Burmese Brown Mountain tortoises?

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Flametorch

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I know there is a guy who is breeding them and selling them on this site (bluebeast), but does anyone else have a personal experience with them? Are they like the red foots of the cooler climates in asia? I know that they are omnivorous to an extent and need high humidity levels, but not much else is mentioned on the internet. If they're not too touchy of a species I may be interested in owning one. (Oh yes, I also know that they are rather large tortoises)
 

Yvonne G

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I can only tell you of my own personal experience with them, as there wasn't any info about them when I got mine, and had to learn at the tortoises expense.

They WILL DIE if you don't provide quite a bit of shade during the hot summer months. Mine live in deep shade with a little bit of sun only in one area. I also have drip emitters all over their habitat, the kind that spray a fine mist out in a circle and they overlap.

They will eat everything, fruit, veggies, cat food, snails, your shoes, etc. But I think I didn't offer mine enough animal protein when they were growing and I ended up with mal-formed beaks that need to be Dremmeled annually.

They don't hibernate, but they are pretty cold tolerant. I put mine all in their warm shed at night, but one night one of them pushed open the door and spent the night outside. It got down to 39F that night. In the morning I placed the tortoise in the sun and later in the day you wouldn't be able to tell he was ever cold...no ill effects at all. My tortoise house has pig blankets plus overhead black lights for winter time heat.

They love the water. Mine will sit in their water pan sometimes all night during the summer. I have seen pictures of wild ones in deep rivers walking along the bottom.

To answer your question, yes, they are the redfoot of the indonesian rain forest!
 

Stephanie Logan

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Geez, Yvonne, you have so much tortoise experience...lucky. :D

Aren't Burmese Mountain tortoises pretty rare in the U.S.? Is that because they have a lot of specialized habitat requirements which make them expensive?

I have seen photos of yours and they are really mud-colored...where did you get yours? Are they personable or shy (other than favoring shoes for snacks)? :rolleyes:
 

Yvonne G

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I'm in partnership with a fellow in Pennsylvania. He got me started with the Manouria. I took care of all his turtles and tortoises here in town while he got situated in his new apartment and new job in PA, then I sent them all to him. However his male and female Manouria were kinda' big and he didn't have room in his apartment for them so I kept them here. That made me want some of my own, so I bought two hatchlings from Vic Morgan in Florida...the only breeder of these tortoises at that time. Then, through his job at the zoo, my partner came across an adult female Mep being kept in a 4'x8' plywood box in a New York city apartment that the owner wanted to re-home. A bit later he also came across an adult female Mee whose owner was moving to the mountains in PA and knew the climate wouldn't be good for the tortoise. So, some were bought, some were my partners and some were rescues. Can you imagine our good fortune to rescue a 65lbs female adult Manouria for FREE??? But it did cost quite a fortune to ship her to the west coast from NY.

The Manouria tortoises aren't very common yet, however, more people are now breeding them, so they're more readily available than they were. And they're not really that expensive. I paid $200 apiece for my hatchlings in '94 and you can buy a hatchling today for only $300.

Actually, they're black or brown depending upon which species you are talking about. The Manouria emys phayrei, or Asian Mountain Tortoise (Burmese black) are black and the Manouria emys emys, or Asian Forest Tortoise (Burmese brown) are brown.

Their habitat isn't any more specialized than a redfoot's habitat. Its just that they aren't that common in the pet trade.
 
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