Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I have several herps 2 snakes and 4 lizards so Im not new to reptiles. However besides those little turtles you buy on the street Ive never had any others. So Im wondering what a good beginner to medium level tortoise is and what are there pros and cons.
Also a dumb question, what is the difference between turtles and tortoises, is it that turtles live n water and tortoises are terrestrial???

Thanks
Jack

A good beginer tort would be a russian. They stay smallish and have lots of personality. A con of the russian tort is that they need to be taken care of ALOT. I feed mine everyday and clean up poop every day and take him on walks when the weather permits outside everyday. Russians also need a roomey place to live. Torts are on land and don't go in water except for a soaking or a drink. I would suggust a normal water turtle for u right now because they are easier to care for. They also go in aquariums better than torts because they swim. I would prob suggest a painted turtle because they stay small and are really cool pets. I don't know cleaning up tort poop every day is alot of work and icky so i would suggest a painted.(oh by the way painteds are alot cheaper than CB russians which are about 150 if u are lucky, meanwhile a good painted is 15. Here is a Pic of Speedy my painted turtle.

np

IMO, water turtles are sometimes harder to keep, unless you have a pond. First off, you cannot just put a water turtle in a 10 gal tank and think that he will survive.

A water turtle needs a large area to swim and then an area where it can get totaly out of the water to bask. Not to mention the filtration you need to keep the water clean. And that is only a few things one needs for water turtles.

Tortoises, if you get the right one for a beginner is not all that hard to keep, if you have the right setup. Russians,like what was stated before would make a wonderful first tort. I have 5 myself. (of course, I am trying to sell them due to unexpected circumstances)

Russians are very hardy. They do not require special husbandy, such as humidity or anything like that. If you do your research ahead of time and know what you are going to get into, then I say do it. Check out www.russiantortoise.org It's the best place to find all your Russian tort information such as diet, husbandy and all that.

Good luck to you.

Wow I didnt think a tortoise needed that much space the site says the russian needs a 50 gallon rubermaid minimum!!
I got interested because I saw a couple the other day at the bronx zoo, But there I saw they were kept in what looked like a 10-15 gallonm awquarium. Im not sure what tortoise that was but Is there another tortoise that has allot of personality and takes up a little less space??? Also could you provide me with links to sites and stuff where I could learn more about the turtles and tortoises, that would have info on the beggining types like you mentioned??

P.S. Do you guys have any other reptiles, lizards snakes, how would you compare them to the tortoises turtles???

Thanks allot
Jack

Nope no torts can be kept in that small of a tank. A turtle would be great in a 55g rubbermaid. I don't have any links maybe someone else will. I have had frogs and lizards however they never last me very long. They just seamed to die(except in my pond). My 3 turtles that i have are great. They have never been sick, and I have had the one for 10yrs and the other 2 for about 3yrs. But then again i am turtle obsesed. My neighbors think im nuts for walkin turtles but hey i don't have to clean up poop ha.

All turtles and tortoises have large territories in the wild and their tendency is to roam them to get all that they need. Their natural state is one of constant travel and they do better when that desire is catered to. I personally find it a pain in the butt to try to maintain healthy turtles or tortoises indoors, they just need too much space and too specialized of setups to do easily, not to mention they are active and destructive and messy when kept healthy (lots of digging and pooping and cage re-arranging). The best method of keeping a turtle or tortoise is to have outdoor space of good size you can commit to them, and then research your climate and what species would do well in it and then pick from that. The plus sides are many. Your animal will be well suited to his environment with little effort from you after building a pen, it will be recieving natural sunlight, and not require expensive bulbs that must be replaced every six months. They stay healthier and do better when matched to the climate of their owner as well as possible. A healthy animal is the best bet for getting a lot of activity and personality from them, a stressed or cramped animal is a nightmare pet that ends up costing a fortune in vet bills and setup costs and likely dies slowly anyway.

A 50 gallon Rubermaid is not a large container. If you want a turtle, you might try a male painted turtle or a mud or musk turtle. Still, a 40 gallon anything would be minimum for even those. Male turtles stay smaller than females.

Katrina

Posted by: jack7777766 at Thu Jun 26 18:08:11 2003 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

Wow I didnt think a tortoise needed that much space the site says the russian needs a 50 gallon rubermaid minimum!!
I got interested because I saw a couple the other day at the bronx zoo, But there I saw they were kept in what looked like a 10-15 gallonm awquarium. Im not sure what tortoise that was but Is there another tortoise that has allot of personality and takes up a little less space??? Also could you provide me with links to sites and stuff where I could learn more about the turtles and tortoises, that would have info on the beggining types like you mentioned??

P.S. Do you guys have any other reptiles, lizards snakes, how would you compare them to the tortoises turtles???

Thanks allot
Jack

Russian's are a very good beginner tort as are Redfoot's. Both are very hardy and acclimate to captivity well. There are some trade-offs with each though. Russian's need more room to move around than Redfoot's. Russian's can handle a wider range of temperature and humidity than Redfoot's. Redfoot's don't hibernate, Russian's do and should be for long term health and possible breeding. Redfoot's eat a wider range of food items that are easier to find in most grocery stores. They do well on a 75% green/vegetable, 25% fruit, 5% animal protein diet. Give that diet to a Russian and you'll have all kinds of problems. Russian's need a 95% green, 5% selected vegetable diet. Both need to be outdoors for some part of the year.

Good luck on your choice.

I tend to disagree about the comments made on the Redfoots versus Russians.

Redfoots get alot larger than Russians which means that the Redfoots need more room to move around. Also, Redfoots require at least 70% humidity, where as the russians do not.

Also, on the fact that Russians need to hibernate in order to live a long healthy life and to breed have not get been proven true. Many people have kept Russians for over 10 years without hibernation and they still breed regularly and are very healthy.

My opinoin

It really comes down to this...russians are taken from the wild (since the majority of russians sold are wild caught) and undergo the stresses we all know about and despise in crates and overseas trips.
They are typically kept out of hibernation for a year or two to make sure they are healthy.

As we also know, the majority of wild russians die.

So there are two possibilities to think about when keeping a russian from hibernating:

1) The *wild* russian, since its been hibernating all its life, DOES need to hibernate to either feel at ease and gets seriously stressed if it doesnt.
I personally don't feel they have a biological need, just a mental one.

2) The wild russian is stressed to the point of sickness anyway and after a while the symptoms show. This *leads* people to believe they did something wrong and the fact they didn't hibernate is staring them in the face.

So either the idea is perpetuated by the death of stressed torts, or theres a mental need of some sort rather than a biological one.

Would the results be different if we looked at captive bred russians? Shrug. Who'd want to take the chance and do mass testing on their little buddies?

This is most likely not the case. Hibernation is an adaptation to survive unfavorable conditions. This is almost a 'chicken or the egg' story. While some might be inclined to hibernate due to seasonal changes it is most definately not a necessity. If you keep the conditions in a favorable range the odds are the animal, regardless if it is captive born or not, will not be inclined to hibernate.
As far as most WC Russian tortoises dying... this is also not the case if you are lucky enough to get fresh imports and they are not sitting around the dealers for too long under very stressfull conditions.
Ed

Russians are great little tortoises. As for hibernation- i leave it up to them( i have 14),some do,some don't.A few prefer to sleep through most of the Summer!.In any event-do your homework. Study up on ANY tortoise you might purchase. The knowledge is out there- make use of it! Best of Luck, Jody