where did you get it? Did you buy it in a pet store? if so, please be very cautious when buying animals, especially tortoises from pet stores. I would never buy from a major chain like Petco or Petsmart, just a small shop run by a hobbyist.
I did once, and that tortoise, which is a Russian, is my only tortoise to EVER get sick. I have taken her to the vet 3 times in the past 6 years. From getting an eye infection, to a runny nose (upper respiratory tract infection, pretty common in tortoises), to not eating and losing LOTS of weight, and also having mouth rot.
welcome kennedy and prilla! hope you enjoy your stay here.
spike, yikes! thats a lot for one little guy to go through. i've always been a huge advocate of animal adoption. there are just too many animals out there that need a good home.
yea it sure is. but right now, Charlie is doing just fine.
i love adopting my animals. i have adopted most of them or breed them myself. people are always posting ads to give up turtles or tortoises on craiglist.com.
i always find my supplies or tanks or other animals on that site.
Craigslist is where I got my two RES they were living at a vet's office after one of the employees decided they smelled to bad and didn't want them. There home was a plastic shoebox w/ a dock on top and a heat lamp. The poor buggers couldn't even swim when I got them home, I had to empty the tank and only put 3" in the tank.
i once had a turtle that couldnt swim. so what i did is i put just enough water in so it could stand up, then i put a really tiny RES in there, and the other way watched it swim. and each week i would ask a little bit more water, forcing the turtle to swim. and in a matter of weeks, it was going crazy everywhere swimming.
so just put a smaller turtle in there so that turtle that cant swim watches and eventually learns. also it will swim if it must in order to get air to breathe.
Oh after a week they had a full tank of water to swim. Sorry should have said that.
Anyhow the main reason you do not want to purchase a tort from the petstore is most not all the time they were pulled out of the wild. Of course if you did purchase from the petstore you probabley didn't know. Anyways share some pics and if you need care advice just ask.
I once bought a Russian from Petco just because I felt sorry for him. Another in the display had a big gash on his neck and the "reptile" expert there was clueless. I gave him a good home and later adopted him out to a friend.