What To Do About Pics Of Inappropriate Tortoise Practices?

leigti

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Oh man, sorry about that It seems Siri does not understand the word pyramid. I realize it is caused by poor care but often people get their tortoises and they already have the issue. Or they just don't know any better. So I agree that it is a problem but I can understand why people start feeling defensive about it. It all comes back around to taking as good a care of your animal as you can. But people don't know what they don't know. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't understand what the person was seen as far as what they don't care about anymore.
 

leigti

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Sometimes the threads that get the most critical or informative responses have to do with people getting a new hatchling. They are hit with a lot of information very quickly. A new owner may not understand how fragile a hatchling can be and that it is important to get the environment right as quickly as possible.
 

Cowboy_Ken

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My large, smooth, female sulcata that is fostered out right now was raised in Idaho of all places. I had money with me at the time earmarked for another prearranged, female pancake purchase. The folks with Makita,(sulcata) were nice folks moving but didn't want to take her. They were asking $500 for. I couldn't do that. All I had was $200 so I asked them if they'd do it. I stepped back to give them room to talk. They talked and the wife looked up at me and said yes. Other than my hatchling I got from Tom, this is the only time I've paid for a sulcata. I did it because she's beautiful and I wanted to insure she was with someone that understood that. Here is here picture and I hope you agree…ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1444536034.650196.jpg those are 8"x8" pieces of lumber.
 

DawnH

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I haven't read all nine pages of comments but...

I have seen a few people taken over the coals a lot on TFO. It's a huge bummer for me. I get it when the same person has five different threads and they are just not getting it on all five threads (and are impervious to the advice given) but it breaks my heart when someone is obviously TRYING and they are treated like crap.

I've left the forum before because of this.

I get it. It's frustrating to repeat the same things over and over and over and over. Now that I know "more" (then I did two years ago) I find myself with that same frustration at times. I won't comment on the post though because I know that at that moment, I am a bit of a cranky pants and need to keep my mouth shut. Basic husbandry issues, no life and death stuff...

Kindness goes a long way. If I post a photo of Tuleo eating a bit of watermelon I don't want to hear from 10 people how he really shouldn't have that. I would ASSUME (key word) that given two years of posting everyone knows that it is treat. Not done often, therefor I want to share this cute picture with you.

There is not a set way to raise these torts. We taken in all the advice and tweak and mold for what works right for us. We do the best we can in our personal environment and there is nothing wrong with that. I love learning new things, and reading from those who think outside of the box.

It's funny that I stumbled across this tonight... I took a photo of Tuleo in our kitchen sink tonight (posted in the Sulcata section) and I wanted to post it HERE, on this forum, among people who would "get it" (dirty dishes need to wait, soaking tortoise comes first.) I had a fleeting thought of "I wonder if anyone is gonna say anything negative about the fact that dishes are near him/he is in the kitchen sink/whatever."

That is kinda sad.
 

ascott

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My large, smooth, female sulcata that is fostered out right now was raised in Idaho of all places. I had money with me at the time earmarked for another prearranged, female pancake purchase. The folks with Makita,(sulcata) were nice folks moving but didn't want to take her. They were asking $500 for. I couldn't do that. All I had was $200 so I asked them if they'd do it. I stepped back to give them room to talk. They talked and the wife looked up at me and said yes. Other than my hatchling I got from Tom, this is the only time I've paid for a sulcata. I did it because she's beautiful and I wanted to insure she was with someone that understood that. Here is here picture and I hope you agree…View attachment 151898 those are 8"x8" pieces of lumber.

Absolutely lovely tortoise...
 

dmmj

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@Cowboy_Ken. that is a absolutely beautiful tortoise
 

Yvonne G

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I dont know why you feel the need to not post here much and or why you would want to google for info. There is so much out there that is bad. As for our members not being genuine. I think your wrong here too. Animal people in general are very genuine and care about your tort/animal almost as much as their own. When people post about pyramiding, it's usually to help you and believe it or not, many don't know that tortoises are not suppose to be bumpy. Many of us have pyramided tortoises, bad Google info is the reason for some of us. A search of Google will show a lot of pyramided tortoises and most of the care advice out there will help you achieve a pyramided tortoises. I do hope you will do your tort good by at least search for,the correct info on this forum. If you don't want to post, that's sad, but you can sure still read as much info from this forum as needed.

I have two very large Aldabra tortoises that are quite bumpy. I'm ashamed! I raised them from babies, but I didn't know about the humid/hot method of helping the tortoise to grow smoothly. So they were raised dry. I also have three 11 year old Yellowfooted tortoises that look like pine cones and they have bitten off each others' tails. I'm ashamed of that too. If I had it to do over again would I raise bumpy tortoises? I doubt it. Thank goodness for the info posted on this forum!
 

leigti

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You did not have the information you needed to keep your tortoises from being bumpy. Now you do. And you follow it. Nothing wrong with that. The crime is if you have the information and you still don't use it. Basically just about all the information people need is here on this forum, it's their choice if they use it or not.
 

Cowboy_Ken

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ascott & dmmj, thank you. But other than continued care I can't take credit for her growth. That said, I'm sure you see why I wanted her to the point of even paying money for her. Would have been broken hearted to see someone that showed up for a couple bearded dragons and no tortoise experience walking out with her.
 

Cowboy_Ken

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The crime is if you have the information and you still don't use it. Basically just about all the information people need is here on this forum, it's their choice if they use it or not.
This is the precise reason I bought Little Ricky from Tom. I knew it could be done and I had to prove it. Tom, at the time was the only breeder I trusted to start them right. If you haven't seen him, here's Little Ricky, ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1444541394.929336.jpg
 

reptimomAZ

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I'm new and would hope for nothing but complete honesty from this type of forum. If I post something and you see room for improvement or some sort of red flag please please please tell me because I want my baby to live a long, healthy life! I think it is a good idea to point out concerns especially because not every thread is read. As long as it's done with respect and the tort's best interest it isn't a personal attack, right? Just a heads up since we all here because we all care :)
 

Kapidolo Farms

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It's kind of like going out to dinner with a group that includes vegans, gluten-free, Paleo, etc, that want to lecture me about my beer and hamburger. If I'm in good health (I am) and my doctor's not worried about (he's not) then unsolicited advice is annoying and more than a little presumptuous.
Seems like a confusion of cultural choices with nutritional ones.
 

wellington

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I have two very large Aldabra tortoises that are quite bumpy. I'm ashamed! I raised them from babies, but I didn't know about the humid/hot method of helping the tortoise to grow smoothly. So they were raised dry. I also have three 11 year old Yellowfooted tortoises that look like pine cones and they have bitten off each others' tails. I'm ashamed of that too. If I had it to do over again would I raise bumpy tortoises? I doubt it. Thank goodness for the info posted on this forum!

Same with my leopard Tatum. I did try to do the home work, unfortunately I listened to the wrong person. When I realized something seemed off, I finally found this forum, unfortunately, it was too late. I too would love a do over. If we had known though from the get go, we would have done it right. If I ever hatch out any leopards, I will at least be able to do it right with them.
 

wellington

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This is the precise reason I bought Little Ricky from Tom. I knew it could be done and I had to prove it. Tom, at the time was the only breeder I trusted to start them right. If you haven't seen him, here's Little Ricky, View attachment 151902

Beautiful guy you got there.
That's what I want to do if I ever have any viable leopard eggs. I will start them all out the right way and keep at least one to continue growing smooth and depending on who (if non forum members)gets the others, all of the forum info will be going with them.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Have you ever driven up to a blind interesection, without a stop sign and stopped anyways? Have you ever driven up to an intersection where you could see oncoming traffic for many 10th's of miles, it was all clear, and you still stopped because the sign was there.

Similar to blindly following stop signs when there is clearly no danger, and stopping when danger might be there, yet there is not a sign are both behavioral conservative actions.

I advocate conservative keeping, statistically it will be safer more successful keeping.

What I believe I understand from the concern raised at the first post here are images that are incomplete pictures of the care.

I posted a movie of the Aldabra tortoises at a friend's house and a giant doberman keeps walking back and forth. What's a teenager in there first few dozen miles of driving going to see as the take home message when I sorta roll through that stop sign at the intersection of road 125 and 157th Avenue in the valley of freshly plowed wheat fields( I can see 1/4 mile in every direction)?

The 1000 words in the picture are open to interpretation by the viewer. Each viewer will have some of those thousand words in common. Those words not in common can be problematic.

That doberman see tortoises as candy factories (feces) and is under close supervision, just for the purpose of keeping her on a diet with less candy.

I've posted images of pancakes with leopards, mixed species, yes. Likely disease transmission, no.
They all hatched in the same incubator, side by side. Genetic disease don't transmit that way.

But in both cases these extra unshared 1000 words send a conflicted message when I also write and or agree that dogs and tortoises don't mix, nor should you mix species.

What to do?

Listen and learn, read and learn, suffer in silence when the reasonable advise, despite the apparent conflict in message(image and text), is ignored.

But then someone has a Bad tortoise experience, so who needs tortoises anyways, there just stupid animals.

Images with disclaimers seem snarky or smirky to me, don't do this at home, I'm a professional, don't attempt this on an open road, driving in this commercial was done on a closed course by professional drivers.

SOPs with oversight are how professionals do work it out. SOPs are really SSOPs "suggested standard operating procedures". There are always exceptions to standards, but they are done with oversight.

People come here to be policed as far as I can tell, might not be a best choice of a way to put it, but that's what they come for.
 

AnimalLady

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*pops out from under rock* things chill out here? I kid, i kid.

Well, I want to say...
I searched the internet for hours and days on how to properly care for a tort. my husband brought me a RT he found, i didn't know anything at all about him. I started googling, a day later, my poor tort died. I know if i would have soaked him in carrot, i probably could have helped more (i learned this HERE). SO, this is how my tort journey began. Fell in love with that tort, he died, i decided to read and read and learn and research before I got one. HERE is where i landed. I had so many questions and so many of you helped me. You told me how to choose a healthy tort and how to set him up.
I am very familiar with forums, no expert (heh) but I've been on many forums before. Before this tort journey I was a rabbit freak, i was apart of a rabbit forum... its the same thing everywhere! They wanted to see everyones set up to HELP. To let people know what was right and what was wrong. A lot of times it comes off like the people are just judging, but i personally learned in forum world, that's not the case. So when i came on here and showed you all a picture of my enclosure. sure i got some criticism, i thought it was only normal. My enclosure needs to be bigger, i need to secure it more, i needed a new water dish. All of these things were told to me, and i felt happy that people were responding! I didn't feel like i was being judged harshly. That doesnt mean i'm going to do exactly as they say, but i do take their recommendations into great consideration. I personally have received some responses that blow me away. paragraphs upon paragraphs of a response, that really makes me feel the person who is replying actually cares and wants to help.. i mean, who types up all of that if they didn't care and want to see the tort doing good? there are so many different people here from all over, and personalities are different, but that's the beauty in all of this! Plus, i wear my big girl panties, ALWAYS, so I'm good. No worries with my feelers getting hurt :D

Its just hard to tell someone what they've been working on, obsessing over, is wrong, isn't good enough or needs to change. Its just the way it is. Not everyone will be happy and willing to learn, but for the ones who are (like myself) I find this forum super helpful, pretty damn entertaining, and freggin addicting! For example, the other day I was on a FB RT group and told someone their enclosure was too small for a Russian, heck for a tortoise all together. I tried to say it in the most polite way as possible "Oh! That looks great, but, I'm afraid an adult Russian needs more space than that, maybe you can add to it so the tort has more roaming room?" I got shut down. I was told i didn't know what I was talking about and that her tort was happy and she didn't need to dedicate her entire home to a tort like us "crazies" yea, she was a number lol. What did i do? I cracked up! She got butt hurt and i didn't mean it that way. My response to her was "Alllllrighhttttyyy then" The end! I take nothing to heart.

As for the information~ I don't always just take the information im given here and call it a day. I research, i try to find more information on the response. Then, i make an informed decision. I always wonder, but, why, who, where, when?! ALWAYS, my brain questions everything, it can be quite annoying..

anywho... that is all i wanted to say!

:)
 

Kapidolo Farms

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This is the precise reason I bought Little Ricky from Tom. I knew it could be done and I had to prove it. Tom, at the time was the only breeder I trusted to start them right. If you haven't seen him, here's Little Ricky, View attachment 151902
I don't know Ken, that tortoise looks awfully domed and rounded. Those growth rings are very uniform and consistent. Maybe you should start feeding less hay and grasses. ;)
 

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