Tortoise at petsmart

[shellbabymom]

Just putting this out there. I went to petsmart the other day and saw a little tort for sale. I would have bought him/her but I don't have the room right now or the budget. It was so cute and obviously not in the ideal environment but for anyone that wants to adopt/save a really little and what appears to be under weight greek tort, it's at the petsmart in chambersburg PA

 

[sibi]

I feel for those torts too. I'm in Florida and the Petsmart store by me never have greeks. They only sell Russians or Hermanns. The Hermann they had there looked like he was fine. He have all the necessary things until I saw that they put him in with other turtles! I'll check in a few days to see if they sold the guy. If he's still there, I'll be coming home with a hermann

 

[Cutva]

We got my 3 Russians form a pets mart because they could hardly turn around and it was to cold...;(

 

[Jacqui]

I feel for those torts too. I'm in Florida and the Petsmart store by me never have greeks. They only sell Russians or Hermanns. The Hermann they had there looked like he was fine. He have all the necessary things until I saw that they put him in with other turtles! I'll check in a few days to see if they sold the guy. If he's still there, I'll be coming home with a hermann

I have not saw a Hermans before in Petsmart. I hope you end up getting him. As for the greek, hopefully he will be bought by some person willing to learn and invest in his future. I think it's a good thing I don't go to these stores often anymore.

 

[Jlant85]

I saw a Hermann tortoise in Petsmart and i didnt hesitate in getting him. It was listed as greek! ^_^v

 

[curiousgeorge58]

My wife and I got two Hermanns from Petsmart in August being sold as Greeks. We "rescued" them because their conditions were horrible and we were looking for two Hermanns anyway. I will tell you we had 300 dollars in vet bills within two weeks though because they both had severe worms.

 

[BeeBee*BeeLeaves]

Auuggghhh. Me, too. In 2012. Walked in for dog food. Walked out with two Greeks. Of which I knew nothing about. Did not even know they existed. I only knew gopherus and sulcata and nothing else. And boy oh boy, I have talked about this drama on other threads, were they shell shocked. Wild caught. Long journey. Once I knew what they had gone through, and were still alive, had to do good on this spontaneous move of mine. No regret allowed.

But all good, I found this forum because of them. Researching for answers. Lots of reading, and reading some more. I did the soaks that Yvonne and Maggie recommended. I did the baby food in the soaks. I kept them hydrated. I was blown away by how they pumped up in the first soak practically. I made sure I boosted up my temps to 90 ambient, as a Greek expert recommended in a post from a couple of years back. I almost went to the vet, but knew it would be best for me to acclimate them first and foremost. Drugs can be so shocking to an already depleted immune system, depleted from all the stress. Took 2 months. Two.months.o.hell, guys. Every day I was sure it was the day when one or the other would die.

Then one day, they ate. Of all things, grated carrots were picked from their salad (of which, for two months, it all ended up with the chickens, or the compost pile). From there on, they were on their way. What a journey.

Point is, if you do fall in love with a pet store tortoise, and you follow your heart and get one, or two like me, please prepare to be well prepared to go the distance. The bonus is that they are older. The bummer is that they are possibly wild caught or farmed so that whole instant bonding that you may get from a baby who has been around hands and food right off the bat, is foreign to them. The food is foreign to them. There is not one salad bar in the Middle East desert(s), I am quite sure. They just do not know. And they are afraid. Their instinct, I am quite sure, tells them they may be dinner and that we see them as food and they may be preyed upon, so they withdraw, scared. So be like a tortoise, patient and steady.

 

[shellbabymom]

That's how I got my greek almost a year ago. I had to get fish food and went to petsmart. My husband and I talked about someday getting a tortoise and that night when we went in we saw this lonely looking greek so the next day we went back and got him. I did it a little backwards because I found this forum not too long after getting him, but better late than never I guess! I have to keep telling myself that some caring person will buy that tort I saw the other day. And I know there are different sub species of greeks but it really didn't look at all like mine. I'm kind of thinking they had it labeled wrong. It had a very dark shell. Hopefully it will have a new home soon.