TortoiseDreamer
Member
Hi! My name is Indi and I live in Wisconsin in the US. I have dreamed of owning a tortoise since childhood and I’m thinking of making the dream a reality. I’ve been lurking on these forums and studying up for months now, so I thought it was about time to join and get all of your expert opinions on what I’m considering so far:
I will be getting either a Russian or Herman’s. I am leaning heavily towards a female. After reading tons of posts on here and other reputable sites it sounds like a female is far less likely to become aggressive than a male. Not that all males become aggressive or that it’s super common, but it’s not a chance I want to take. I can only handle one tortoise so it’s not like I could provide females for a male anyway. I am concerned about egg binding, but from what I’ve read it’s far less likely for a female to become egg bound than it is for a mature male to become aggressive.
Because of this preference, being able to tell the gender of my future tortoise is very important to me. I’ve heard you can’t really tell gender until they are around 18 months-ish old. This rules out a hatchling. There aren’t many captive breeders around me at all and the only one I can find said they ONLY sell hatchlings. I also want to meet my future tortoise in person, so that rules out ordering from an out of state breeder (which Im guessing most only sell young ones anyway ??♀️) So this leaves me with 1. Pet store or 2. Rescue. Most of my pets are rescues since I volunteer for my local animal shelter so I’d love to go that route, but tortoises only come for adoption once in a blue moon in my area. I’ve read varying opinions on pet stores. Basically what I’ve surmised is the health guarantee is often better through pet stores, but the animal you are getting likely has gotten sub-par care prior to your purchasing them. And they are normally wild caught. Would this make egg binding more likely if buying a pet store female?
After lots of research I’ve determined in my climate keeping them indoors would be best, only letting them play outside when the weather is acceptable. I live in central WI. Summers can vary greatly low 70s-90s F. It’s also usually quite humid! I’ve heard for Russians too much humidity outside can be an issue. Spring and fall can be low 40s-60 at the highest and rains a lot. If it’s 40s and raining there’s really no safe way to keep them outside, right? Even in summer nights can get down to the 40s.
I have also determined that for me personally I don’t want to hibernate my tortoise, so I will have to keep it indoors in winter. At first hibernating sounded appealing to me since I like having very low maintenance pets. But after learning I couldn’t do it naturally outside in my climate, I’d need to use a fridge, and some of the inherent risks, I’ve decided against it. Would love to hear all of your opinions! Thanks!
I will be getting either a Russian or Herman’s. I am leaning heavily towards a female. After reading tons of posts on here and other reputable sites it sounds like a female is far less likely to become aggressive than a male. Not that all males become aggressive or that it’s super common, but it’s not a chance I want to take. I can only handle one tortoise so it’s not like I could provide females for a male anyway. I am concerned about egg binding, but from what I’ve read it’s far less likely for a female to become egg bound than it is for a mature male to become aggressive.
Because of this preference, being able to tell the gender of my future tortoise is very important to me. I’ve heard you can’t really tell gender until they are around 18 months-ish old. This rules out a hatchling. There aren’t many captive breeders around me at all and the only one I can find said they ONLY sell hatchlings. I also want to meet my future tortoise in person, so that rules out ordering from an out of state breeder (which Im guessing most only sell young ones anyway ??♀️) So this leaves me with 1. Pet store or 2. Rescue. Most of my pets are rescues since I volunteer for my local animal shelter so I’d love to go that route, but tortoises only come for adoption once in a blue moon in my area. I’ve read varying opinions on pet stores. Basically what I’ve surmised is the health guarantee is often better through pet stores, but the animal you are getting likely has gotten sub-par care prior to your purchasing them. And they are normally wild caught. Would this make egg binding more likely if buying a pet store female?
After lots of research I’ve determined in my climate keeping them indoors would be best, only letting them play outside when the weather is acceptable. I live in central WI. Summers can vary greatly low 70s-90s F. It’s also usually quite humid! I’ve heard for Russians too much humidity outside can be an issue. Spring and fall can be low 40s-60 at the highest and rains a lot. If it’s 40s and raining there’s really no safe way to keep them outside, right? Even in summer nights can get down to the 40s.
I have also determined that for me personally I don’t want to hibernate my tortoise, so I will have to keep it indoors in winter. At first hibernating sounded appealing to me since I like having very low maintenance pets. But after learning I couldn’t do it naturally outside in my climate, I’d need to use a fridge, and some of the inherent risks, I’ve decided against it. Would love to hear all of your opinions! Thanks!