Just got two tortoises from PetSmart. Do they look good?

[frenchsuite]

My wife and I both like tortoises and today we bought the two tortoises from our local PetSmart. The person working there is not sure about their age and gender, but told us they are very healthy and they are young tortoises.

We bought two big enclosures for them, as they were housed together in PetSmart and I worry that they fight each other in they live in one enclosure. Also, we bought a lot of food/supplies/equipment for them, following the sales guide from PetSmart. We hope they will thrive.

While taking the shower today for them, I found that people online say that they need to see the Vet if bought from PetSmart. This makes us panic, as PetSmart told us they are healthy and young.

Before we take them to the Vet to check, could anyone with more experience tell me 1. How old are they? 2. Are they males? Females? 3. Based on the photos that I uploaded, are they looking healthy?

So far they eat and move, but the one with flat shell (the first tortoise in the picture) is less active. I don't know why.

We appreciate any suggestions that we can get to help them grow healthily and happily.

 

[wellington]

First, PetSmart and other chains stores are there to sell and make money. They are not the ones to listen too.
They are both males, should never be housed together or as a pair. They likely are adults, at least 5 years or probably more
The enclosures they sell is too small for adult Russians. They need a minimum of a 4x8 foot enclosure.
Do not use any mercury, halogen or coiled cfl bulbs they likely sold you.
They need an incandescent flood bulb for basking, tube fluorescent for uvb and ceramic heat emitter or radiant heat panel for any need added day or night heat
Orchid bark fir substrate and clay saucer big enough for them to fit into for drinking and self soaking.

 

[Yvonne G]

Russian tortoises

You were smart to buy two enclosures because no species of tortoise does well in pairs, however, these are full grown tortoises and probably would do much better in a safe, outdoor habitat. Russian tortoises, especially wild caught, full grown, as yours are, don't do well inside in a small enclosure. They need a lot of space to roam.

It's a lot of fun planning and executing an outdoor space for tortoises. . . making sure the fence is tall enough and no climb, planting edible landscape, figuring out what to add for sight barriers, hiding places, etc. Something you and your wife can do together.

Because your tortoises are wild caught, there's no way to know their age, but I'm guessing around 10 years.

 

[SinLA]

OK, so good news and bad news here. Good news you found probably the best site on the Internet to get information about how to raise them healthily. Bad news you might not like what you hear.

First pet stores, especially chain stores like Petsmart are the worst places to get information about tortoises and to buy them. You’ve already bought them so that is over and done with, so now focus on learning proper care rather than what the pet store tells you.

You probably do not need to take them to the vet, unlike pet store, puppies and kittens which are highly likely to be ill. The issue with pet store tortoises is not so much that they’re sick. It’s just they don’t tell you the right information on how to raise them and they sell them in pairs when they should not.

The people who work at the pet store are trained to tell you they are one years old because that is what people think they want when they go to buy it. It’s entirely possible and the employees they don’t even know the truth, but you have much older tortoises that had to be at least 4 inches Long meaning definitely adults when they were captured from the wild and shipped over to the United States for the pet trade. It’s a terrible industry. You can read up on it if you want buying from places like Petco Supports it. But you’ve already purchased them so best to move forward.

Start with the article below it’s a lot of information. It’s very dense. It’s going to give you information that is probably opposite of what you’ve already been told and frankly probably opposite of what you really want to hear about how difficult and how much space you need for tortoises, but nonetheless, this will actually give you good and real information.

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

www.tortoiseforum.org

But understand you cannot keep these two together, they will kill each other. Even if you put them together, and you don’t see information that you think of as bullying they are still bullying and stressing each other unfortunately, the behavior is not always obvious, especially for people who are used to mammals.

I wish you the best of luck, it’s unfortunate that you’ve already acquired to before learning what you need, but on the bright side frankly it’s the same situation many of us have been in. But unless you are willing to have two separate 4‘ x 8‘ enclosures you may want to consider, returning one of them or finding a new home one.

You’re gonna find a lot information on the Internet, most of it is bad, but the information that pet store gives you is probably going to be the worst of all. Sorry

 

[Sarah2020]

Please read this care sheet and ask questions.....

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[frenchsuite]

First, PetSmart and other chains stores are there to sell and make money. They are not the ones to listen too.
They are both males, should never be housed together or as a pair. They likely are adults, at least 5 years or probably more
The enclosures they sell is too small for adult Russians. They need a minimum of a 4x8 foot enclosure.
Do not use any mercury, halogen or coiled cfl bulbs they likely sold you.
They need an incandescent flood bulb for basking, tube fluorescent for uvb and ceramic heat emitter or radiant heat panel for any need added day or night heat
Orchid bark fir substrate and clay saucer big enough for them to fit into for drinking and self soaking.

Thank you very much. We bought each of them a 75 gallon enclosure. Later we will make a customized enclosure for them ( much larger one)

 

[frenchsuite]

Russian tortoises

You were smart to buy two enclosures because no species of tortoise does well in pairs, however, these are full grown tortoises and probably would do much better in a safe, outdoor habitat. Russian tortoises, especially wild caught, full grown, as yours are, don't do well inside in a small enclosure. They need a lot of space to roam.

It's a lot of fun planning and executing an outdoor space for tortoises. . . making sure the fence is tall enough and no climb, planting edible landscape, figuring out what to add for sight barriers, hiding places, etc. Something you and your wife can do together.

Because your tortoises are wild caught, there's no way to know their age, but I'm guessing around 10 years.

Thank you very much. We know that animals don't like to stay together unless they are a couple. We bought each of them a 75 gallon enclosure. Later we will make a customized enclosure for them ( much larger one).

 

[frenchsuite]

Please read this care sheet and ask questions.....

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

TY. This is really helpful

 

[Lyn W]

Hi and welcome.
There is a lot of old out dated are advice being passed around on other websites and social media etc but if you follow the advice in the caresheets linked above and from the very experienced tort keepers on the forum your torts should thrive and be happy and healthy.
Ask as many questions as you like there's always someone around to help or point you in the right direction.

 

[TammyJ]

Welcome to the forum! Please stay and keep asking questions, and update us on your new tortoise-intensive life!