Chaco Tortoise - New to Forum

CBU

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Hello!

I am new to the forum (and so is my tortoise :)) . I have a male Chaco tortoise and I have had him (we refer to him as 'her' since for the longest time we thought she was a female until 'she' met a female and Oh Surprise! She is a boy ;)) so, I have had him for 37 years now and he is about 40-45 years old. I got him as a birthday present when I was 10 years old!

My teenage daughters now help me take care of him and he loves to live in our backyard (we bring him in at night, that is sometimes a challenge since he is really good at hiding). We recently started thinking about getting him a companion, but since Chaco tortoises are hard to find, would he get along with a female of another species? We figured he has lived alone long enough :(

By the way, this forum seems great. Everyone loves their pets and seem to take very good care of them.

Also, I see a lot of questions about allowing your tortoise to hibernate. Mine has done it his whole life. He decides when it is time to hibernate (around Oct thru March) we live in the Los Angeles area.

Look forward to reading everyone's posts!
 

dmmj

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salutations. We don't have very many keepers of that particular tortoise here glad to have you aboard.
 

wellington

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Hello and Welcome. It's not really recommended to have tortoises in pairs, as it doesn't work good for the poor female, she would get hounded to illness or death. It's really not a good thing to mix species either, for health reasons and to not make mixed specie tortoises. Tortoises are solitary animals, yours is very happy being all by itself and King of his home. Another tortoise would not make him happy.
 
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tortadise

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Welcome. Chacos are awesome. I have a male around 80ish years old. Would love to see photos of yours. Hibernation with this species is very difficult. Los Angeles and Southern California and southern Arizona are prime habitats that mimic very similar winters of where they're naturally found, cool at night and warm up during the day, it works well where your at, so keep letting him do it. Just be cautious if extreme temperatures every are to occur(extreme lows mainly and heavier rainfall during the cold temperatures)
 

CBU

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Welcome. Chacos are awesome. I have a male around 80ish years old. Would love to see photos of yours. Hibernation with this species is very difficult. Los Angeles and Southern California and southern Arizona are prime habitats that mimic very similar winters of where they're naturally found, cool at night and warm up during the day, it works well where your at, so keep letting him do it. Just be cautious if extreme temperatures every are to occur(extreme lows mainly and heavier rainfall during the cold temperatures)

Hi Tortadise! Thank you for your comments. I will certainly share more pics. We do bring him in during the winter. Pretty soon, in about 1 month, once it cools he'll be indoors hibernating through winter. He is part of the family and hibernates in our living room. Makes for a good conversation piece :)
 

Yvonne G

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Welcome to the Forum, Cristina!
 
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Tidgy's Dad

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Hello, Cristina, and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum.
We'd love to see some photos of this unusual species, if you can manage it.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Whatever you've been doing for hibernation all these years, seems to have worked fine, so i would say just keep at it.
Lovely to have you here.
 
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