Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I have a captive bred young russian tort who is in his own setup, and I have two adult females, one that I aquired a short time ago (maybe a month or two), and one that I acquired recently that I wasn't quite prepared for, so I put the two newer females together as opposed to quarantining them seperately, because they are both long-term captives with good past health histories, and I plan on treating all of the tortoises with panacure anyways (hopefully starting next week) to irradicate any would-be parasites.

My opinion is that everything will most likely be fine, but it was a bad decision on my part (not quarantining them completely) that I shouldn't let slide. I think it's partly that I'm not used to keeping more than one of a particular species together and haven't yet learned the proper protacol, so for future reference, what do you guys consider the correct protocol for newly aquired tortoises? Like I said, I do plan on treating all of the torts as though they have parasites, even though the little guy is captive bred (just want to be safe).

It depends on what you can manage, to be honest. I'd be wary of mixing LTCs with anything until after at least 4 months of quarantine, but I recognize not everyone has the space.

So its a calculated risk. I've not quarantined before, and had problems. But the few new additions I had before that point went along smoothly. I lucked out and in the end, no animals lost, and no permenant damage.

I grudgingly strive for a 6 mo quaratine under the assumption the animal is CB. I've been working with stars of different stripes for about 15 years, so I don't add anything I think might be WC. But I have very large groups, and the risk is too high to not quarantine. Were it a much smaller group, I might not wait the 6 mos.

>>So I have a captive bred young russian tort who is in his own setup, and I have two adult females, one that I aquired a short time ago (maybe a month or two), and one that I acquired recently that I wasn't quite prepared for, so I put the two newer females together as opposed to quarantining them seperately, because they are both long-term captives with good past health histories, and I plan on treating all of the tortoises with panacure anyways (hopefully starting next week) to irradicate any would-be parasites.
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>>My opinion is that everything will most likely be fine, but it was a bad decision on my part (not quarantining them completely) that I shouldn't let slide. I think it's partly that I'm not used to keeping more than one of a particular species together and haven't yet learned the proper protacol, so for future reference, what do you guys consider the correct protocol for newly aquired tortoises? Like I said, I do plan on treating all of the torts as though they have parasites, even though the little guy is captive bred (just want to be safe).

I guess if I want to be serious with this breeding project, I have to take a more serious approach, so any future animals that I add to the group will be quarantined for a long period of time.

Right now the girls seem to be doing fine. They were up basking together and eating together today, and I think that (hopefully) as long as I treat them both for parasites, they should be good to go. I may as well just treat the captive bred guy for parasites too while I'm at it.

Thanks for all the information. Stars must be wonderful tortoises to work with.

To add to your protocol, I"d take in a series of poop samples to the vet (at least one sample prior to deworming if possible). Panacur doesn't kill everything. If this becomes a big project, or you just find it interesting, you can get your own microscope and materials and ask the vet to show you how it's done

Ian