Help Please

[porcha]

Hey everybody,

I'm new to this place but i was wondering if someone knew where to get a baby Tortoises because me and my roommate really want one we want one we can keep in our place most of the time it will be able to go outside when its warm. We have everything for it just need to find one for a reasonable price we are not rich so we cant spend a lot of money on it if anyone is trying to sell one or know of a place we can get one please let me know

Thanks Porcha

p.s. we want one that does not get very big

 

[ascott]

Welcome to the Forum

 

[Laura]

sounds like a russian tort would be good for you.. chk craigslist and some pet stores have them for a decent price.. but you must be prepared for a vet bill...
what is your set up? post pics? we can help make Sure you have everything you need Before you get the animal.

 

[dmarcus]

Hello and welcome to the forum...

 

[nicoleandrocky]

Welcome
I suggest looking on craigslist, but if you cant seem to get one, try a petstore (i hate to say) but the best is buying from a breeder in your area or online. Russians and Greeks dont get that big but make sure you have everything BEFORE purchasing. best of luck!

 

[porcha]

Wow didn't think anyone would get back to me, thanks for all the feedback, as of now we have a tortoise house with the lights and and everything that it needs we are set on all that just dont know what to get everything we have looked at is wayyy out of our price range. Everything we looked at got to big there's nothing wrong with that but we cant afford to keep buying bigger things to put it in so we wanna get a baby one to start out with that wont grow big the house is pretty big so it will have plenty room if its a little guy

I added a pic to show you guys what we are working with this is one off the web but we built ours and it looks pretty much just like this but bigger and cooler

thanks for the help

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Porcha:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know appx. where in the world you are?

 

[porcha]

Me and my roommate live in Iowa

 

[nicoleandrocky]

Looks good to me
I suggest looking here,
http://www.theturtlesource.com/p.asp?id=125900&main=444
it is a bit pricey, but you can also try pet store
look into russian tortoises they run about 100 at the store and
are good to start with and dont get very big.

 

[Jacob]

welcome to the forum, there are many great breeders here on the forum

 

[CLMoss]

Welcome!

 

[Tom]

First of all hello and welcome to the forum.

We are talking about an animal that is going to live for decades. You will spend thousands of dollars in food, electricity, light bulbs, equipment, supplements, vet bills, building new enclosures and an outdoor enclosure, etc... The initial purchase price is inconsequential. Please do not base your decision on a difference of $20, $50 or even $100. In order to avoid hundreds of dollars in vet bills and possible heartache, you should simply be looking for the healthiest, best-started tortoise you can find. The price should not even matter. Even if it costs $100 more than the same species that can be found as a wild caught from a pet shop, you will end up saving in the long run. If you really can't afford the initial purchase price of a tortoise, then you really can't afford to deal with any of the potential problems that might come up either.

Something to think about...

 

[pam]

Russian Tortoise are a great first time tortoise and they dont get very big. Craigs list has them on there all the time.

 

[porcha]

hey everyone a friend of ours gave us a of turtles i know i said we wante said a tortise but at this point we are open to look at turtles. I am on my way to work and don't have time to check these out so if any of you know anything about the list let me know if they are good fit for us.

Eastern Painted Turtles
Florida Softshell
Hieroglyphic River Cooter
Northern Red Bellies
Peninsular Cooter
Red Ear Slider
Southern Painted
Yellow bellied Cooters

These are the ones he told us about now i have no clue about these but hopefully out of the list there's one in there that does not get really big and can pretty much live in our thing we built if not then i guess we are back to square one

thanks for the help

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Porcha:

Take a look through some of our old "for sale" and "sold" threads. You can make note of which members have sold baby Russian tortoises and send them a PM to see if they have any more or will be having any in the future. Better to buy from a well-known source and captive bred, than from a pet shop or someone you've never heard of.

 

[Jacqui]

None of these turtles fall into my category of small turtles as adults. In fact, your looking at a sizable amount of water space for them. With water turtles also keep in mind the filter you need can add up quickly. Turtles produce lots of waste materials, so if you have for instance 100 gals of water, you need a filtering system rated for 200 gals.

Another thing about water turtles, especially if these are hatchlings your considering, they must have the UVB lighting (which is a pretty expensive bulb). A high percentage of hatchling water turtles die, because they never get past the baby soft shell stage.

Not sure of what part of Iowa your in, but there is a rescue in Des Moines, that does get in a few water turtles, even some tortoises.

 

[porcha]

Wow thats okay we are still in the hunt we really want a tortoise more than a turtle and des moines in an hour away we go there pretty often we never thought it would be this hard to find a tortoise to fit us but im sure we will find one as far as the money thing keep in mind we are college students but the reason we say less is better because right now we only have so much to buy with after we get it we will be okay with keeping it up