voaness
Member
Hi all, long story short, I came across this forum after rescuing a tiny hatchling sulcata from the grips of death (Im being dramatic, but they were in a bad situation and we knew enough to know they were in a bad dry situation). We named them Jellybean, and jumped down the tortoise forum wormhole about what we needed to do to help them out, we reached out to @Tom and bent his ear for many a ticks on the hows and whats and when. Ultimately we knew that we did not have the forever home set up (nor outdoor locale) for this particular baby, so found them a sanctuary to go to in Texas (Central Texas Tortoise Rescue). Since they were so little we had to fatten them up before we could hand them off to a transport. During this time we realized we loved having a tortoise around. So we asked which tortoise would best fit our space, we were led to Hermanns and Platynotas. We had our heart set on a Platynota, but to be quite frank, we didn't have the funds to pay $800-$1000 dollars for one. As craftspeople, we asked if we could trade, or if someone maybe had one too many that they would be willing to give a discount on, but we were met with some pretty rude people who declared that if we couldn't afford that price we shouldn't have a tortoise, which sort of made us question the whole tortoise world and if we wanted to dip our toe in it....But then, we stumbled across a re-home on craigslist (of all places) of a western hermann a couple of states away from us. We couldn't believe our eyes. We reached out to them, and they verified the breeder they bought it from, and the breeder verified that it was a western, and they were willing to work with us on helping back it up, we used the reptile shippers (it was really easy) and low and behold, the rest is history and we welcomed home this beautiful female juvenile western hermann. We call her Yokko, and she loves head and neck scratches. She will kill for some clover in the yard. She is obsessed with our white cat Garrison, and will roam around an enclosed room with him, or sleep by him (maybe its being territorial, but she doesn't do this with our grey cat, the Garrison and her seem to genuinely enjoy each others weirdness). All in all, our family loves her. The universe spoketh, and rewarded us with a great tort. Since we are craftspeople, we debated over how to make her forever home for awhile (we do live in a cold climate in the winter), and my partner decided to build a tortoise chamber into a functional piece of furniture. It's about 7' long x 30" depth x 24" (internal height) and 34" (external height). Anyway, Im pretty proud of where we landed on this, and thought to share to other newbies. Firstly, because this forum helped me out a lot to learn some ins and outs, so if someone is stuck, ask. I personally found it easier to ask in a personal DM then shout it out in a thread (it can be frustrating on a thread, I have been there, dont give up, just find someone knowledgeable and ask them privately). Secondly, if you cant afford the tortoise you want, keep looking, dont be discouraged, there are people rehoming their tortoises, you just might not find it right away. Granted no beginner is going to afford (or even find at this point) something like an Egyptian, but there are other great tortoises out there, so second best may be better than first. Thirdly, if we can build it, so can you, it just takes time and some effort to build the enclosure you want (for us to build our piece cost us less than $500, granted we did have a table saw, but you can use a circular saw and some saw horses, you do need some good clamps though.) Anyway, just thought I would share our journey and thank the forum for giving good insight. As to Jellybean, they made the trek down to Texas safely, and are acclimating nicely.
