similar to sulcata?

[bubbles01]

Welcome to TFO! Has anyone mentioned that we all LOVE to see pics?? Show us what ya built!!!!!

 

[Tom]

How about a leopard?

Tom, how well do leopards to in a high humidity environment, overall? Nacodotches is pretty "swampy".

I keep mine very humid and wet as babies and have had zero problems. I have heard that some people in more humid climates have had issues, but I suspect cold is a factor.

Still, good point Terry. Other Texans don't seem to have any unusual problems, but I'm not familiar with that area at all.

 

[Jacob]

Welcome,

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

How about a leopard?

Tom, how well do leopards to in a high humidity environment, overall? Nacodotches is pretty "swampy".

I keep mine very humid and wet as babies and have had zero problems. I have heard that some people in more humid climates have had issues, but I suspect cold is a factor.

Still, good point Terry. Other Texans don't seem to have any unusual problems, but I'm not familiar with that area at all.

Reason I inquired is that a member of the Herp Society I used to belong to had a Leopard tortoise that was in excellent health for the 6 years it lived in Lubbock, TX (fairly arid environment) but quickly got sickly and died when she moved down into southern Louisiana, which is similar to Nacodotches, humiditywise...don't know for a fact that the change in environment was the main (or even partial) cause, of course, but it made me wonder.

OTOH, possibly had it been raised there, it might've been fine...again, no idea, just speculation.

 

[turtlewurx]

Hey guys! Thanks for all the info. I'm on a road trip now, & bandwidth's at a premium, but I'll check out all the links as soon as I get back home.

BrinnANDGupta, no worries at all. I would much rather have an inconvenient truth and happy torts than a happy lie & inconvenienced torts. & I'm perfectly willing to admit I'm on new ground here. I've raised animals all my life; dogs, cats, fish, snakes, hedgehogs, guinea pigs, ferrets, and even a few red eared sliders & a short time with some local box turtles. I've done enough to know that the needs of every animal are different. I've never raised a large turtle before & I'm much better off going to folks who know to find stuff out than learn the hard way.

Honestly, I've never really considered Nacogdoches to be "swampy", but I realize that's only 'cause I'm comparing it to Louisiana. It MAY be a little too humid for a happy Sulcata. Though I know some folks in Houston (which is only a few hours away) with them, & they're perfectly healthy. I've done a fair amount of research on the Sulcata, and I'm in love with this particular tort, but it may be that I need to do a little more due diligence before I bring one home. I will most likely get a sulcata at some point, but I may put it off for a while, until I can make sure I can provide a good environment for it.

I'll look into some of the other species you guys mentioned, and see if another type of tort could thrive in the vivarium I'm building.

bubbleso1, I'll be happy to post pics as soon as I'm finished building.

Thanks again for the warm welcome everyone! I'll actually go back & post in the introductions & fill out my profile info as soon as I can get a few spare moments to rub together.

Regards,

JD Scott/Turtle <Although using that particular moniker here seems a little self-righteous. (lol)

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi JD:

My grand daughter lives in Forney and is considering going to college in Nacodoches.

Whatever you decide, I'm sure it will be a well-taken care of animal.

 

[tortoises101]

Agreed. Leopard and sulcata good friends...buddies or lovely couples.

I'm firmly against mixing of ANY species.

 

[BrinnANDTorts]

That's a good decision TurtleWax
I think you need a Greek !!!!!! Ibera Greek
They stay smaller than Hermanns and come in more variety to you can get a black looking one, a golden one, or a Ibera Greek. Im sorry I don't know the scientific names for each sub species :/

This is the Ibera Greek

Golden x ANTAKYAN
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc22/MARPAT1/100_4809.jpg[/
[img]http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc22/MARPAT1/IMG_17321.jpg


(i got these from the for sale section, CGKeith is selling them)

 

[turtlewurx]

Different forums have different protocols, so if this should be a new thread, I do apologize.

The vivarium I had for my sliders had several different animals. A few types of small feeder fish, some feeder Insects (crickets mostly) a few lizards and of course the sliders. Everyone was healthy and happy ('cept for the feeder critters o' course.)

I've noticed several times in this thread, folks have mentioned they were against mixing torts of different breeds together. May I ask why? I understand that there's some chance of disease, but if your animals are all healthy and captive bred to begin with, is that still a danger? Are there other risks I'm unaware of? (Like I said, I'm new to torts.)

 

[BrinnANDTorts]

Different forums have different protocols, so if this should be a new thread, I do apologize.

The vivarium I had for my sliders had several different animals. A few types of small feeder fish, some feeder Insects (crickets mostly) a few lizards and of course the sliders. Everyone was healthy and happy ('cept for the feeder critters o' course.)

I've noticed several times in this thread, folks have mentioned they were against mixing torts of different breeds together. May I ask why? I understand that there's some chance of disease, but if your animals are all healthy and captive bred to begin with, is that still a danger? Are there other risks I'm unaware of? (Like I said, I'm new to torts.)

Never mix species, its playing with fire and its extremely unnatural in my opinion. There have been many people here on the forum that have done it in the past and lost tortoises.. they just died. I strongly recommend against it..

 

[Tom]

Different forums have different protocols, so if this should be a new thread, I do apologize.

The vivarium I had for my sliders had several different animals. A few types of small feeder fish, some feeder Insects (crickets mostly) a few lizards and of course the sliders. Everyone was healthy and happy ('cept for the feeder critters o' course.)

I've noticed several times in this thread, folks have mentioned they were against mixing torts of different breeds together. May I ask why? I understand that there's some chance of disease, but if your animals are all healthy and captive bred to begin with, is that still a danger? Are there other risks I'm unaware of? (Like I said, I'm new to torts.)

We had a very big debate about this subject not too long ago. Many of our more seasoned keepers have seen mixing of species, captive bred or not, lead to disaster. We are talking personal experience and we were sharing what we had seen. Two or three others members , it seems, did not necessarily disagree, but were unhappy that we (mainly me) were reporting these things as scientific fact without extensive scientific studies and documentation to scientifically prove that diseases could be transmitted between species with potential negative consequences. No such studies exist for tortoises. There is no reason for anyone to fund such research, in my opinion, because the conclusion is obvious. No individual person would fund research that would cost thousands upon thousands and require the sacrifice of many animals for necropsy before and during the course of the study. I wouldn't. Even if all of this were done, it would still only be ONE single study, and some folks would still require more "evidence" than just one study, no matter how legitimate it was. The argument ended when I capitulated that I do not have high dollar, tortoise killing, scientific lab paperwork to back up my assertions that I have personally seen tortoises die as a direct result of mixing species. The farther the argument went, the more silly it seemed to me. I was literally laughing by the end of it. In a funny twist (funny to me, anyway), there were no less than three threads in the week or two following the big dust up, about tortoises that had caught diseases from other tortoises and were sick or dead. These threads had pics of captive bred tortoises of several species all living together. But still, there is no "scientific proof", that I know of, and I'm just sharing what I have seen many times over the last 25 years of dealing with tortoises.

 

[turtlewurx]

Just to clarify, I'm not planning to mix species. I was just curious as to why you shouldn't.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi JD:

Its not quite as important now-a-days as it was in the past. Quite a few of today's pet tortoises are captive bred. The reasoning behind not mixing species is, first of all, tortoises that have evolved on different continents have become accustomed to their particular micro-organisms that grow inside them and are able to live with them. When you add a tortoise from a different continent or one that your tortoise wouldn't have come into contact with in the wild, that other tortoise has his own micro-organisms or pathogens that HIS species has evolved with and is accustomed to. The different pathogens mixing with tortoises that haven't evolved with them, might cause sickness or even death. But, do you KNOW for sure that your tortoise is CB or WC? Most keepers don't, so its just better to err on the practical side and to not mix.

Another reason is the tortoises might require different care and habitat.

 

[turtlewurx]

emysemys, I think your grand daughter will like SFASU if she goes there. I greatly enjoyed my years in SFA's art department!

As for the Sulcata bebate, I DO want a large tort, but I've decided to hold off on getting one for a bit. (& I may go with a Leapord instead of the sulcata when I do, if they're better suited to my local environement.)

'course I've still got this vivarium I'm building (& the habitat I made outside, so they can get actual sunlight while I'm at work), and I need a tort to fill it. I may start a new thread to ask folks' opinions on what would be the best choice and why.

Thanks again to everyone for all the advice they've offered so far! I should have my introduction posted later today.

---

Also, totally unrelated to this thread, but I figured since I've already wandered all over the place here, why not do it some more?

A lot of the signatures have a #.#.# format. Oabviously it's refering to the number of animals the person owns, but what are the other numbers for?

 

[tortoises101]

Different forums have different protocols, so if this should be a new thread, I do apologize.

The vivarium I had for my sliders had several different animals. A few types of small feeder fish, some feeder Insects (crickets mostly) a few lizards and of course the sliders. Everyone was healthy and happy ('cept for the feeder critters o' course.)

I've noticed several times in this thread, folks have mentioned they were against mixing torts of different breeds together. May I ask why? I understand that there's some chance of disease, but if your animals are all healthy and captive bred to begin with, is that still a danger? Are there other risks I'm unaware of? (Like I said, I'm new to torts.)

We had a very big debate about this subject not too long ago. Many of our more seasoned keepers have seen mixing of species, captive bred or not, lead to disaster. We are talking personal experience and we were sharing what we had seen. Two or three others members , it seems, did not necessarily disagree, but were unhappy that we (mainly me) were reporting these things as scientific fact without extensive scientific studies and documentation to scientifically prove that diseases could be transmitted between species with potential negative consequences. No such studies exist for tortoises. There is no reason for anyone to fund such research, in my opinion, because the conclusion is obvious. No individual person would fund research that would cost thousands upon thousands and require the sacrifice of many animals for necropsy before and during the course of the study. I wouldn't. Even if all of this were done, it would still only be ONE single study, and some folks would still require more "evidence" than just one study, no matter how legitimate it was. The argument ended when I capitulated that I do not have high dollar, tortoise killing, scientific lab paperwork to back up my assertions that I have personally seen tortoises die as a direct result of mixing species. The farther the argument went, the more silly it seemed to me. I was literally laughing by the end of it. In a funny twist (funny to me, anyway), there were no less than three threads in the week or two following the big dust up, about tortoises that had caught diseases from other tortoises and were sick or dead. These threads had pics of captive bred tortoises of several species all living together. But still, there is no "scientific proof", that I know of, and I'm just sharing what I have seen many times over the last 25 years of dealing with tortoises.

Could you send me a link for the Tortoise Mixing threads? I'd greatly appreciate it.