New sulcuta owner.. any additional tips will help?

[Boogeyman]

Hello everyone
I have been in and out of this forums for a few years now. I just wanted to share this with you guys. I have been wanting a sulcuta tortoise for a long time now and I found a breeder that has a good reputation. As fate would have it though I happen to stop by this pet store which had quite a good number of reptiles and lo and behold they had one sulcuta tortoise. Now I've read enough threads that suggest not to buy one from a pet store but I felt like I needed to SAVE this one. The poor thing had rabbit pellets as substrate no hide of any sort. The enclosure just looked dry. It did look active when I was watching it. My question is should I just follow the guidelines Tom has penned for us from here on out or is there something else I should do prior to that? Any advice will help.. thanks in advance.

P.s. I'm having a hard time figuring how to upload a picture..

 

[Tom]

Hello everyone
I have been in and out of this forums for a few years now. I just wanted to share this with you guys. I have been wanting a sulcuta tortoise for a long time now and I found a breeder that has a good reputation. As fate would have it though I happen to stop by this pet store which had quite a good number of reptiles and lo and behold they had one sulcuta tortoise. Now I've read enough threads that suggest not to buy one from a pet store but I felt like I needed to SAVE this one. The poor thing had rabbit pellets as substrate no hide of any sort. The enclosure just looked dry. It did look active when I was watching it. My question is should I just follow the guidelines Tom has penned for us from here on out or is there something else I should do prior to that? Any advice will help.. thanks in advance.

P.s. I'm having a hard time figuring how to upload a picture..

Read this first: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/hatchling-failure-syndrome.23493/
Understand that this tortoise is likely to die weeks or months from now, even though it seems normal and is active and eating. No amount of money and no amount of vet care can save it if the kidneys are damaged from chronic dehydration.

If you don't mind risking the money and going through that sort of heart break, then proceed. If you want to have a positive experience and a healthy tortoise, then this is not the way to go.

Also realize that the money you give them to "rescue" this tortoise will be spent on buying more tortoises for them to house incorrectly and kill. Best case is to try to educate them. They may reject you and the new info, but if no one ever tries, it will never get better.