Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So here is a question for you guys. I am writing this here because it is in question of a tortoise.

what are the downfalls of keeping/purchasing a wild caught tortoise vs. a captive born?

i am aware that there are several moral issues involved such as (pretty obviously) taking an animal out of its natural habitat, declining numbers of wild animals, as well as caging an animal that was once free. But are there any other concerns, health issues, etc?

the tort in question is rather young (3 years maybe), and has been checked for parasites and illnesses.

i just dont want to make the wrong decision because of impatience.

thanks,
matthew

Matthew,
I currently own a couple dozen tortoises. Only one of them was wild caught. It's a male golden greek that someone had to get rid of due to an apartment situation.

This one wild caught animal seemed healthy at first but has had more health issues over the past few years than all my CBB animals combined.

I've spent hundreds of dollars on medication and vet trips.

He is currently doing well but I still keep him in a separate part of the house from all my other animals and attend to him only after I'm done with the other animals to avoid spreading anything he might be carrying.

I recommend CBB.

John

CB, is the way to go, WC are ussually full of parasites, and have health problems that CB dont get, they also stress a lot since they were free at one point in life then put in a small enclosure that just stressfull. Also when you know how tortoises or other WC are imported to this country you just are sicken, and you dont want to be apart of it, If you want to save a lot of money i would stick with CB and just wait.

Here is a site where they show pictures of tortoises imported
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://nytts.org/proceedings/luiijf2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://nytts.org/proceedings/luiijf.htm&h=271&w=443&sz=37&tbnid=FreyyRbGqC4ZlM:&tbnh=75&tbnw=124&hl=en&start=9&prev=/images?q=pancake+tortoise&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=G

My first tort (a horsfieldi) was wild caught, but I only found that out AFTER he got very sick. Even the lady I bought him from was under the impression that he was CB. Distributors don't tell you these things you see...

Anyway, it cost me about $1000 in vet bills to try to save him and I still failed.

So think of it this way:
Buy a $200 captive bred and born baby and spend maybe $100 on vet visits. (total $300)

Of buy a $50 wild caught tort and spend $1000 on vet visits. (total $1050). And like other people have said, wild caughts always seem to get sick more than captive bred.

(Obviously these don't take into account the yearly visit to the vet...but both have to have those anyways, so that cancels out...)

And if moneys not enough to sway judgement, think about what you will feel like when you are stressed or up late at night worrying about the poor little guy. And most of all, think about how bad you'll feel if he dies.

My boy Yevgeni totally opened my eyes with these issues.
Now lots of pet stores groan when they see me coming to complain about them carrying wild caught torts. Especially if they tell everyone they are captive bred...

I had basically decided on a CB when i wrote the initial post, but was just considering my options. And i was also being incredibly impatient and there was a WC available at the time....but dont worry, i could never bring myself to buy a WC for moral issues let alone money issues.

i will hopefully be bringing my new guy home this saturday (permitting that they will be open over the easter weekend). But now i am all freaked out that they are lying about their torts being CB.