Tortoise Mart??

Taco & Tortilla

New Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2019
Messages
14
Location (City and/or State)
St. Albert, ALberta, Canada
Hello,

I am still on my search for egyptian tortoises to adopt up in Canada and I came across tortoisemart.com. Now after going through their website, I feel I have finally found the light at the end of the tunnel. There were some red flags going off about their website that sounded a bit too good to be true, like no visits to see the tort you want to adopt just shipping only (I read the reasoning behind it and I understand why they choose to operate that way), nothing regarding CITE import/export permits, no health guarantee during the shipping phase and the big one for me, only reviews I can find are the positive reviews posted on the feedback section of the website yet no reviews on the tortoise shop page under the specific species.

I have reached out via email on friday with some questions and haven't heard back from them. I know it's the weekend and don't expect a reply quite yet. The overall presentation looks great great I'm just concerned it's too good to be true (really don't want it to be). Has anyone on here adopted through this website and can they provide me with some feedback to substantiate their claims.

PS they are located in Texas as far as the website tells me.

Thanks for reading,
Ryan & Rebecca
 

SweetGreekTorts

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Messages
980
Location (City and/or State)
Tucson, AZ
Based on everything you just described, I see a huge red flag. Places like that are not good. They don't breed tortoises, they buy them wholesale from other breeders and turn around to sell them. Every private breeder I know allows visits to customers. You also would need some kind of paperwork to take a tortoise from the United States into Canada. I do not recommend shipping because it takes longer to go through Customs so it would not be a quick overnight ordeal like it needs to be.

Stick with a private breeder, not a tortoise farm. You'll get a much healthier tortoise that was started correctly, and is straight from the original source.
 

Taco & Tortilla

New Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2019
Messages
14
Location (City and/or State)
St. Albert, ALberta, Canada
I agree, the only problem is many of the private breeders I have reached out to tell me they don't want to deal with the CITE export permit even if I tell them I want to drive and pick them up.
 

SweetGreekTorts

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Messages
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Location (City and/or State)
Tucson, AZ
Then I would keep searching in Canada. There could be a breeder up there. I just know that tortoise farms are the worst places to buy from. The CITES paperwork is required for the tortoise, no matter who you purchase from in the United States.
 

SweetGreekTorts

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Location (City and/or State)
Tucson, AZ
That’s 20 miles from me... wonder if I could drop by... lol
I've never heard of them before, and looking through their website it seems shady. They aren't on Facebook. They don't list on Fauna Classifieds. Those are two places most breeders advertise what they have for sale.

I Googled their street which says is in Dallas Fort Worth.

There's an Instagram account for Tortoise Mart which identifies itself as a business, but it says location in San Antonio, TX.

No BBB record of a "Tortoise Mart" in either Fort Worth or San Antonio.
 

SweetGreekTorts

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Joined
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Messages
980
Location (City and/or State)
Tucson, AZ
Phone number search reveals it's a non-fixed VoIP (Skype or Google Voice), registered in Edgerton, WI.

So the phone # they list isn't even a regular phone for a landline or mobile.
 

Taco & Tortilla

New Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2019
Messages
14
Location (City and/or State)
St. Albert, ALberta, Canada
Starting to sound to good to be true lol. I have been keeping in touch with c and c, they aren't aware of any breeders in canada for egyptian. I goal was to actually acquire a breeding pair, through any legal means and maybe start a partnership with then lol, but they don't know that yet. They cover both costs of canada easy enough and maybe I can be a good central prairie hub! I just sent a message to SNS.
 

SweetGreekTorts

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Joined
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Messages
980
Location (City and/or State)
Tucson, AZ
Starting to sound to good to be true lol. I have been keeping in touch with c and c, they aren't aware of any breeders in canada for egyptian. I goal was to actually acquire a breeding pair, through any legal means and maybe start a partnership with then lol, but they don't know that yet. They cover both costs of canada easy enough and maybe I can be a good central prairie hub! I just sent a message to SNS.
Any breeders in Canada had to import their tortoises, so they would definitely have resources where you could do that yourself for Egyptians. I'm sure lots of paperwork and fees involved, but it seems like you would be the first and only to have the species in your country [emoji106]
 

Kapidolo Farms

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10 Year Member!
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Messages
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Location (City and/or State)
South of Southern California, but not Mexico
Hello,

I am still on my search for egyptian tortoises to adopt up in Canada and I came across tortoisemart.com. Now after going through their website, I feel I have finally found the light at the end of the tunnel. There were some red flags going off about their website that sounded a bit too good to be true, like no visits to see the tort you want to adopt just shipping only (I read the reasoning behind it and I understand why they choose to operate that way), nothing regarding CITE import/export permits, no health guarantee during the shipping phase and the big one for me, only reviews I can find are the positive reviews posted on the feedback section of the website yet no reviews on the tortoise shop page under the specific species.

I have reached out via email on friday with some questions and haven't heard back from them. I know it's the weekend and don't expect a reply quite yet. The overall presentation looks great great I'm just concerned it's too good to be true (really don't want it to be). Has anyone on here adopted through this website and can they provide me with some feedback to substantiate their claims.

PS they are located in Texas as far as the website tells me.

Thanks for reading,
Ryan & Rebecca

all that text and no link?
 

Toddrickfl1

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Company has no Facebook page. In this day and age, that's a huge red flag.
 

Toddrickfl1

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Aldabra tortoises for $1800? Id bet money That's a scammer page.
 

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