For friendly discussion

[IowaGuy28]

Where did your love for turtles and/or tortoise' (spl?) Originate? They dont cuddle, they dont give us kisses, they dont have furr to pet, they cant be trained and they make messes. My love for turtles (not tortoise' yet) came from my dad taking me as a child out on the gravel roads to catch a box turtle. After talking with my mom, a few weekends ago, she informs me that i fell in love with turtles many years ago when I saw my first turtle race...i dont remember this event. How about you?

 

[GBtortoises]

I grew up on a farm and still live in a very rural area not far from where I grew up. There is wildlife galore here. Just below our house on the farm was a stream that spilled in a large swamp. I was always in playing in the stream and around the edges of the swamp looking for frogs and salamanders and other bugs and animals that lived around water. One day when I was about 6 or 7 years old I came across a little head sticking out of the weeds in the swamp. I reached down to grap it and came up with a baby Eastern Painted turtle! I was mesmerized by this little thing with a shell, the colors were so bright. I'd seen turtles before, but never had one in my hand and definitely not such a small baby. I think that moment started it for me. Within a few years after that I was coming home with Wood turtles, Snapping turtles and more Painted turtles. My father "encouraged" me by building outdoor enclosures in our backyard for all my animals!

 

[wellington]

Mine started mainly with turtles when I was a kind. We went camping every weekend. My friend and I would catch frogs, snakes, crawfish, turtles, etc for fun. We would play with them and then let them go. I have always been intersted in the unusual. My love for turtles started way back then, and so did my love for tortoises, as i thought they were pretty much the same, dumb kid LOL However, it really started when I was born, its in my jeans. I love all animals more then most anything else

 

[GBtortoises]

Wellington-"it's in my jeans."

You keep animals in your jeans? That's just weird (and maybe illegal in some states)!

Sorry I couldn't resist (where's Captain Awesome when you need him).

 

[lisa127]

Many many years ago, when I was a little kid we had a box turtle as a pet for a while. This was probably in the early 70's I'm thinking? Anyway, that's when I apparently fell in love. From that point on when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would tell them a turtle trainer!

 

[byles01]

mine came as a very young child, "the old man" got me my first wild caught stink pot out of a swamp in florida for my birthday, and a few weeks later a african sideneck slider to be hi buddy, that was 30 years ago and i still have both of the little guys and am just crazy for turtles and torts.

 

[drgnfly2265]

Watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when I was little started the love the shelled reptiles for me, lol. Weird? Yea, I know, lol. But what really got me was watching a little sulcata at a flea market eating some greens. After I noticed that I have been watching this tortoise eat for 10 minutes I knew I had to know more about them. After looking up info, pics, and videos of them I knew I had to have one

 

[Laurie]

Wellington-"it's in my jeans."

You keep animals in your jeans? That's just weird (and maybe illegal in some states)!

Sorry I couldn't resist (where's Captain Awesome when you need him).

Lol, cargo pants maybe, but my jeans would be too tight!

Anyway, when we first got Tina, she was a gift for the family. Mostly for my son, lol. When we first picked her out, they asked if I wanted to hold her. I thought god no! We brought her home and set her up. I fell in love! I couldn't stop watching her. I truly get a lot of enjoyment from watching her. It's now five months later and I love this little thing more than I could have ever imagined! So much, we had to expand and get two more little babies

 

[IowaGuy28]

I had a baby snapper growing up also, his name was Hardshell Superstar. My mom still doesnt feel guilty about letting him go for a 'walk' one sunny afternoon...*tear*. Now that im much older and have patience, i decided i wanted to own something special and I wanted to watch it get BIG! My Tilley, African Sulcata, is almost 1 year old and hes almost doubled in size. He doesnt do any tricks, actually, its interesting because he has learned that when his food bowl is gone...its eating time and he waiting at the side of his current enclosure and waits for my return.

 

[bigred]

I think I have told this story before but here goes. My mom is 88 years old and still has torts in her living room. She has 2 Elongated and one of my redfoot hatchlings. Her uncle rode up on horseback some 75 years ago with a tortoise all bundled up dangling from a rope and gave it to her. I guess thats how he decided to transport it. She has had torts ever since, CDT in the backyard when I was a kid. So I guess I got it from her.

 

[Merlin M]

I had a tortoise teddy when I was a baby (I still have it) and wouldn't sleep without it, I have always put it down to that, and the people we knew who bred them... parents never let me get one though!!

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

Sounds like a lot of folks here got hooked while they were children, and I am no exception...

I was born in Israel, and moved to Colorado at the age of four. When I was still three, the first turtles I ever saw were two golden Greek tortoises (Testudo graeca terrestris), a native species in Israel, that my dad brought home as pets. We kept them in a box and fed them grass and groceries for a couple weeks, before my dad let them go again. I was too young to care for them myself, but I have always loved animals, and I was completely fascinated by these two tortoises, the look of them, even their smell. I have never forgotten that pair, and have loved and kept turtles and tortoises (among other animals) ever since.

 

[yoda3106]

When I was young, about 6 or 7 I had taken an interest in them and wanted a tortoise!! My mam went to tunisia and found two, no bigger than a match box and was going to try smuggle them back but sense got the better of her but she still made the mistake of telling me which then made me more determined to have one lol after trying and trying, I gave up and lost all hope of ever owning a tort of my own knowing that because of financial reasons my mam couldn't afford to get me one because back in the uk, they are pretty pricey animals to own!

Now that I earn my own money I had rekindled that little bit of hope but still thought to myself, this is still very pricey but thought maybe, don't give up that hope!! Something came up within my job and I moved to Cyprus, being silly not to really lol we decided to get our own pet, we got a dog, anyway, bla bla bla, my wife went home to the uk one week and left me and the pup to fend for ourselves lol so, having to do this, I ran out of pup food on the 3rd morning and had to pop to the pet store, well, as I went in I thought I might take a look and ask if they had and tort and was curious of the prices, to my surprise, they had 2 in at the time and as soon as I saw them, I had to have them but then then it crossed my mind, how much?? Lol 20euros, he said, so I thought wow, ok, I'll take one now cause I only had 30 on me, plus getting the food I wouldn't afford both but then bang, I payed him and he gave me both 20euros for both!! I didn't say nothing and ran out the shop lol got in the car and shouted with excitement haha that afternoon I started building there pen!! Lol sadly, we lost one due to a friends dog a couple months later when they looked after them when we went home but since then, we had another given to us

Now we have Henry and Hetty and my dream has came true I never gave up hope and now I have life long friends

Never forgetting my Harriot (killed by dog) and little one (another story, lost the fight to live) RIP

 

[vanillapooh1979]

My mom gas had box turtles and sliders as long as I can remember. Then whnen I was about 5 she took me to the Tulsa Zoo that had Aladabras and I fell IN LOVE. Later went to the San Diego zoo and saw the Galops and decided then and there that I would eventually have some of my own.

 

[l0velesly]

I saw a poor looking baby sulcata at the pet store. He was put on those pellets and he kept on running against the glass walls of his terranium. He would follow my finger and try to eat it! I would come back to the pet store and look for him.
I knew I wanted a sulcata after that. I became obsessed with looking up tortoise pictures/info.
I also have this huge tortoise plush! I don't know why but I just have a thing for tortoises!

 

[sheilaamistone1974]

about 10 years ago, we went to a pet store in another state. they had a BIG (don't know what kind) tortoise just walking around inside the store. then 2 years ago, I went to a reptile expo and saw a 30 year old sulcata. since then, my husband and I would talk about it off and on. then 2 months ago, I decided to get a tortoise. I went to the pet store and told them I wanted the biggest species of tortoise that he sells. I told him about the reptile expo. he recommended the sulcata to me. but the one he had wasn't acting well so he ordered me a brand new one. so with help from everybody here, I was able to get everything ready for him to come home. only had him for a month now and we wouldn't want to do without him.

 

[tortadise]

It all started when I was 5. My mom let me and my brothers grow with what we loved. And I found a 3 toed boxie near the creek and my mom let me keep it. First reptile show when I was 13 I bought my first sulcata with lawn yard service money. And then it was all from there, bulk of it was through high school going to reptile shows. I bought most of my torts from breeding and selling retail boas.

 

[ErikaO]

What great stories. My love for turtles started when I was around 11. My father would ask my brotherand I to checkthe lawn for turtles before he mowed. We lived in Missouri at that time and our lawn was huge. We would gather the turtles in a big box (which is where I thought the term "box turtles" came from) and we would sometimes collected up to ten turtles. We would then walk the turtles a little ways into the woods and release them. Also, right around the same time, my father would take us fishing and he would accidentally catch huge snapping turtles. My father was not so fond of these creatures, as he saw them as mean animals, so I would volunteer to help unhook yhe turtles and find good relocation spots for them. I have since then, always loved turtles. But I didn't become obsessed with them until 10 years ago when I got to swim the sea turtles in Hawaii. That did it for both my husband and me! We're sold on them!!!!