Tortoises - Advise - Purchase
[Decision helpers]
What should I observe when buying a land tortoise?
Lots of children wish for a tortoise. If you think back to your childhood, you will most probably remember that you also had such a wish. Children are fascinated by tortoises. They must understand that they are not living toys.
Here are some decision helpers:
Tortoises can reach over the age of 70. Lots of reptiles outlive their owners. Tortoises need a lot of room, as they enjoy wondering around. The open air cage in garden should be very large. Keeping tortoises in terrariums is not appropriate to the species and shouldn’t even be considered.
The cage must be cleaned every day (food rests and droppings must be removed), otherwise you will soon have an odour problem or a worm infestation.
Should the climate in Germany get worse, then the animals will need to temporarily put in a greenhouse or hotbed. This must be equipped with enough apparatus (heat lamp, heat source, shelter, etc).
Do you have a cellar in which the room temperature does not sink below 3 - 4 degrees Celsius? If not, then you will need to consider another alternative for your tortoise. Tortoises need to hibernate in a 5 - 8 degree Celsius cellar.
Keeping tortoises is also very expensive. They may need heating. They need to visit the vet regularly. The food needs to - if possible - come from biological cultivation. Sprayed fruit and vegetables are very damaging!
You cannot simply billet out tortoises when you go on holiday. Tortoises are animals of habit and need their trusted environment. I don’t want to discourage you from buying a tortoise. Just consider exactly if a tortoise is the right pet for you.
You should definitely observe that only open air keeping of a tortoise is appropriate to the species!
Can my tortoise tolerate other pets?
It’s dependant on the individual pets. You cannot say that tortoises tolerate cats or dogs or not across the board. Dogs and cats can however seriously injure tortoises and therefore they should never be left without supervision.
[Cost and Effort]
It is very interesting to keep tortoises, however you should previously consider the time, effort and costs: buying a tortoise, is depending on it’s age, expensive. For small tortoises you need a terrarium. But that is not all. The equipment for the terrarium need electric and tortoise food is also not cheap. Furthermore you need an open air cage / garden that is appropriate for the species. This can also be cost intensive, depending on the size. Furthermore, you need to consider the time that a tortoise needs. Here is a small summary of how much care a tortoise approximately needs:Checklist: Care Effort for Tortoises:
Daily:
Feeding the tortoise
Offering the tortoise fresh water
Removing droppings and food rests from the terrarium or open air cage
During the mating season: checking the egg laying place and if necessary, removing the eggs
Annually:
Completely cleaning the terrarium
Have dropping samples tested by the vet
Replace luminescent lights (special reptile lamps with UV contingent)
What should I do with my tortoise if I want to go on holiday?
If you go on holiday, you need a competent substitute. In an open air cage, you can leave tortoises without supervision for a few days, but this can have bad consequences in a terrarium. I want to mention once more, that an exclusive keeping in a terrarium is not appropriate for this species! It should be avoided for this reason! It is normally enough if you leave your substitute a checklist of things that need to be done. However, you should leave the telephone number of your hotel in case there are any problems with the tortoise.
[Purchasing a Tortoise]
Where can I buy a tortoise?You can buy tortoises in zoological shops, at dealers or privately. I would like to discourage you from purchasing in a zoological shop, as normally they do not keep the animals as appropriate to the species. The magazine “Das Anziegen-Journal” comes out 4 times a year and has the addresses of tortoise dealers. You can receive “Das Anziegen-Journal” if you are a member for the DGHT (foundation for herpetology and terrariums).
What should I observe when buying a tortoise?
You should do a small health check when buying a tortoise, so that you can recognise immediately if it is healthy or not.
Health Checklist:
1. The seller should offer the animal food - a healthy tortoise will go forward with a large appetite.
2. The tortoise should not have any injuries or parasites.
3. The shell should be hard, only the shell of newborns or young animals is soft.
4. The eyes are open and clear. The eye socket is not sunken.
5. The animal makes no breathing noises and doesn’t have either slime or bubbles coming out of it’s mouth or nose.
6. The tortoise walks with strength. The stomach shell is slightly lifted. The back legs are not tailing.
7. The shell is shaped as appropriate for the species.
[Hibernation]
Tortoises that hibernate should only be bought between May and September. You should not make your purchase any later, as they could be already sleepy and you cannot carry out your health check properly. Animals that do not hibernate may be purchased all year round.[Single, Pair or Groups?]
Tortoises usually live in small groups in their home country. If you have ever taken holiday in another European country, you have probably seen tortoises. You probably noticed, that once you have seen one tortoise, the next cannot be far away. That’s why it is always possible that you meet two or three animals. Tortoises normally search for food alone. They do however need fellows that sometimes cross their paths. They are loners, but they only live their natural manners in small groups. Different types or tortoises can only be kept together in a terrarium or open air cage if they come from similar climates. Otherwise is keeping different types of tortoises inappropriate. Find out from what climate a animal comes from before buying it.[Cross Breeds]
You must avoid cross breads!Tortoises are usually separated in the wildness by hills, rivers, gorges, forests or similar. This is why they cannot multiply themselves with another. Should one keep different types of tortoises, it is possible that they will mate. Keeping different types is therefore unsuitable as it is inappropriate for the species.