Planning for new Tortoise!

[ehopkins12]

Hi everyone! Just looking for some input. I am thinking about getting a new tortoise, it wont be fort a while but I may as well prepare now! I was wanting a breed that gets fairly large, I was leaning toward a redfoot. But my main concern is finding a breed that can house comfortably with my russian until it gets big.

 

[Shelly]

I think most people here would advise against mixing the 2 species.

 

[ehopkins12]

yea, i wasn't sure so i figured id ask.

 

[Yvonne G]

I never advise people to put two different "species" (breeds) of tortoise together, especially if one of them is a Russian.

There are getting to be more captive bred Russians in the pet trade, but usually they are wild caught. The conditions they're kept in before, during and after shipping are horrendous! There are hundreds, if not thousands, piled up together and they're pooping on each other. There are dead ones. Its just not a pretty picture.

This means that when you buy the Russian from a pet shop or wherever, he is loaded with internal parasites, and maybe not all that healthy anyway.

Besides all that, though, each different specie of tortoise comes with his own set of internal pathogens. Over the eons, the tortoise has evolved to be able to live with those pathogens. But when you bring in a tortoise from a different continent and his own but different pathogens (micro organisms), the two tortoises might get sick or even dead from each others' pathogens.

A few more years down the road, when most of the tortoises for sale are captive bred, this won't be so much of a problem. But now, with all the wild caught animals floating around, its best to be safe than sorry and don't mix species.

And hopefully, your wild caught tortoise is going to live for many, many years, so you just never know if that pet shop tortoise is wc or cb.

 

[ehopkins12]

gee...sounds rough :/ sounds like i'm really going to have to be cautious and make she my Russian is healthy. regardless though eventually ill get another tortoise, ill just have to build another table for it. That being said, would it be ok for them to interact occasionally? such as grazing in the yard or walking around the house?

 

[Yvonne G]

no.

 

[K9KidsLove]

I agree with Yvonne.
Even tho there might not be any problems, why chance that your babies will get sick & die?
Wil you have an outdoor enclosure if you get a Redfoot? They do so much better outside.
Good luck
Patsy