this time, I've settled on 28 of them in several groups as the right amount.


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## Yvonne G (Jan 22, 2017)

In my opinion, you can have as many as you have space for as long as each animal gets the individual attention it requires and as long as all the animals get their proper diets and clean water daily. As soon as you start skimping on care so that you can get to all of them, you have too many and you are now in the hoarder category.


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## BILBO-03 (Jan 22, 2017)

I would like to have 5 SA leopards eventually and breed them when I'm older but ones fine for now


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## dmmj (Jan 22, 2017)

how many stars are in the sky?


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## EmilyTheTurtle (Mar 26, 2017)

I wish I could own every tortoise in the world. At the moment I have 9 tortoises and 3 aquatic turtles. It might sound excessive but they are all well fed and taken care of. If I could aquire more land/money, I'd like to have at least 100 of them to be happy personally. (As long as I could keep them happy too)


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## Jodie (Mar 27, 2017)

I agree with the above. I have 1 Sulcata, 9 Russians and 6 leopards, not counting babies for sale. I really would like to rescue sulcatas, and really want a breeding group of stars, but am out of space and time.


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## Tippiethetortoise (Mar 27, 2017)

I want many, but I only have the space for 1 (maybe 2, housed separately)


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## WithLisa (Mar 27, 2017)

For me one is not enough but more than 5 would be too much. 
I'm perfectly satisfied with my three babies.


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## Alexio (Mar 27, 2017)

Get as many as you can before your significant other threatens that this was the last one. Then buy one more. Then wait a year and buy another one.


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## domagoj (Mar 28, 2017)

For where I live now, one is enough. If I ever managed to move somewhere warm all year round I'd probably get as many as I could care for.


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## bolim04 (Mar 28, 2017)

Hey for me i am making a pause now.
5 sulcatas, 2 leopards, 9 greeks thb, 2 thh, 3 russians, 3 yellow cherry heads, 4 marginatas, and some aquatic turtles. Not counting the offsprings. I want now to biuld another shelter house in the garden ... and then wee will see.


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## Tortique (Jun 1, 2017)

I think if you have the right supplies and space,(40gallons for each tortoise) you can get as many as you would like.


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## Kapidolo Farms (Jun 1, 2017)

It's an interesting question.

At work now, and when I have worked at a zoo, I was responsible for several hundred (up to 800 herps at the zoo) individuals. It was more based on how the facility is established. 

The more diverse the collection the harder it is. A facility with dump and fill water bowls takes longer than a facility with drain and fill water bowls. If the re-fill is automatic it's even quicker for both systems for just the water.

I can make a quality eye contact evaluation of an animal to about 1,000 in one day. That is slightly more than two/minute. I know that sounds crazy, but I've done it for many years in BioPharma and Zoo's. I've changed as many as 800 single housed mice in a day (lots of coffee) at a most ever kind of thing, that included adjusting the number of food pellets 3-5 as the food had volatile components and no more than five or less than three was the criteria. But that is in a dedicated facility.

Back to tortoises. If they are self grazing and the water is a drain and auto fill. I imagine the limiting factor would be how fast can you walk and locate them in the rounds of observation. At least once a month a pick-up and weigh close look evaluation would be a given, or when 'something' does not look right. Collecting eggs would slow that down for the egg laying part of the year. That might be balanced with the down for the winter time of year if it's those kind of tortoises. 

4-500 total tortoises on many acres? (full time, no employees accept for weekend care or vacation time). 
One helper and that can more than double due to synergy.


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## Samantha Fritsch (Jun 28, 2017)

I currently have one tortoise and yearn for more lol


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