sulcata prospect! help me.

[edflores]

I've been searching for a tortoise to purchase and found near my town but I do not know enough to tell of its healthy and is a good purchase. What should I look for? Its $100 is that about the average price? Thanks for the help I added a pic I took of it hopefully its viewable.

 

[Jacqui]

That picture makes him look flat. How long have they had him on the newspaper? Is this the breeder or a person getting rid of a recent perchase?

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$100 is high, but there would be no shipping charge, so that evens out a bit.

 

[edflores]

It was rounded. It was bad angle I only took that one. It was at a pet shop that sells all kinds of reptiles birds and fish. I don't know how long its been on news paper. What should I look for to determine if its healthy or not?

 

[Dobby The Tortoise]

My sulcata was $100 so I'd say it is fine for that price

 

[BrinnANDTorts]

It was rounded. It was bad angle I only took that one. It was at a pet shop that sells all kinds of reptiles birds and fish. I don't know how long its been on news paper. What should I look for to determine if its healthy or not?

Activity, make sure he moves around at least some. I know babies hide a lot but even with that I see my torts roaming around quite a bit. Open, bright eyes, make sure they don't look swollen. It doesn't look like it from pic. I wouldn't worry about Pyramiding because he is so young, even if he has started Pyramiding, if you buy him now and raise him in humidity and warm he will grow perfectly smooth. With him being on newspaper I'd be worried, they dehydrate easy when that young. Hopefully there is at least a water bowl in cage, if not I'd be very cautious of buying because I don't see a way he wouldn't be dehydrated with no water and on newspaper and babies die quick from that and it's hard for them to recover from chronic dehydration. Could cost you a lot of $$$ and still end up with a dead Tortoise unfortunately.
Make sure his shell is hard and not mushy, he should have access to Uvb.
Also he should be eating everyday, my baby sully who is barely bigger than that eats almost three times a day. He eats a lot and vigorously

I rescued a small sully just a little bigger than that one who was kept in a horribly tiny aquarium with no heat, no Uvb, dry. Being feed mushed carrots and that's about it. He did have a water bowl but he was so inactive from being cold, under feed, had a soft shell I doubt he ever drank for it. He is doing much better now, but that is a rare case. I think most die unfortunately

 

[Vishnu2]

I personally and this is just me, would purchase a Sulcata from a breeder on the forum. I made a mistake in not doing so and am dealing with sadness. You're going to be paying nearly the same in price but you're for-sure getting a great tortoise that has been cared for since day one. You might have to wait until January. I know some breeders who don't start shipping again until January 6th. I wouldn't purchase this tortoise.

 

[BeeBee*BeeLeaves]

That's the bummer, if the babies are not kept hydrated from the get go, from day one, there might be irreversible damage and they end up with kidney failure, the hatchling failure syndrome that none of us like. Ask a lot of questions from the pet shop, sadly many do not know the basics in caring for these little ones. Have they soaked the baby? How often? Did the breeder raise it with hot and humid conditions to give it a good start in life? What kind of UVB has the baby had? If none of the answers are what we need, then tell them you are risking by purchasing and will they take 50 for the baby since he may or may not make it. Or like Vishnu2 suggested, wait until other babies are available from breeders you know. Or adopt an older one.

 

[Tom]

I wouldn't buy one housed like that. There is no way to know if there is any organ damage from dehydration. It can happen in just a few days. We had a very experienced member here that once stated it could happen overnight in a dry enclosure like that.

For the same money, or very close to it, you could get a well started healthy one from me, Austin, Lance, Kelly, Christy P. or Katherine. There are so many good, known sellers, why would you want to gamble? It seems like every day we hear stories of hatchlings dying because they were started too dry. Read the first link in my signature. Look at number 1.