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LasTortugasNinja
Guest
Sorry for your loss. If it's any consolation, environmental issues other than freezing or heatstroke generally take months to weaken an adult reptile to the point of death, so it's probably not anything you did. He was probably riddled with parasites or weakened from the months of "care" he received at the petstore or transport from his home country to the petstore. I don't know any petstore that sells captive born torts. It's too expensive to raise babies to adulthood to meet the law requirements for sale at a store that does not affect breeders. Petstores get wild tortoises "farmed" (aka collected from the wild and kept in pens in groups of hundreds) for around $20 to $30 a piece, and sold for $120-$199 each.We woke up this am and found Moe dead under his log hide. My poor sons are devastated- we all are as we have gotten attached to him.
I’m just baffled and feeling so defeated as we tried so hard to make everything perfect for him.
There are breeders here who can hopefully help you and your sons get a well started tortoise if you want to raise one from a hatchling. If you prefer the much easier adult route, I HIGHLY recommend looking at your local animal rescue or classified ads. I see dozens of russian torts on classified ads for $50 to $100 and most of these are far less stressed than one recently brought to the USA and will have an easier time acclimating.
Again, very sorry for what happened. I've been there many times.