Where did everyone get their tortoises?

Big Charlie

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Charlie came from a local pet store. He came with a sheet of instructions from the breeder. The pet store gave a lot of bad information, and sold me the wrong equipment, but the instructions from the breeder told me to soak every day. This was 19 years ago when there wasn't a lot of correct information about how to raise sulcatas.
 

Razan

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Oh my gosh, look at the size of that tortoise! How cool is that.
That’s a hoot! Putting an address label on his shell. Why aren’t you suppose to do that?
Thanks for posting, great story.

The CA Desert Tortoise is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. As such it is illegal to attach anything to their shell or body. Fortunately my tortoise was always returned by a neighbor and not the tortoise police, ha ha.
 
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Lyn W

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Lola my leopard was found in a field by a friend. All attempts to find the owner failed.
My sister was going to give him a home so I became his half way house.
There was a change of plan and 4 years later he's still with me.
 

KBeam

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I was curious where everyone purchased their tortoises.


Mine I got shipped from RED FOOT RANCH

I have a Eastern Hermanns from Chris Leone at Hermanni Haven (@HermanniChris). After a lot of research and deciding on a testudo and being a first time tortoise keeper, I decided to go with an expert. You may have to wait, but his prices are really competitive and it comes with a life time of support [emoji16]!
 

ZEROPILOT

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Underground reptiles had good prices I thought. They were sold out too.
I am very happy with my little guy from Bill.
He has alot of pretty coloring. He isnt really a red foot, more like an orange foot.:)
I love it though, he is different.
I've known Rian. Owner of Underground Reptiles for over 25 years. (Back then he worked out of a tiny warehouse unit called "box of snakes".)
He is slow with the times on his care sheets and beliefs about tortoise care.
I've also noticed he keeps hatchling tortoises on dry pellet substrate. More concerned about money than animal welfare. And I suppose that makes good business sense.
He's a good guy. But I can NOT recommend purchasing a tortoise there. Because babies without a good start in life seldom thrive.
 

Wirewehear

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My firsts are CDT that were adopted from a woman who admitted she didnt give them the time or care they needed. They are registered and were 5yrs old when I got them. Then came Mo, a sulcata, about a year later from a guy who had 2 of them living in a small cement patio area. She was 37lbs then (twice that now) and his male was fighting her for space, apparently. A week later I found out that the other Sulcata the guy had was partially paralyzed and really wasnt in a very good situation so I talked him into giving me Kona since I have a decent sized grazing space for them. I've had no problem with them fighting. But 3 weeks after getting Kona ( and is when I found TFO for help) he started 'displaying' but because of his rear end paralysis he couldnt retract. So came the infamous surgery, some here will remember, in having his penis amputated. Then came Jenny my 3rd Sulcata from another person in the neighborhood. The owner didnt want her because she was getting too big. (What the hell did she think she had when she bought her?)
So thats it for me. I've had many try to give me more Sulcatas but my yard is just enough for the three of them. I wish people would really think hard and consider what thay are getting into when they buy big tortoises.
 

ZEROPILOT

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Julio. The tortoise I am keeping now was purchased from the SWAP SHOP. A gigantic flea market. She was sold to me as a male and was on pine shavings in a tiny aquarium with no water and some iceberg lettuce.
I believe she cost me $80.
 

Toddrickfl1

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Julio. The tortoise I am keeping now was purchased from the SWAP SHOP. A gigantic flea market. She was sold to me as a male and was on pine shavings in a tiny aquarium with no water and some iceberg lettuce.
I believe she cost me $80.
Did you attend the circus while you were there?
 

NEtorts

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I got my Sulcata from Abbots turtle farm in Cocoa Beach FL. He was a ping pong ball sized treasure .... I could be wrong but I think The Abbots May have passed away? Seems like i heard that. But They were very nice and helpful. IMG_0909.jpg

Now , 16 Year’s later. Oscar likes to play chase with our bulldog. I know people frown on dogs and torts interacting. But they do seem to enjoy interacting with each other. Always supervised of coarse.
Chris
 

ZEROPILOT

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I got my Sulcata from Abbots turtle farm in Cocoa Beach FL. He was a ping pong ball sized treasure .... I could be wrong but I think The Abbots May have passed away? Seems like i heard that. But They were very nice and helpful. View attachment 239324

Now , 16 Year’s later. Oscar likes to play chase with our bulldog. I know people frown on dogs and torts interacting. But they do seem to enjoy interacting with each other. Always supervised of coarse.
Chris
At that size, the Sulcata might win any fight.
 

katieandiggy

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After coming on here months before actually buying my tortoise, I went against everything I knew was right!

I was planning on buying a Greek hatchling from my local reptile specialist. They hatched them, and I knew how they had been started.

Instead I went to Jolly’s Pets which I can only imagine is identical to Petsmart and bought a baby Russian who was being kept all wrong! I just felt sorry for it and I wanted to offer it a better life.
Needless to say it was kept way too dry and was passing grit urates for 2 weeks. Much better now though after daily soaks. The guy in the shop was lovely, he told me lots of good information about what to not feed, he knew all about Oxilates, yet I find them at the store still feeding pepper (capsicum) broccoli and iceberg.
 

Beasty_Artemis

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I spent a couple of years making sure to research red foots before I ordered mine. I had wanted to rescue an adult tortoise off of craigslist, but that just never ended up happening. I went to a reptile expo in Portland, OR , but didn't end up getting a tortoise on that adventure, either. Probably a very, very good thing! I took my sweet time looking at every breeder that I could find online. I want to add that I was never trying to find the "cheapest" baby red foots. I wanted the best started babies. I ended up choosing to order from Vicki, at
The Tortoise Yard ( Tortoiseyard.com) Her hatchlings are $100. They are really well started and healthy ! So I ordered Artemis from Alabama, and she was shipped to Rockaway Beach, Oregon! Great job shipping her too! I remember that I chose her because she has a black beak, instead of a lighter yellow beak! Oh boy was she a tiny little baby when I first held her in my hand! 442.jpeg
 

Redfool

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I got my Sulcata from Abbots turtle farm in Cocoa Beach FL. He was a ping pong ball sized treasure .... I could be wrong but I think The Abbots May have passed away? Seems like i heard that. But They were very nice and helpful. View attachment 239324

Now , 16 Year’s later. Oscar likes to play chase with our bulldog. I know people frown on dogs and torts interacting. But they do seem to enjoy interacting with each other. Always supervised of coarse.
Chris

I also got my RFs from Charles Abbott of Abbott’s tortoise farm in Cocoa FL (Canaveral Groves).He and his wife have both passed away and his tortoise farm was closed. They were very informative and helpful. One of the five that I got from him was a Corn Island redfoot that is considerably smaller than the others I got from him. My first was purchased from him in 1985. All are over thirty years old.
IMG_0987.jpg
 

NEtorts

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I also got my RFs from Charles Abbott of Abbott’s tortoise farm in Cocoa FL (Canaveral Groves).He and his wife have both passed away and his tortoise farm was closed. They were very informative and helpful. One of the five that I got from him was a Corn Island redfoot that is considerably smaller than the others I got from him. My first was purchased from him in 1985. All are over thirty years old.
View attachment 239379

Thanks for the confirmation, although very sad, they were good folks. Well versed in turtle and tortoise breeding and keeping.

Your RF’s are beautiful. I love when people have had their Torts for the entire life of the specimen. And when we know where and who they came from. So much better than factory born animals At least it seems that way.
 

NEtorts

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At that size, the Sulcata might win any fight.

He’s actually really small for his age. I live in the far North east so he can only get outside to graze about 4/5 months so he has extremely slow growth. Healthy. But slow
He’s about 80lbs I think. I think I will weigh him this weekend! ;)
 
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