Best tortoise for me

[TortTango]

Hello, I live in Northern Michigan so it's a pretty cold environment with fairly warm humid summers. Therefore I would want a year round tortoise enclosure setup, without taking up a massive amount of space. I have gotten so many different facts about tortoise size, enclosure size for said tortoise and I figured I'd ask people who know about them the most.

What tortoise out of Greeks, Hermanns and Russians are the hardiest, personable, smallest and would be best for a 45 degree latitude climate?

 

[lynnedit]

I'm not sure you could create a year round outdoor tortoise set up in your climate w/o a heated and insulated shed. Depending on the tortoise, you would want at least 10'x3' outside enclosure, but the bigger, the better. They will use all of it.
Hermann's (eastern) tortoises seem to tolerate moisture (humidity) a bit better, so that might be better than a Russian. Redfoots and box turtles do well in humidity,but again, the winters would have to be dealt with.

 

[biochemnerd808]

If you are looking for a tortoise that stays small, I'd take a redfoot out of the list, as they do get quite a big bigger. Russians roam a larger territory in the wild than Greeks, but since captive pen size is SO much smaller than in the wild, it likely won't make much of a difference. Russian males usually only grow to about 5.5" while females can get much bigger (up to 10", although that rarely happens). Depending on what subspecies of Greek we're talking about, some can get up to 10-12", but some rarely grow bigger than 5", especially the males.

When you say 'year round tortoise set-up' do you mean year-round indoors? Or year-round outdoors? The latter would be really hard to do in Michigan. If you have an indoor enclosure for the cold season, it would be really good if you have at least a temporary pen outdoors for the Summer. In the past I used a kid-pool with some shade and hide spots, this year we are building a 'raised bed' type outdoor enclosure.

For an indoor enclosure the ABSOLUTE minimum is 2'x4' - that's assuming the tortoise will have more room to roam in the summer. Bigger is always better.

I'm not sure you could create a year round outdoor tortoise set up in your climate w/o a heated and insulated shed. Depending on the tortoise, you would want at least 10'x3' outside enclosure, but the bigger, the better. They will use all of it.
Hermann's (eastern) tortoises seem to tolerate moisture (humidity) a bit better, so that might be better than a Russian. Redfoots and box turtles do well in humidity,but again, the winters would have to be dealt with.

 

[TortTango]

If you are looking for a tortoise that stays small, I'd take a redfoot out of the list, as they do get quite a big bigger. Russians roam a larger territory in the wild than Greeks, but since captive pen size is SO much smaller than in the wild, it likely won't make much of a difference. Russian males usually only grow to about 5.5" while females can get much bigger (up to 10", although that rarely happens). Depending on what subspecies of Greek we're talking about, some can get up to 10-12", but some rarely grow bigger than 5", especially the males.

When you say 'year round tortoise set-up' do you mean year-round indoors? Or year-round outdoors? The latter would be really hard to do in Michigan. If you have an indoor enclosure for the cold season, it would be really good if you have at least a temporary pen outdoors for the Summer. In the past I used a kid-pool with some shade and hide spots, this year we are building a 'raised bed' type outdoor enclosure.

For an indoor enclosure the ABSOLUTE minimum is 2'x4' - that's assuming the tortoise will have more room to roam in the summer. Bigger is always better.

I heard a russian or hermann would suit our climate zone the best. I included my climate zone only because I don't have a full air conditioned house, and my room can get fairly cold at times. I am going to hopefully build a 2X5 table, maybe creating 2 levels. I would like a tortoise that would feel comfortable in a 10-15sq ft total space. I'd also like a humid setup, to me a desert looking aquarium doesn't seem too appealing to have in my room. However, I also would like a somewhat personable tortoise that isn't too shy and likes to explore, rather than burrow most of it's time.