Hey wonderful people of the Tortoise Forum.

rock

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Apr 20, 2014
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2
I'm Rock and I live in the very Beautiful Boulder, Colorado.

I joined this group so I can further my knowledge of Tortoise's. I'm currently in the research stages of owning a tortoise someday. I'm very thankful to have such an amazing community that provides so much information to beginners. Learning and guidance really is a blessing and I know when I do get my very first Tortoise he/she will live the best life possible.

I look forward to the future. :)
Rock
 

Cowboy_Ken

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Hey Rock, not only is info. shared with beginners, but also with old timers. Ask questions, we do seen to be a pretty friendly batch of folks. What I see, is we all care more for the well being of the tortoises, individually and as a group. Often times this puts us at odds with the keepers. All that said, welcome to the forum and props,( as the kids say) for doing research first. So what do you think you can provide for,long term wise?
 

bouaboua

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Hello Rick: Good to have your here, This forum is a great place to learn and share. I learned so much with only 6 months of time I joined TFO. Just like the Cowboy shared, TFO have so many "old timer" that no where in the Tortoise world can compare.

Again. Good to have you here.
 

Grandpa Turtle 144

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Hello Rock welcome totheTFO from AZ . Well are you going to give us any hints small, large . Baby, adult. , pancakes , or Russians .


Sent from my iPhone using TortForum
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
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Hi, and welcome to the Forum, Rock!

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rock

New Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2014
Messages
2
Hey guys,
So i'm still and sure of the type of Tortoise I want but to get more of a hands on Approach to them, I'm going to hopefully volunteer at a local reptiles shelter. Being from Colorado where the weather can dreadfully change at moment, I'm looking for a mostly indoor tortoise. Summertime here is nice and warm but we have a lot of wild life around (raccoons, foxes,coyotes,bears, mountain lions and rattle snakes) so with that alone I wouldn't feel safe keeping one outside.

Would a Russian be a good fit?
 

akbecker

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Aug 10, 2013
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Thornton, CO
Hey - I'm also in Colorado, just east of you in Thornton. We have 2 Russians and 1 Greek. I kept all three outdoors last summer and they did fine, from June to mid-Oct. We have 2 dogs and live in an area with coyotes - so I just built simple lids for my enclosures made out of lumber and chicken wire. Nothing ever got in or out of the enclosures. I then hibernated mine inside, the Russians for about 2-3 months, and the Greek for close to 4. I then have indoor enclosures for them from about Feb to almost the end of May. Mine have been out a lot the last couple weeks, but I keep bring them in at night.

The only times I've really worried was last September when we had those long periods of rain. During those periods I just threw tarps over my enclosures and things stayed mostly dry. The little guys had toughened up by that point so the cooler weather wasn't a big deal. They all had deep hides.

The Colorado Reptile Humane Society allows their Russians, and I think Greeks, and Box turtles, to hibernate outside - as such, they live year-round outdoors. They don't have a lid - but the enclosure is also the size of a front yard, so that would be difficult. They said they have never had trouble with raccoons or coyotes, and they don't have dogs. Although - by their own admission, this has lead to issues when we have warm winter days because the Russians and I think the Box turtles have gotten confused, come out of hibernation, and then not been able to get back to their hides for hibernating before another cold front came through. So, I'm not sure I would follow this method. They also keep Greeks, Russians, and Box turtles, in their large front yard area together - which, after a good amount of research, may not be the best idea. But - I just wanted to give you another example. There are also a lot of other forum members from CO that you can search around for and I know between all of them, they are keeping a large variety of different tortoises outdoors as much as our weather permits.

So - don't let out weather be a deterrent for getting a tortoise.

I don't think the rattle snakes, bears, or mountain lions there in Boulder are going to bother with tortoises - there is way easier food around. Again, our predators shouldn't stop you if you really want to get tortoises, you just need to prepare for them.

Lastly, from the limited research I've done, I think the idea is that weather permitting and safety precautions taken, almost all adult tortoises are "mostly outdoor tortoises."
 
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Tom

The Dog Trainer
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Hello and welcome.

You just got some great info from akbecker.
 

dmmj

The member formerly known as captain awesome
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Salutations, do you also rock in life?
 

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