Which is the most destructive tortoise, relative to size?

[RosemaryDW]

Our Russian seems bent on eating or trampling every thing in the yard this year. I know they're scrappy but she's got a very large space with plenty to eat and do. She was active last spring but not like this.

I can only imagine what it takes to feed and occupy a sulcata.

 

[Tom]

Sulcata. Hands down. No question, no doubt, no discussion.

 

[Big Charlie]

Sulcatas are bulldozers! Charlie has broken many sprinklers, dragged teak lounge chairs all over the yard, and dug a burrow that may have resulted in the collapse of our house if we had let it continue.

 

[TammyJ]

So there is one sure way to tell if your sulcata is healthy...!

 

[Minos90]

What about Galapagos Tortoises?

 

[JoesMum]

What about Galapagos Tortoises?

They're big, but don't go for the brute force approach to getting what they want.

Sulcatas go where they darn well please by the most direct route possible AND they dig burrows... or possibly cave systems given they can weigh 200lb.

 

[Minos90]

That's true. My big guy is 130lbs and has destroyed more stuff than I can list.
He was about to dig a burrow but I built him a nice barn with insulation and a heat lamp and he hasn't felt the need to burrow since.

 

[Yvonne G]

My Aldabran tortoises are over 200lbs. They are very gentle. However, they have no respect for fences, and they know their strength. When people come over to "take the tour" we can't stand on the outside of the fence looking in, we have to go in their yard to look at them, because SO will just walk right through the fence to get to us. If there are no people outside the fence, the fence is safe, but people? He acts like the fence isn't even there. (but they don't dig, thank goodness)

 

[Alicia Hoogstra]

This is too funny! My tiny little Luna is already bull-headed, sooo different from my little Lilly who is older! I can just imagine what a stinker she'll be when she's bigger

 

[RosemaryDW]

I was thinking more irrespective to size. For example, if you had a Russian the size of a Sulcata, which would be the more destructive?

Or a tiny, but adult, sulcata?

If that makes sense.

 

[JoesMum]

I was thinking more irrespective to size. For example, if you had a Russian the size of a Sulcata, which would be the more destructive?

Or a tiny, but adult, sulcata?

If that makes sense.

They're probably about equal when they're the same size, but that doesn't last long as Sulcatas grow so quickly. My money is still on the Sulcata

 

[Yvonne G]

Actually, sulcatas take the prize. They don't go around anything. They go through it. Even if they were small, they still have the bulldozer mentality. Russian tortoises don't have that mentality.

 

[Big Charlie]

That's true. My big guy is 130lbs and has destroyed more stuff than I can list.
He was about to dig a burrow but I built him a nice barn with insulation and a heat lamp and he hasn't felt the need to burrow since.

That's been my experience too so far since we gave him a heated night box. It's been 2 years. He digs a shallow depression under a bush for cooling off in the summer.

 

[GingerLove]

I feel like Sulcatas are the most destructive... but if a Russian were the size of a Sulcata... they would be second most destructive! You might find a massive Russian climbing over your fence rather than digging under it!!! They are acrobats. Ginger has broken down a barrier that weighed 20lbs. She only weighs one and a half pounds.

 

[Korall]

Well, my little hingeback did manage to cut off a bush from its roots in his enclosure, without even eating from it xP

 

[harris]

I'm always horrified when I go to a pet store here in NE Ohio and see that they have Sulcata youngsters for sale. 99.5% of them have no chance of surviving long term. People have no idea what they're getting in to when purchasing and the seller simply doesn't care or are ignorant to it as well.

 

[Minos90]

Actually, sulcatas take the prize. They don't go around anything. They go through it. Even if they were small, they still have the bulldozer mentality. Russian tortoises don't have that mentality.

One of my Russians does!! He goes through the fences and plants and pots and under bricks just to try to escape. He's a fiesty little one