Hi everyone!

[Tim]

Hi all!

Found this forum as a result of my extensive tortoise research after buying one for my 6 year old daughter and 4 year old son last week.

I purchased a Kleinmann's tortoise from Marc Cantos at the Turtle Source (theturtlesource.com). He seemed extremely knowledgeabe, and his passion for turtles/tortoises is quite apparent from having in depth conversations with him.

Not going to lie -- I think I'm more excited about the tortoise than my daughter is; after reading and researching this tortoise, and the perils its species as a whole is facing.

I have a lot of reading (this forum) to catch up on! Chat with you all soon!

 

[Jacqui]

Hi Tim and welcome! Welcome not only to our forum, but to the very interesting and very addicting world of tortoises. I am glad that your more excited then your daughter, because after all it's you who will have to do the research, they tortoise purchasing and of course most all of the care. When parents don't get interested, it's normally bad news for the tortoise.

So how did you happen to decide on this species?

 

[martinfre]

Hello and welcome!
Testudo kleinmanni is a wonderful tortoise, but hard to give it a fair home.
I hope you will help your daughter with the pet, because she is too young to understand what's to do.

 

[Angi]

Welcome. I am the same way with my son's gecko. He is really into the gecko, but I love the little guy too. My torts are my babies though. You will be amazed by how much personality a tortoise has. Please post pix

 

[dmarcus]

Hello and welcome to the forum...

 

[AnthonyC]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[tyler0912]

Welcome...Enjoy your stay!

 

[jackrat]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Tim]

Hi Tim and welcome! Welcome not only to our forum, but to the very interesting and very addicting world of tortoises. I am glad that your more excited then your daughter, because after all it's you who will have to do the research, they tortoise purchasing and of course most all of the care. When parents don't get interested, it's normally bad news for the tortoise.

So how did you happen to decide on this species?

I decided on the species because of its size mainly. If I had the resources and space I would have gone with something larger. Marc at the turtlesource told me that these buggers are small, and can live their lives in a 30g aquarium (as adults) and be happy. Right now I have him in a 10g, and it looks like he's living in a football stadium. He's about 2 1/4" at 6 mo's old.

 

[Tim]

Hello and welcome!
Testudo kleinmanni is a wonderful tortoise, but hard to give it a fair home.
I hope you will help your daughter with the pet, because she is too young to understand what's to do.

I'm definitely going to be helping her with it. I have my kids on the weekends; so I'll be taking care of it the majority of the time. They'll be feeding etc under my supervision when I have them. I even put a lock on the terrarium to prevent them from handling it. Don't want any mishaps with this bugger. Had a bad experience about a year ago with a guppie that my son thought could breath air.... he was wrong.

 

[Jacqui]

The Egyptian tortoises are pretty neat. I really hope your planning in the future a larger enclosure then a 30 gal, even with them staying small, I just can't see where one would be happy and do well in such a small space. Of course, you do have a few years til it gets full sized. I have not had one of these myself and so rarely hear anybody suggest one as a first tortoise. This is a first tortoise for you, correct?

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Tim:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

I don't know anything about how to take care of the little Egyptian tortoises, but I understand they are a bit fragile. Please do lots of research and learn the correct care. Did the seller give you a care sheet? We have several Egyptian-keepers here on the forum, so if you have questions please be sure to ask.

 

[Tim]

Hi Tim:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

I don't know anything about how to take care of the little Egyptian tortoises, but I understand they are a bit fragile. Please do lots of research and learn the correct care. Did the seller give you a care sheet? We have several Egyptian-keepers here on the forum, so if you have questions please be sure to ask.

He did give me a care sheet -- but it was generalized for juvenile tortoises. If there is one specifically for egyptians I would definitely be interested in reading it.

He seems to be doing well so far -- he's been pretty active, stomping around and eating.

His home is a 10g right now, with zoo med forrest floor substrate. I have the heating/uvb light shining over half of his home, and a heat pad under the other half. They're both on a timer opposite of each other to provide him with a cooler/warmer side to choose between.

The guy I purchased him from suggested i take out any enclosures and limit the amount of substrate to prevent him from "hiding" all the time. He said it would aid in the taming process. So, he just stomps around eating every so often.

Oh -- the other thing that he told me is to not keep a water bowl down all the time. He said that he'll get most of his water from the foods he eats, and during his soak times (3 days a week).

Hope I don't irritate the egyptian tortoise forum -- I'm gonna be asking a lot of questions when I get home tonight!

 

[Jacqui]

Hope I don't irritate the african tortoise forums -- I'm gonna be asking a lot of questions when I get home tonight!

That won't happen. We love having lots of questions to answer. I look at questions as a reminder to me of things I know and should remember to think about more often or to share with new folks who may not think to ask them questions themselves. Plus believe it or not, often new folks come up with new thoughts or ideas. So in my mind, everybody wins when folks ask questions. So please, ask a way. Nobody in here or any where else has all the answers.

Just be warned, many of us may not agree with everything you have been told so far. That's pretty normal, so listen to the different reasons given on why to do this or that, ask lots of questions, especially those you may think are "stupid", and then kinda weed thru the answers and try a few things to see what seems to work best for you, where you live, how you live, and especially your own individual sweetly unique tortoise.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Tim:

I pulled a care sheet off the World Chelonian Trust's web site and pasted it in the Egyptian tortoise forum for everyone's reference. I think that's nicer than putting up the link.

Bare in mind that the care sheet was written a while ago and I don't know if its been updated recently, but its a place to start.

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-WCT-s-care-sheet#axzz1YQdQH4T1

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome.