Sulcatas are aggressive and everyone should stop breeding????

[wiccan_chicken]

I'm 23 and we have a sulcata but it was a family decision and our 5 year old daughter was a huge part of picking Maia. Our daughter is part of her everyday life helps feed her soak her check her temps etc. my hopes are that once Maia does outlive myself and Ron then our daughter will be a "pro" at her care and pass the knowledge of her care onto her children. We have every intention of Maia being an "heirloom" per say

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View attachment 60942 View attachment 60943
She asked if Maia could lay with her will I rubbed her arm so she could fall asleep

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That.... is the CUTEST thing I have ever seen! A child and tortoise growing up together. I would LOVE to see pictures of the two together!

 

[Alex77]

I suppose I'll play it safe and say 'no' to banning the sale of Sulcatas, but 'yes' to making waaay stricter regulations about how they are sold.

I saw a baby sulcata at the same store where I bought my baby graeca. The baby Sulcata was teeny-tiny, very cute, active and personable. The salesperson told me all I needed was to show my i.d. and pay for the tort, terrarium and accessories in order to be allowed to take it home. I decided to sleep on it and did some online research. Saw some pics of kids riding their ginormous pet tortoises and thought, 'Hang on, I'd better check and make sure that's not what an adult Silicate looks like'. Sure enough, it was. So I did the smart thing and bought the much smaller graeca, even it was less cute than the Sulcata baby. And I'm glad I did!

Now, every time that I see a pic of someone's ginormous Sulcata, I think what a near-miss I had. Pet shops should be obliged by law to show a pic of the baby versus the adult size on every tortoise tank... on every pet cage, full stop.

So that's my two cents, since you asked for it ;-)

 

[dmmj]

I heard they cast spells on you.
But seriously they actually plan on taking over the world. mwahahahaha.
They can be aggressive during mating seaon with other males around (same here). but they tend to like people, propaganda has to grab your attention, otherwise it is not effective.

 

[FLINTUS]

For me, it's not the problem with aggresiveness, but the fact that so many can't find homes when they get bigger. They are overbred. I wouldn't say ban breeding of them as the wild population is in steep decline, but I would say that maybe a permit for them may be better, and you can only incubate a certain number of eggs per female per year.

 

[surfergirl]

My sully has never been aggressive with me. he is over 100lbs 20 years old and definitely does not like being stopped by the grill or lawn furniture. lol! I will say that I make my guests with painted toe nails sign a waiver.... my sully is very active and needs lots of space and I can only hope all people who are considering ownership do their homework before committing to buying one. It is much like any other pets- people are the problem not the pet....they get something on a whim and then figure out they cannot take good care of it. look at all the rehoming of dogs and cats every weekend. I have been shocked by why people give up their pets. some people have good reasons not saying anything about that but some of the reasons i have heard have been crazy to me. i spay and neuter all my dogs and cats asap.

My sully probably has years of pinned up sexual aggression since he has never seen a female and as far as my plans he never will. hopefully this will not harm him but i am good with leaving the breeding of torts to others. i would run out of room quick wanting to keep them all. :0

 

[mike taylor]

My Sally will RAM you for sure . Harry would even give it a try . But like people tortoises have moods . Even if people breed 1000s of tortoises a year you're going to have death rates. Not every Tortoise will live to see a year . Those that hit the year mark may get eaten by a dog or something else. Some keepers may unknowingly step on one . What I'm saying they have mortality rates in captivity also. I personally let my tortoises do what they do .If she lays I destroy the eggs . I love my animals but I don't have time to be caring for 100+ babies every year . I wish we could sell them at higher cost to make people think before they buy . But that's not going to happen . Like Tom said if people are breeding here no body is taking wild ones .