NEW! And Picking the right tortoise

[Tom]

I'll have to look through the forums Resources for where to buy a tortoise. 700$ or less sounds good. I'm only looking for a single pet tortoise for now, perhaps in the future if i have more land and resources I'd consider multiple. I was under the impression that all tortoises are happy to be solitary, do Burmese stars prefer Companions? Also wanted to say thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it.

All tortoises are fine living alone and have no need or want of "company". Keeping multiple tortoises in one enclosure is a matter of convenience. At least some species can and do live communally in some way or other in the wild, and most will do fine in groups in large captive enclosure too. With most species, care has to be taken to have only one adult male in a group of two or more females. In some species, in extremely large enclosures, multiple males can live in together with a group of females.

If breeding is the intention down the road, I know of several people who are of the opinion that its best to raise them in groups from babies because they can be a bit socially "retarded" if raised alone their whole life and then added to a group for breeding later. We find that they generally get along better later if raised in mixed groups from the start.

 

[sylvester]

-Burmese stars have the best personalities of any on your list.
-Russians are hit or miss. Most are pretty good, but I've seen some that don't want anything to do with people, and others that I call "super males" that are absurdly territorial and aggressive. These super males can happen with any Testudo and its fairly rare to see, but it happens.
-Greeks tend to be more shy than the others discussed here, but this varies.
-Hermanni are usually pretty good as adults. Not too shy and not too crazy. Curious and interactive. I like them the best of all the Testudo species. I have not had hands on westerns, so I'm speaking only of the easterns. I have been told by keepers of westerns that their personality is in general more subdued than the easterns.

When looking for opinions on this, be sure the opinion giver has worked extensively with all of these and has experienced them first hand. Many people love their own tortoise and think its the greatest thing ever, but they have not worked with any or some of the other species being discussed, so they really have no frame of reference to compare. They just love their pet. Its great that they love their pet, but that doesn't mean their species tends to have a better personality than some other species. I think sulcatas have the best personalities of any species, but they are exceedingly difficult to manage in all but the most southern portions of our country. They are the wrong species for most people, even though the personality is so great. I think you are going about this in all the right ways, and I think you will be rewarded with a terrific tortoise keeping experience when the time comes.

Thank you, this feedback is helping me lean towards hermann's out of the testudos, I'll keep researching them and the Burmese stars tho! A sulcata will probably never be in the cards for me, but they are beautiful, I'd love to hang out with one.