Excited!

NotOnlyButAlsoPete

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Joined
Jan 9, 2015
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4
Hello!

I'm a librarian living in Southern California. I work for the school that my children attend and I was asked if I could look after one of the classroom pets during the holiday break. I've been into herps for a while, but do not own any. I recently bought some hissing roaches to be library pets, and I had been considering something else. Then we met Zippy! Zippy is the 3rd grade pet. He is a Russian tortoise that I'm guessing is maybe 3-4 years old. We absolutely fell in love with him! Even my wife, who is usually not very interested in reptiles. Zippy lives in a glass aquarium. Well, that just wouldn't do. I built him a pretty sweet outdoor enclosure after doing some research. He stayed with us for about two weeks. Unfortunately, it was a little too cold here at night (40s) so Zippy stayed in his aquarium most of the time. However, given the stress, I think he appreciated it.

So, Zippy is now back at school, and he will likely return for the summer, but right now my wife and I see to be having tortoise withdrawals! Here we have this nice little enclosure outside, not to mention a HUGE backyard for supervised roaming, but no tortoise! When I was a child, I had an Eastern Box turtle that I gave away. I heard that he was still alive, and I attempted to track him down, but to no avail.

So here I am now, trolling tortoise forums, craigslist, pet stores and online herp shops looking to see if the perfect tortoise is out there for us. I'd really like to have one that will be very comfortable with Southern California weather and will be able to handle being outdoors year round (with some exceptions if needed, of course). I love the sulcata babies, the personality of the adults, etc., but I don't think I can handle the size!

Very happy to be here! Looking forward to learning and chatting with you all!
 

Momof4

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Welcome!!! Good luck in your search!!
 

NotOnlyButAlsoPete

New Member
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Jan 9, 2015
Messages
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Thank you! I've been looking a lot at the Redfoots. I found some babies online and I'm so tempted to buy one, but I'm thinking about checking out a local rescue first.
 

Yvonne G

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Hi, and welcome to the Forum!
 

wellington

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Hello and Welcome:). A leopard requires the same care as a sulcata, but does not get as big and will not be as destructive as a sulcata can be. You may also want to look into adopting a CDT
 

NotOnlyButAlsoPete

New Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2015
Messages
4
Hello and Welcome:). A leopard requires the same care as a sulcata, but does not get as big and will not be as destructive as a sulcata can be. You may also want to look into adopting a CDT
I don't ever see any CDT for sale. Are they often up for adoption?
 

Yvonne G

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Look on the web for California Turtle and Tortoise Club, then on their web site look for the list of chapters. When you find one near you, look for their adoption person and contact them to sign up on the adoption list. You can't buy, sell or capture them, but it is perfectly legal to adopt one from a qualified source.
 

NotOnlyButAlsoPete

New Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2015
Messages
4
Look on the web for California Turtle and Tortoise Club, then on their web site look for the list of chapters. When you find one near you, look for their adoption person and contact them to sign up on the adoption list. You can't buy, sell or capture them, but it is perfectly legal to adopt one from a qualified source.

Thank you! I think I'll head over to the sub forum on them to learn more. I know nothing about them, but I'm looking for a tortoise with some personality. As cute as the babies are, I like the idea of adopting a tortoise that is used to people and maybe just needs some TLC.
 
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