Please help. (Russian or desert ???)

[Tyanna]

I agree with Yvonne, Daisy would be cute for a boy too! But Rufus is also cute.

 

[ascott]

Oh, one more question, dandelions are ok for Russians to eat, right? Because she kind of went to town on them when we were outside earlier. Sorry for the newbie question, I've been doing research, but it has been less than a day.

Dandelions are a perfect food...one of the best actually....and he is a lovely tort by the way......they are premium climbers, like the spiderman of the tortoise world...can go vertical as well as horizontal ...great escape artists....

 

[jwalker]

This part worries me a bit. Care and space requirements for both species is pretty similar. What is it that you think a DT needs that a russian doesn't need? Or vice versa?

Here are a couple of threads that might help you:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/russian-tortoise-care-sheet.80698/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/

While I appreciate your concern, and understand it, my primary concern with a Desert Tortoise is that they absolutely must live outside (at least according to the people at tortoisegroup.org, who are the ones authorized by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to adopt them out). I do not have a place outside that I can make a permanent home for a tortoise, I rent my place and modifications to the yard are not allowed. Everything I have read about Russian Tortoises say you can make them a nice enclosure indoors, as long as everything is regulated (temp, light, food/water, a humid burrow, etc). I can provide a good indoor habitat, but I cannot provide an outdoors place for a Desert to live. Also the rules and regulations on having a desert tortoise are fairly strict (again according to the people I've talked to at tortoisegroup.org), for example you cannot take a Desert out of state without written consent from both the receiving state and the state of Nevada, and they don't allow it very often. I do travel sometimes (and if going somewhere for an extended period of time, I would want to take him with me) and I might be moving sometime in the near future, so it wouldn't really be fair or wise to have a Desert tortoise, that I would potentially have to find a new home for and uproot him (and Rufus has already been passed around a lot) again. So those were some of my concerns at being given a Desert Tortoise. Sorry to have caused you concern.