Reddit Tortoise Bath

EllyMae

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Joined
Mar 15, 2020
Messages
106
Location (City and/or State)
Shellman, GA
So I did something that was probably not a good idea.
I gave my tortoise a bath and live-streamed it on reddit. I was wanting to educate people about tortoises and tortoise care. I see people on the Sulcata subreddit not knowing proper stuff so I was wanting to share what y’all have taught me on here.


Sherman is about 9in long. I had him in his kiddie pool. The water was about halfway up his carapace. I kept him for 15min. After the first 3 min. he was trying to get out. He was climbing up the wall trying to get out. I even had bricks in the pool for him to brace himself on.
Well, I got that post removed for animal cruelty. Because he was trying to get out most of his bath time?
I feel sad and embarrassed that someone thinks I’m cruel to my tortoise. But I’m also mad that they didn’t listen to what I said about the importance of moisture to a tortoises health.

I definitely not posting my Sulcata on there again!
 

iAmCentrochelys sulcata

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Joined
Aug 10, 2019
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1,322
Location (City and/or State)
Alief
So I did something that was probably not a good idea.
I gave my tortoise a bath and live-streamed it on reddit. I was wanting to educate people about tortoises and tortoise care. I see people on the Sulcata subreddit not knowing proper stuff so I was wanting to share what y’all have taught me on here.


Sherman is about 9in long. I had him in his kiddie pool. The water was about halfway up his carapace. I kept him for 15min. After the first 3 min. he was trying to get out. He was climbing up the wall trying to get out. I even had bricks in the pool for him to brace himself on.
Well, I got that post removed for animal cruelty. Because he was trying to get out most of his bath time?
I feel sad and embarrassed that someone thinks I’m cruel to my tortoise. But I’m also mad that they didn’t listen to what I said about the importance of moisture to a tortoises health.

I definitely not posting my Sulcata on there again!
I also use Reddit they’re a bunch of hooligans. They don’t understand the problem care of of a Sulcata.
Don’t stop soaking your your Tortoise there’s nothing wrong with it.
 

KarenSoCal

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5,749
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Low desert 50 mi SE of Palm Springs CA
Oh my! I'm sorry this happened! I would be upset too.

I know nothing about Reddit, but this just puts emphasis on how little people know about tortoises. Whoever flagged you is the same one who will go into a pet store one day and buy a hatchling on a whim, then raise it all wrong.

I'm all for punishing animal abuse, but there are so many do-gooders out there who will jump on any little thing, when they have no idea if the animal is actually being abused.
 

janevicki

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Oct 3, 2012
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323
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Near Disneyland
So I did something that was probably not a good idea.
I gave my tortoise a bath and live-streamed it on reddit. I was wanting to educate people about tortoises and tortoise care. I see people on the Sulcata subreddit not knowing proper stuff so I was wanting to share what y’all have taught me on here.


Sherman is about 9in long. I had him in his kiddie pool. The water was about halfway up his carapace. I kept him for 15min. After the first 3 min. he was trying to get out. He was climbing up the wall trying to get out. I even had bricks in the pool for him to brace himself on.
Well, I got that post removed for animal cruelty. Because he was trying to get out most of his bath time?
I feel sad and embarrassed that someone thinks I’m cruel to my tortoise. But I’m also mad that they didn’t listen to what I said about the importance of moisture to a tortoises health.

I definitely not posting my Sulcata on there again!
So sorry about that on reddit. They don't know you are a caring and loving Sulcata Mom, also nothing about Sulcatas at all, The world is so critical of everything they would ban a video of a turtle eating an earthworm too as it's cruel to earthworms. Big hug to you EllyMae! ps I would love to see your video! can you post it on the forum?
 

EllyMae

Active Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2020
Messages
106
Location (City and/or State)
Shellman, GA
Thanks for making me feel better guys.

I know he needs his baths but I do feel bad sometimes when he is trying to get out the whole time.
 

ArmadilloPup

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Joined
Jul 15, 2019
Messages
307
Location (City and/or State)
NE Oklahoma
Yeah, the bad thing about Reddit is that even if you unsubscribe to all of the popular but negative subreddits, and look only at hobby subs, you climb into a black hole of armchair experts. I have joined and immediately left so many animal subreddits that it’s ridiculous. I have the same problem with imgur and Discord pet channels - a lot of people don’t understand natural animal behavior and just barf out comments about something they heard/read somewhere, even if they have no experience with the species.

Most likely, someone tuned in and saw a tortoise in water and thought they were so smart because they’ve seen the posts about the dumbass tossing a tortoise into the ocean, so they assumed you didn’t know that only turtles live in water and reported you. They probably didn’t even turn the sound on.

My tortoise bathes himself daily. But if I manually soak him, he suddenly hates water ?
 

KarenSoCal

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Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
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Low desert 50 mi SE of Palm Springs CA
Do y’all tortoises try to escape their baths pretty much the whole time?
I posted this a week or so ago. Maybe it will help.

 

Waka

New Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2020
Messages
3
Location (City and/or State)
Alberta
Do y’all tortoises try to escape their baths pretty much the whole time?
I think almost every owner of a (healthy) tort has this problem. My buddy usually tries to escape after a few minutes of soaking, but he never looks frantic or stressed. Don't let those people who refuse to understand get to you :)
 

Liz Burton

New Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2020
Messages
11
Location (City and/or State)
Klamath Falls
So I did something that was probably not a good idea.
I gave my tortoise a bath and live-streamed it on reddit. I was wanting to educate people about tortoises and tortoise care. I see people on the Sulcata subreddit not knowing proper stuff so I was wanting to share what y’all have taught me on here.


Sherman is about 9in long. I had him in his kiddie pool. The water was about halfway up his carapace. I kept him for 15min. After the first 3 min. he was trying to get out. He was climbing up the wall trying to get out. I even had bricks in the pool for him to brace himself on.
Well, I got that post removed for animal cruelty. Because he was trying to get out most of his bath time?
I feel sad and embarrassed that someone thinks I’m cruel to my tortoise. But I’m also mad that they didn’t listen to what I said about the importance of moisture to a tortoises health.

I definitely not posting my Sulcata on there again!
As a fairly new Sulcata owner, I don't know if this is correct or not, but it happened just by chance. I adopted a 5 year old, 30# very healthy boy and was told by previous owner, "he doesn't like pool time, but you have to do it." So I dutifully put him in the pool a couple of times a week, made sure the temp was good, and he'd spend all his time trying to get out. Then one day, I had a sprinkler running in his yard and it made a puddle. He dove in and started digging, flipping mud on his back, drinking, obviously having fun. So, I dug the "puddle" to about 4" deep and now, when he hears the sprinkler come on, he "runs" to his water and soaks and plays. Unfortunately, not an option here in the winters, but he's loving it for now!
 

nightoff

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South Florida
Do y’all tortoises try to escape their baths pretty much the whole time?

YES. They spend most of the time walking around and climbing the walls trying to find a way out. I have to watch the hatchlings when I soak them because they sometimes climb up the wall and then fall over backward.
 

Tanyabobanya

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Joined
Feb 12, 2017
Messages
125
Location (City and/or State)
Los Angeles
Thanks for making me feel better guys.

I know he needs his baths but I do feel bad sometimes when he is trying to get out the whole time.
My desert tortoises do the same thing. Eventually they guzzle water and relax which is why I want them to soak for longer than a minute. Redit users should be reporting the actual dangerous stuff on Instagram and discord!
 

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