Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i may be in the market for a couple of hingebacks and was wondering if anyone knows where to get cb instead of wc. all of them I have seen in kingsnake and other sited are wc and that makes me leary. any dirrection would be helpfull.
chris

I can't help you with finding cb hingebacks, but I agree that you should not bother with wc hingesbacks, ever. No matter importers/dealers may assure you about "ltc", "eating like a horse," most imports will not survive a year.

I don't think its wise in any respect to wait until the numbers of wild counterparts are on the verge of exticntion. That said, hingebacks in the wild are suffering from the same elements of any other wild tortoise/turtle.reptile/amphibian/, species etc., and should on some level be preserved in a captive environment. I don't think the last statement therein should be taken lightly, nor do I believe that boycotts should be launced against those importing or selling imports, rather a balance needs to be stricken. Its never black and white with anything in life and to simply state 'all imports or even the majority will be dead in 6 months' simply does not stand to any equation. I have all wild caught hingebacks of several ssp. and have had many for almost ten years. Many are laying eggs, many eggs have hatched, so the point stated that 'all imports should be avoided or either will be dead in 6 months time' is suspect at best. If one has the ability to provide appropriate vet care, the ability to setup as close as possible to what a tortoise would have in the wild, and is keeping a tortoise as mosre than a pet that is allowed to roam a house or hang with the dog, it can be done and should be done.

I am a realist and know that fouding stock at this time is only a hobby to feed those wanting pwts, but opptimistically hope to have the ability to send future CB to native habitats. This has happened with other species and can happen with tortoise if one removes blinders....

Let's stop and think about this for a moment... you can't find any CB hingebcks so you will not look at WC. Where are future CB hingebacks going to come from?

If you are not comfortable with WC animals that is one thing but there is definately a need for a founding stock for CB animals.

Hingebacks in general have always been notorious for being unable to adapt to captivity but with todays age of the internet and rapid communication the imported animals are spending less and less time in holding and are making it quicker into the hands of people who have the time and resources to increase the chances of survival.

The bottom line is that if you are getting good health imports and have the means(vet bills and the like) to provide for them, your tortoise might even be a member of that founding stock that will provide future generations of CB animals.

The point is you have to start somewhere and the way regulations are being implemented almost on a daily basis these imports are not going to be coming in for much longer.

>>i may be in the market for a couple of hingebacks and was wondering if anyone knows where to get cb instead of wc. all of them I have seen in kingsnake and other sited are wc and that makes me leary. any dirrection would be helpfull.
>>chris
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Ed,
Fact is, most of the hingebacks are still very common species in the wild, not going to be threatened with exinction anytime soon...I don't think the value of captive breeding a small number of them every year is worth importing many hundreds per year that will dead in 6 months.

I really don't think many hundreds are imported to any one place at any one time per year is really accurate.

I also don't think that many hundreds should be imported if they are.

The point is that WC animals should be allowed to be imported on a limited basis so those small numbers that are now bred can become big numbers in the future to allow future tortoise keepers the same privilege that we have.
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

I would try joining and posting on the yahoo Hingeback group
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/hingeback/

can't remember if it was three or four, but they were beautiful baby CB hingebacks in a local Reptile shop. I'm not sure if they ship or not, but if you would like to find out you can send me a private message and I will be happy to send you a phone number.