Rescued RF

[ckromulus]

I "Rescued" this RF from a pet store...

A Little Background

It was in a fish tank that it could barely turn around in, no water, just one temperature - Baking hot...I had been there a few times and saw this overly depressed tort just laid out, it never moved except to eat in the mornings..Finally, I talked the guy down in price and took her home (yesterday). I am unfamiliar with how smooth the shell should really be but it appears to be pyramiding, she is very active so far in my outdoor enclosure (14ft by 13ft).

I have a sulcata that "was from last years crop" as the man at the same pet store put it. I do know, however, that the farm that he gets the torts from is renowned in this area and they are in the local paper all the time (for good things).

Heres the problem:

I am aware that under close quarters there is risk for cross contamination in terms of disease. However, in an outdoor enclosure of this size would it be acceptable to house them together? They seem to not mind each other at night in the deck box (where they went last night on their own) and during the day the do not pay much attention to each other. I have planted edible landscaping for the sulcata and many of the same things that the juvenile sully eats so does the RF (or so I have read). I am in central florida so humidity is not really an issue and I am using cypress mulch as a substrate. PICTURES OF ALL ATTACHED

Any input you guys have would be really greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

P.S. Based on the photo and that the plastron length is about 6.5 inches and that she weigh 818 grams...How old would you all date this RF tort?

 

[Redstrike]

I wouldn't house the together, but this is highly debated here and I recall a disease thread a while back that became quite juvenile - I hope this doesn't happen again here.

There is an issue with disease cross-contamination. It may be irrelevant in a captive setting, it may not. Personally, I wouldn't take the chance. Outside of disease, these are different species with different habitat requirements and preferences, and diets this is further rationale for not housing together. How about the huge size difference, currently or in the future?

I also wanted to ask you something here, please don't get defensive or feel like I'm attacking you, I just want to put something up for consideration. Is there anyway you could talk to that pet store owner about proper husbandry care? If you have in the past and nothing has changed, could you tell the renowned farm he acquires his torts from about his poor husbandry, showing them pictures of the torts you've rescued? A letter with some pictures would suffice. This way they may stop doing business with him and you don't have to keep rescuing torts from the store, supporting his market.

I think you've done a good thing, both times!

 

[ckromulus]

I have spoken to him about it in passing but haven't made it a point of discussion which I will have to do. I had planned on trying to find out if that farm would allow visitors or allow people to come see it at all so I will certainly write a letter or give them a call if possible.

The guy's rationale when I asked him about the two species being housed together was that the farmers worry about that bc if one gets sick it could infect the 100's of tortoises they have. "If you lose one its only one its not that big of a worry" ...crazy right...

He only has one tort left but tells me his sulcata hatchlings are coming soon..will talk to farm before then

Would it be acceptable to get another deck box and let them share the outside space which is 150 sq ft?

 

[Redstrike]

I'm no expert in captive-tortoise diseases, you may be fine housing them together, but I'm extremely skeptical of this stance. Diseases do jump hosts at a number of taxanomic levels. These two species have different habitat & dietary requirements/preferences. Do I sound like a broken record? These facts are enough for me to be a nay-Sayer of mixed species housing

I think if you were to partition the area with the deck box, that would be fine. The biggest concern that I can think of is direct contact and caprophagy (poop eating) between the two species. So long as you keep this to a minimum, things should be fine. I believe a number of folks here keep multiple species in similar areas, segregating them via wooden fences, etc. Otherwise, it would be impossible to keep multiple species within one property.

We'd love to see your end results for the two habitats (if you go that route), post pics up when you can!