Does any one here microchip their tortoises or attach GPS trackers for security or escape recovery. If so where and how do you attach them? and which ones do you use?
Microchips (aka PIT tags) are placed subcutaneously with a special syringe just for the tag. They are only good for identification and help in recovery if and only if an ethical person finds the tag by scanning the tortoise and searching out the owner.
GPS, like putting a hunting dog tracker on the tortoise might work. I have not done this.
I had Joe microchipped, but it's only any good with a scanner in one hand and a tortoise in the other to identify me as the owner.
There was someone in here who used a Tile@Team Gomberg ? The range is fairly limited though
On a larger tort you would perhaps be able to Epoxy it to the centre of a large Scute. If I could have figured how to make it stick to Joe (a Greek) I might have done it.
My wife is a veterinarian and I am a practice manager. I was thinking of drilling a very small hole in an edge scute and epoxying over after inserting the microchip. This way it cant migrate as they are prone to do in loose skinned animals. The GPS tracker was my main interest as there tend to be several loose sulcatas around me at any given time. My enclosure is very secure but it is a sulcata, LOL I also was concerned about theft.
The microchips we use are registered to our hospital unless registration is transferred to the owner. They are then in a nationwide data base so any one who scans the chip and contacts the company will be told who owns the animal and the company contacts the owner that a scan has been reported.