I need Traveling with a desert tortoise tips

[SurfHag]

Hi,
We will be traveling across a few states and back with our desert tortoise by truck and curious if anyone else ever had to do this?
Hoping I can get some tips and suggestions to make it less stressful for my tortoise.
She will be inside a pet carrier which will be seat belt strapped in the back seat of our truck. The carrier is pretty nice, it has a “gulley” so if she urinates it will drip to the sides so she won’t be sitting in it til I am able to stop and clean it up. I will also have Timothy hay for the bottom of the carrier for comfort. Water will be provided during rest stops so it doesn’t slosh around and get the bedding all wet, and will offer soakings at night when we arrive at each destination. She will have plenty of room in her carrier to move about and be able to turn around a walk a few steps back and forth, but not too much to where she could get jossled around.
I will have food for her, but highly doubt she will eat while we are underway. I don’t want to stress her out either.
The last thing I want to do is stress her out so if you have any ideas on how to help me make this the best for my tortoise I would really appreciate it.
If you only have snarky or snide, rude or mean comments then, please do not type and send them on this forum.
Thank you!

 

[SinLA]

I don't have advice to offer, but hopefully people like @Yvonne G can talk about if there are any risks to what you are doing. It would be terrible if something happened and she was seized because you took a CA desert tortoise across state lines.

Is there any option at all to have someone watch her for you while you are gone instead?

 

[wellington]

I agree, the tortoise is not allowed to be sold or cross state line.
It will be taken if found out.
You would be better off finding one in CA. There seems to be a lot needing a home throughout the state.
Sorry I misunderstood. I somehow thought you were buying/adopting one in another state
But the rest still goes, illegal and you don't want to risk losing your tortoise.
@Tom
@Yvonne G

 

[EppsDynasty]

They are right you are asking for trouble both legal and stress. You need a babysitter. When are you doing this? I would hate to have you post here in a week because you and your wife/husband have court dates in Utah and "What the hell do I do?"
Friends?

 

[Tom]

Hi,
We will be traveling across a few states and back with our desert tortoise by truck and curious if anyone else ever had to do this?
Hoping I can get some tips and suggestions to make it less stressful for my tortoise.
She will be inside a pet carrier which will be seat belt strapped in the back seat of our truck. The carrier is pretty nice, it has a “gulley” so if she urinates it will drip to the sides so she won’t be sitting in it til I am able to stop and clean it up. I will also have Timothy hay for the bottom of the carrier for comfort. Water will be provided during rest stops so it doesn’t slosh around and get the bedding all wet, and will offer soakings at night when we arrive at each destination. She will have plenty of room in her carrier to move about and be able to turn around a walk a few steps back and forth, but not too much to where she could get jossled around.
I will have food for her, but highly doubt she will eat while we are underway. I don’t want to stress her out either.
The last thing I want to do is stress her out so if you have any ideas on how to help me make this the best for my tortoise I would really appreciate it.
If you only have snarky or snide, rude or mean comments then, please do not type and send them on this forum.
Thank you!

Sorry, but this is not legal to do, and also not good for the tortoise. You need to make other arrangements.

Also, trying to be helpful here and prevent a commonly seen disaster, your dog should never have access to the tortoise. Nobody whose dog has chewed up their tortoise ever thought the dog would chew up the tortoise, but they discovered they were wrong too late.

 

[Yvonne G]

This is not a good idea. How long are you going to be gone? There are several chapters of CTTC (Calif. Turtle and Tortoise Club in SoCal. Look them up online and see if you can find someone to come over and look in on him while you're gone.

It would be very stressful on the tortoise to be out of his territory. I operated a turtle tortoise rescue for many years and the tortoises I took in had a hard time acclimating. Your tortoise may end up sick and eventually dead if he can't snap out of it.

Tom mentioned it's not legal. I'll expand on that. You may be unaware that California desert tortoises don't belong to the good people who have adopted them. They belong to the State of California. You are only their caretaker. Please don't take this tortoise with you on your trip.

 

[EppsDynasty]

You just received expert advice, not mean, rude or inconsiderate. The balls in your court and your tortoises health is on the line. I hope for the torts sake you love it as much as you love surfing. And the dog thing ... look up dog chewed tortoises and decide if your willing to risk it. There is a great care sheet here you may want to take a glance at, there might be some tweaks you could make for a happier healthier tortoise.

 

[SurfHag]

They are right you are asking for trouble both legal and stress. You need a babysitter. When are you doing this? I would hate to have you post here in a week because you and your wife/husband have court dates in Utah and "What the hell do I do?"
Friends?

Wow,,.going to Utah for court dates? Really? Anyways thanks for the laugh, but wait til I put my teeth back in.

Sorry, but this is not legal to do, and also not good for the tortoise. You need to make other arrangements.

Also, trying to be helpful here and prevent a commonly seen disaster, your dog should never have access to the tortoise. Nobody whose dog has chewed up their tortoise ever thought the dog would chew up the tortoise, but they discovered they were wrong too late.

 

[SurfHag]

Hi everyone,
Just want to thank you all for your replies. Especially from EppsDynasty. That was a good laugh.
Everyone was right about taking our beloved tortoise across state lines. I completely forgot about that. I was more concerned about the stress of traveling and completely forgot the law. Love the idea of finding someone from the tortoise community to babysit.
Going to look into that now. There is a chapter in my area that I will reach out to. I also have a neighbor who offered, and was my last resort so I will call upon them if need be.
As for my AKC registered German WireHaired Pointer in the photo, he has crossed the rainbow bridge. He was 13 and lived a great life. My tortoise loved him so much! But, the dog was afraid of the tortoise. The tortoise loved to sneak up and bite his feet or tail and was so sweet and just run away. The only thing he ever did was sneak away a strawberry or 2. So no worries about the dog. RIP I tell people the same thing about dogs/tortoises, but our dog was very well trained and never had problems due to the fact that the tortoise has their own fenced in habitat and no dogs have access to that. So not to worry. The two grew up together as babies and never left alone together. I agree, you can’t trust a dog, expect for our well trained dog. So let that rest, along with our dog.
I appreciate this forum and all your heartfelt opinions and comments. We can close this post now that I have resolved the question at hand. Have a great day.

 

[wellington]

I have locked thread on OP request to close it.