What were your "beginner mistakes"?

ZEROPILOT

REDFOOT WRANGLER
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I kept a PAIR of Redfoot together. The male was hunting down the female 24/7.
later I added a Russian tortoise. All given to me by their failed owners. They knew that I took in animals.
This was all before there were any forums.
It was just live and learn and some books that all contradicted one another.
I knew very little, but it was all from experience.
Soon, I had three dedicated pens outside of my house.
 

Anyfoot

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Started with an open table for my juvenile reds, bad idea for where I live.

Got adult reds that are mutts. Love them all the same though. But I would advise anyone else taking on unwanted reds to try and get them from same localities.
 

ZEROPILOT

REDFOOT WRANGLER
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Started with an open table for my juvenile reds, bad idea for where I live.

Got adult reds that are mutts. Love them all the same though. But I would advise anyone else taking on unwanted reds to try and get them from same localities.
All of mine are from the same locality. MIAMI.;)
 

Anyfoot

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All of mine are from the same locality. MIAMI.;)
I defo have 2 mutts, the other day I turned over 2 of my other northerns, and they have marbling coming on the plastrons, I was certain both of these were of the northern clad.
 

Hrairoo

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Wow! Crazy some of the mistakes that can be made, eh? Thank got this forum exists to help people with these issues!
 

Big Charlie

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I knew absolutely nothing other than the single page I got from the pet store when I bought Charlie 17 years ago. Luckily it told me to soak him. I wasn't told to keep his environment humid. I had him in an aquarium with a screen on the top. I took him outside regularly, often leaving him unsupervised in a wading pool or fenced off area, not realizing the danger. Luckily he never got picked up by a bird. Once when I looked away he disappeared. We lived on 117 acres with only barbed wire fences so he could have been anywhere. He was gone for 2 days and then miraculously showed up at the back door.

Surprisingly, I made some good food choices for him. I gathered weeds for him, almost from the very beginning.

He and I have been extremely lucky. Despite my ignorance, he is thriving and has a relatively smooth shell.
 

Nibs

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My tortoises were a surprise birthday present from my Grandad a few years ago, having been wanting a tortoise since I was tiny (though without any idea what was involved!).

I was delighted to get two babies, and panic bought everything the assistant said I needed in the pet shop that day to get an enclosure set up for them, spending a fortune on stuff that I now know was either wrong, not really needed or could have been bought much cheaper elsewhere - and then found out that they were Sulcata's, and so were going to grow to be absolutely enormous!!

I started by keeping them hot and dry, and raised on just pellets as my Grandad had been advised.... So pretty much made all of the beginner mistakes you possibly could: wrong food, housing, not realising that the pyramiding was a bad thing and not just their natural growth, and now finding that raising two together is not a nice thing to do for company......

So glad to have found this forum, they are now in a far better enclosures, are growing more smoothly, and the pellets are long gone. The task at the moment is building them good outdoor enclosures ready for Spring, so they can make the most of the garden and UV.
 

Big Charlie

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My tortoises were a surprise birthday present from my Grandad a few years ago, having been wanting a tortoise since I was tiny (though without any idea what was involved!).

I was delighted to get two babies, and panic bought everything the assistant said I needed in the pet shop that day to get an enclosure set up for them, spending a fortune on stuff that I now know was either wrong, not really needed or could have been bought much cheaper elsewhere - and then found out that they were Sulcata's, and so were going to grow to be absolutely enormous!!

I started by keeping them hot and dry, and raised on just pellets as my Grandad had been advised.... So pretty much made all of the beginner mistakes you possibly could: wrong food, housing, not realising that the pyramiding was a bad thing and not just their natural growth, and now finding that raising two together is not a nice thing to do for company......

So glad to have found this forum, they are now in a far better enclosures, are growing more smoothly, and the pellets are long gone. The task at the moment is building them good outdoor enclosures ready for Spring, so they can make the most of the garden and UV.
I remember buying those pellets too. Charlie wouldn't touch them. They smelled awful. Luckily at the time I had guinea pigs. I was already gathering weeds for them so I fed him most of the same stuff. At least I knew he was going to get big.
 

Linhdan Nguyen

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I bought 2 russian tortoises because the guy at the petstore said tortoises get lonely and he stated he had 2 tortoises because of this. Not sure if hes lying now that i know the truth. And in all my research, i dont remember reading "pairs dont do well" until i came here and posted my first thread :(
 

Linhdan Nguyen

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Got a very large sulcata from a neighbor. It was great fun to hand feed him. I once had ten fingers. Tortoise forum said "Do Not Hand Feed".
Have you ever ignored good advise? I try not to...I still have ten fingers. :)
LOL OMG ! I thought you were going to say you lost a finger ! I had to read your post 3 times!
 

squirt15

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Aug 5, 2015
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I used the bath to soak my not even one year old sully lets just say i think he wanted to be a turtle and go towards the deep end of the tub when i went to turn off my timer and take dinner out of the oven maybe gone 2 minutes lets just say we soak him in the sink now
 

haylee345

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Still semi-beginner, got my first tortoise in November. I didn't water-proof her closed wooden enclosure, grew mold up the walls and on the roof. Didn't bake or freeze substrate, now I have bugs everywhere. Also took outside dirt and dirty flowerpots and put them in her enclosure which is where some of the bugs and mold probably came from.
 

Crzt4torts

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Used Carefresh newspaper for substrate, and red light for night heat.
Kept as a pair, but for the most part that was not a problem for these two. Separate now, though make is struggling with the change...
 

IIzDaFury

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Feb 5, 2016
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I wanted 1 hermann tortoise, did all my research into it, my breader said he had none left on the last minute of delivery, so he offered me 2 russian torts for the same price, i did half a hour research and said yeah sure, i didn't realise they should never be kept together.. So they've been seperated now.. I also had a few difficulties with heating and lighting since the breader gave me a viv too! >:O they'll sell you anything to make a quick buck these days... A viv isn't terrible just low ventilation so it's harder to keep the correct temperature, and torts don't understand glass so theres that too... :/

owell, i'm slowely making a better life for them! :D
 

Momof4

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30+ years ago just letting box turtles roam the back yard. I had a small book with a box turtle on the cover that pet stores sold.
22yrs ago my dad gave me a tortoise and to this day I have no idea what it was. I just remember him having a dark carapace. My roommates boyfriend did build me an enclosure for our apartment balcony. I know I kept him dry and cold because he got a respiratory infection and my aunt gave him his antibiotic injections for me. I did have water for him but he was dehydrated as well.
His name was Sherman the Tank and I gave him to a family who moved to Oregon. I think about him all the time:( I wished we had TFO back then.
 

Bogie=babyDINO

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When I first got my sully he was 1 month old and I bought the reptile water bowl at the pet store. I found him flipped over twice with his head almost underwater before I researched on here and read baby torts drown to death in those water bowls! I am extremely lucky bogie didn't drown. I'm so thankful for the tortoise forum!!!
 
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