Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello.
i live very close to Seattle WA, just off the bay. we are looking at getting a tortise (or two). i have experiance with reptiles, owning geckos and a snake currently. i've looked over a million caresheets online and asked a few breeders, but i can't really figure out what kind would be better for us. what were looking for is;
no aquatics. i won't mind changing a litter box full of water once a week or so, but that's about it.
can tolerate chill or dampness. it snows, our house isn't sealed that well, it can get cold and damp, especially outside. i have a heater in the room with my other reptiles, which keeps i around 75 durring the day.
i would like to be able to keep it outside, at least durring the summer. i was told by a few people that many of desert tortises will be fine outside, even durring the snow, as long as they have a heat light & hide away they can crawl back into to warm up. but many of the care sheets, they say "dosn't tollerate damp/chill", so i'm really confused.
size wise, something that averages or boarder-lines under 100lbs.
i'm really stumped about the damp/chill issue. to get a bit picky, he really likes types that what bigger bumps/cones and inetesting contrasts on the shell, a leopard tortise for example.
does anyone have a suggestion? or anyone from western WA?
-julie

A redfoot tort might be a good one to keep due to the naturally humid climate in Seattle. At least during summer when it would be warm enough to keep it outdoors and not have to worry about humidity issues. There are several other humidity loving torts out there like the burmese mountain torts. However, there captive bred redfoots are easily found, fairly inexpensive, and dont get so big that cant be housed indoors if need be during winter.

i will read up more about them. thanks you!

Hello Julie,

I very strongly advise you against getting any type of desert tortoise. They do very poorly in humid areas. It is a respiratory problem waiting to happen.

Also the info you received about leaving ANY tortoises outside in snow with a heated house to crawl into is totally bogus. To survive winter in snowstorms and freezing weather, the tortoise would need to be kept a tight and insulated building with central heat like your own house, not just in a open doored dog house with a ceramic heater.

You could consider Herman's Tortoises or Russian Tortoises which might do even better up there in the winter than Redfoots, though they do hibernate. See some of the previous posts about that below.

okay, this may seem like a dumb question; it gets cold in the desert durring the winter right? so what do they do then? hide in a cave? in the desert? does it just not get that cold?

i thought the dog house with a heat lamp sounded a little off. i'm glad to know for sure. i would hate to keep an animal is an enviorment it's not ment for.
-julie

It can get quite cold in some deserts at night, but it is never humid and cold both. That is the downfall of most tortoises from dry areas. Even if they can take the cold to a point, the humidity combined with cold gives them pneumonia. Besides, it does not get cold enough to snow in the deserts (at least where the tortoises live), AND they are in their burrows where they can thermoregulate by going down deeper where the temperatures are virtually constant 24 hours a day, or by coming closer to the surface at will. In a captive setup such as a shed or dog house with a heat lamp in a yard full of snow, I doubt they could reach a "happy" temperature.

The African Spurred Tortoises can take pretty cool nights, in the mid 40's doesn't really harm them, but they are masters of thermoregulation and prepare themselves by basking in the late afternoon for cool nights. If kept in the above described setup in a yard of snow, even they would still get pneumonia. American desert tortoises of the genus Gopherus are much less cold and humidity tolerant.

I have to agree with zovick. Cold and wet are bad combos. Probably for any tort. However, redfoots will thrive and do well in higher humidity situations. And probably tolerate the sub-optimum temps much better than a more aridland species with the higher humidity situation, especially when it starts cooling off. Not COLD, but starting to dip. But, redfoots and just about every humidity loving tort I have read about are tropical and as such do not hibernate in nature. So, they should be taken inside when temps get too low. Not sure how low, but probably in mid 60s. Mountain torts may be able to take cooler and wetter conditions, but not sure.