Soon to be owner of her first tortoise! Help?!

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Charlie93

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Hi guys! I'm Charlie, and I'm new around here. I'm hoping to become to proud owner of my very first tortoise within the next couple of months and was hoping to get some advice off you all. I live in England, and so the weather is generally miserable apart from the summer; I have room to house my little guy inside and outside no problem. I was just wondering if you guys could give me some rough ideas of how high and how large the tortoise table should be inside, and how much space he should have outside?

As for species I was hoping you could help me on that too. I live very close to a family run pet shop who currently have what looks to be a baby russian tortoise as it's very small. There's also another family run pet shop ran up my town with a hermann tortoise in but this one looks to be considerably larger. I was hoping someone could advise me as to which breed is better regarding how large they grow, the kind of space they would need, their temperment and which is generally better for a first timer :D

I know that some pet shops sell wild caught tortoises and I will enquire at the shops about whether they were captive bred or not. Is there any way to tell that the seller is telling the truth about how they were bred?

Also, if there is anything else you guys could tell me in general about them it would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for all the questions, I just want to make sure that I'm fully prepared before I bring one home :)
 

ustwoandthekids

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Hi the two breeds your asking about I don't know to much about but I know some breeds are meant to come with papers, like a birth certificate you could google it should tell which was comes with papers which don't, I know horsefield don't need papers (think they may also be called Russian but could be wrong) I have a marginated which came with papers but my sulcata didn't!!. I am also in the uk :)
 

wallaceandtilly

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Hi Charlie,I am new to tortoises I have 2 horsefield torts Tilly and Wallace I have them indoors at moment and plan on building an outdoor enclosure when the weather warms up I live in South Wales. Prepare to spend hours just watching them! Indoor tables are expensive to buy I made my own (take a look on my page and you tube for some ideas) lighting seems to be the most important item as the torts need to be able to warm up
 

Charlie93

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Thanks guys! ustwoandthekids I think they're called Russians too, I'm thinking about the Horsefield because they seem better suited to me than the other. Wallace and Tilly are such cute names! That's going to be a big decision for me, deciding what to name him/her! Thanks again, I'll take a peek :)
 
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