I'm a bit curious though as I am sort of new to the tortoise world, you seem to have a good selection of captive bred tortoises - is there any particular reason you supplement that with a small selection of wild caught tortoises?
We offer WC tortoises because many, many people want to breed them, and WC tortoises offer an advantage of several years as well as essentially a whole new set of bloodlines. In putting together a breeding group, it can be difficult to find CB tortoises from several people in the same year of the same locale to keep everything unrelated. WC shipments are generally all the same type of tortoise, whether it's Greeks or whatever, so buying a few from the same shipment you usually have all the same subspecies. Being from the wild, you can pretty much assume they're not related; at least not enough that it's a concern. Besides sulcatas and leopards, most of our breeding groups are made up of originally WC animals.
goldie said:I am sorry to create such a stir just throwing it out there since I got so much crap from people when I said I was purchasing a wc tortoise. I would only purchase from a place I know would provide me with an excellent tortoises. My first tortoise was a hatchling I purchased from you Tyler and he is flourishing and so awesome. I am actually excited about caring for The Butcher(wc name) to arrive..I am ready to take over the care and provide my torty with the excellent care you provided. I just wanted to know why people were giving me so much crap for it.. but yes post was reputable breeder so a very trusted source..so thats why I was confused as to why people were still against it.
opps and I didn't mean anyone here(crap)and when I say wc I just mean not captive since that is the first thing people ask me. okay I will take my foot out of my mouth now! lol I will post pics when The Butcher arrives tomorrow
Oh it's no big deal at all.... I don't deny that there are plenty of bad places (particularly in FL where they import into) that house them in bad conditions, but it really has little to do with them being WC.... They house CB stuff in bad conditions too. When the last shipment I bought from came in, I had a friend in Florida making sure that the tortoises never even touched the dirt in FL. I didn't want them to, because the holding places are often as bad as the shipping conditions. Mine went from crate to soaking in a plastic bin back to rinsed out crate and onto Vegas the same day with Delta Dash. I'm convinced that more damage gets done in the week after import with many tortoises than the import process itself.
Regardless, I don't even know your name (from this thread), but based on the conversation, I think I know which tortoise/order I sent you (invoice 3998?), and it'll be totally bulletproof. Enjoy, and get some pics posted!