Thanks to all who contribute to this forum. What a wonderful resource this is for all who want to do right by our little tort friends. We are about to welcome a tortoise to our crazy family and are set on getting a redfoot. We have an enclosure nearly finished (will post photos in another string) and now are trying to settle on where and which little guy to adopt. We have had two missed opportunities on craigslist...been looking at many breeder sites online and have some concerns about that given our location (Pacific NW) distance to ship, and cost for an older tort. I solicited feedback from you all about Petco a while back and got a lot of info that made me concerned...the conditions at the store do seem pretty dismal...the humidity is way too low, the enclosure is very small and they are eating something that looks like a tortoise equivalent to fruit loops. But I must admit that these little redfoots have gotten under my skin and I am really agonizing over what to do here. There are currently two Rfs at the store, one that they have had for two weeks who is just barely 4inches. And another who has been there for a very long time...he is at least 6 inches. The bigger of the two is always pretty active and eating well when I have been in. He does look super dry and also has a patch on his head that almost looks like a scar...different depth and texture from the rest of the skin on his head. He also has some pretty bad pyramiding going. I have been into the store 4 times in the last 2 weeks and have seen the little one always sleeping with his head in the corner. Today we were able to wake him up by giving him a little soak, but he had a lot of difficulty opening his eyes. I have read that this could be due to the lack of moisture but am concerned that there could be a more serious underlying problem. The shell of the smaller one is very smooth. Nobody at the store tonight could confirm that he/she has been seen eating. I know I will get many opinions here, and I am interested to know what you all think we should do. We have a beautiful, large, warm and humid enclosure and are looking forward to giving a little RF a good life. Although we have done a ton of research, we are new to tortoise keeping and have two young kids, so we want a study tortoise that will be good for us beginners (translates to older RF from what I understand). We are inclined now to adopt the bigger one as it seems like he could use a break (been at Petco such a long time) and I am taken with the little sweetie. The younger one is beautiful though and I wonder with the right environment and a little time if she might come around to be a great pet. Any opinions between the two, or do you all think we should walk away from both and order form a breeder online – caveat here being that what is available within our budget will likely be a baby and more difficult to care for. Thanks in advanced for your thoughts and expertise. We are so excited to get our RF....if only we could decide on who that little tort will be ;-)!