Thinking of getting a pet tortoise. Any help would be appreciated

hi dear , i would likw to know where can we get the food for these sulcata - mine loves romaine, mulberry leaves broccoli and Egg Shel -- please suggest me really appreciate

Hi Simoralu44 I have been keeping tortoises here for 25 years or more and have a pair of the Sulcata's (amongst several others!) for all that time. Happy talk about care, diet etc., so If you want a chat or a copy of a care sheet please give me a call 050 ******** Fiat edited by Fiat500 on 14/05/2013 edited by Fiat500 on 14/05/2013 Hi, leaving this message on an off chance you might still be using this site. We recently found a tortoise and I would really like to get some tips on keeping them in Dubai. Thank you in advance. Angela

Hi You can remove your email now, will be in touch. Fiat

Hi Simoralu44 I have been keeping tortoises here for 25 years or more and have a pair of the Sulcata's (amongst several others!) for all that time. Happy talk about care, diet etc., so If you want a chat or a copy of a care sheet please give me a call 050 ******** Fiat edited by Fiat500 on 14/05/2013 <em>edited by Fiat500 on 14/05/2013</em>

@mrsg: I would really like to talk to you about tortoise care and share from your experience if you don't mind. My email is username here at gmail.com. TIA

Hi, do you still have the tortoise? We would love to ave it. We live in victory heights.

I have an 18 month old female Sulcata tortoise available for 'adoption' due to a change in our circumstances :( if anyone has a lovely safe garden for her??? We are in the Ranches. I will put an ad on Classifieds.

I made the run for my tortoises as I couldn't find any locally. Buy the mesh from Satwa and use wooden batons as a frame. It's fairly simple (even for me!) and lets be honest, the torti's don't care what it looks like :) As regards food, mine is a Sulcata and is an eating machine. It's a bit like having a small cow in my garden! She forages around most days, eating flowers that have fallen and munching grass, (loves grass and grass cuttings, clover, edible flowers like nasturtium, geraniums, hibiscus). I also leave hay out for her, which she enjoys. My sister thought I was mad to collect dandelion seeds in the summer to grow them in my garden, but the tortoise loves the leaves and the flowers. I have to have any flower baskets and pot plants quite high up or she climbs up and eats everything! Every 2nd or 3rd day I give her Rommaine lettuce (never give a tortoise Iceberg lettuce, it's really bad for them), cucumbers, a carrot and cress if we have any. Once a week she gets a piece of watermelon , keep the skin on as they like that, and once a month half a banana, again with the skin on. Occasionally she get s a couple of fresh figs if she's lucky. Don't give too much fruit to your tortoise as it should be as a treat only. Mine sprints across the garden if she sees a banana!! Great way to get her to move as she is a bit heavy for me to pick up. When I first had a tortoise, a vet friend who specialised in reptiles told me not to feed them every day, as , in the wild, they forage for food. Hence the feeding every 2/3 days. With a large garden she finds more than enough to eat every day anyway. The Nad Al Shiba vets are good if you have any questions. They also used to do a care sheet for tortoises but I'm not sure if they still do. Might be worth going on their website though. Hope that helps Forgot to say that I keep water out for her in a plant pot saucer, and the funniest sight is her dancing in the sprinklers (she stands up and sways from side to side in the water with her head up and stretched out!) <em>edited by mrsg on 05/11/2012</em>

We have recently got a pet tortoise - a Russian. Please could you recommend where you got an outdoor pen/run? Our garden is huge, and we're worried about 'losing' her! Also need to keep her safe from the automatic garage door... Also, at the moment, we are feeding it salad leaves which it seems to love, but do I need to give her anyting else? She is happy & healthy :) We did buy an indoor tortoise home, but the weather is so lovely, she has been outside, and loves it. And one final question - do I need to get her a friend? Or is she happy to be on her own? TIA!

I have 3 tortoises (that live in my garden), all of which I have adopted. All 3 are different breeds (small). Two of them I adopted from Posh Paws Animal Sanctuary. The last one I got, which is a Russian I think, had lived its life (+-18 months) in an apartment. The owners were clearly totally ignorant as they did not provide for his needs at all. His shell is completely deformed due to bad nutrition - he was fed human food, mainly rice, and as a result also had no bite strength so couldn't eat veggies at first. Because he was living on tiles, his back legs are completely horizontal to the ground and he can't lift himself up, he kind of just pushes himself along with the sides of his back legs. His skin was also peeling and he stank! Over the past few months I have seen a wonderful improvement and out of the 3 he is the smallest, but also the cheekiest and most bossy, and he also moves the fastest!! He also now eats everything the other tortoises eat. My whole point is to please reconsider - tortoises are not indoor pets. Also, rather adopt and give an animal in need a loving new home, than buy from pet stores :) <em>edited by Petal on 04/11/2012</em>

I have a 32 kgs female Sulcata, and 13 baby sulcatas(which hatched this summer and are tiny). Mum has the run of a large garden, which she loves to sunbathe in. She also tunnels !! Last year she destroyed my water tank when she managed to burrow over 100 ft under the garden! The tank collapsed into part of her tunnel once the weight became too much to hold up. This year she has lifted part of the pavement! We are tempted to dig up part of the garden to a depth of 10 ft , lay down a wire fence, and refill it to give her somewhere to dig BUT, I don't really want to limit her garden access. You can imagine how I feel about keeping a tortoise inside. I know you are looking at a much smaller breed, but, having had these too, I think you should change your mind. I have watched the youtube video, and still think that tortoise house is far too small. My baby tortoises are in a holding pen 6ft x 3 ft and it is just about big enough for them. They also go into the garden each day in an enclosed pen on grass (bit like a rabbit run) , which they love. The pen is enclosed because the local minah birds love trying to eat the babies!! If I have time (and am there to keep the birds away) I let them loose in the garden, and boy can they move. The point really is that tortoises are not inside pets. Even in the UK my tortoises are outside, until they go into the greenhouse for winter. They don't come into the house. Please think about having a different pet.

Hi Fiat Have received your email and replied. Many thanks :-)

Cheezu I have watched the video and I would not like to keep a tortoise in such a small cage / space. Regards Fiat

hi fiat500 do you have papers for your tortoise? we are thinking about buying a couple and i have so many more questions lets maybe talk on the phone? my number is thank you melanie <em>edited by mymel007 on 04/11/2012</em>

Hi I have emailed you Dubai 1990. ok, great, am just waiting for it to come through <em>edited by dubai1990 on 04/11/2012</em>

Thank you, Fiat500! We actually use the AC sparingly and we never use it during the winter months here (I'm prone to getting bad colds myself and the place I work is freezing as it is... hehe) Would you say that it would be OK to keep it on on the terrace in a built-in enclosure? Could it also be kept out during the summer? Thanks a lot for the info. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You would need a large encloure that has soil etc and lots of shade, I doubt they could remain out all summer as teraces and balconies tend to be even hotter than gardens if they catch the sun. I feel the same as you about A/C but in the summer it is on and it can give tortoises respiritory problems. I am sorry to sound negative but I keep coming back to the fact that you need a garden to keep tortoises.

Hi I have emailed you Dubai 1990. ok, great, am just waiting for it to come through

Hi I have emailed you Dubai 1990.

hi fiat500 yes, mum and dad have a villa with a large garden and it is all enclosed with a high wall so no escaping.... if you could please send me your details, that would be great and i can pass them on ... :-) <em>edited by dubai1990 on 04/11/2012</em>

Hi Cheezu I have a couple of Russian tortoises and they are very active and strong for their size and I cannot imagine them in an inside habitat. Of course in cooler climates people often bring their tortoises in for the winter but as tortoises are prone to respiritory infections if kept in room with A/C, so you have to be careful of that over here. This is a good website about Russian tortoises and shows what you would need to house it when it does need to come inside (of course the seasons are reversed as it is written for a climate where the summers are less harsh and the winters cooler). Hope that helps.

Thanks, I have taken your number.

Believe it or not a tortoise is quite agile and 5cm would be an easy climb for them. Here is my number , let me know when you have it and I will remove it ************ Fiat <em>edited by Fiat500 on 04/11/2012</em>

Thanks for that. We are interested so let me know how to get in touch. A large part of the pool has timber decking around it which is about 5cm above the ground. Would a tortoise be able to climb up onto that? We can fence the rest of the area.

Hi Cheezu - I think tortoises are unsuitable for apartment living. They are outdoor creatures who soak up the sun, move around and dig themselves in. Sorry but I think you need to reconsider your choice of pet, as it would not be fair on the animal. Emmsie - A tortoise cannot swim so they would need to be kept safe from a pool, if you can make an enclosed area for it that would be best. Ours have a short picket fence to keep them in. Let me know if you are interested.

We would like a tortoise so if Fiat500 is still looking for someone to adopt one, please let me know. We have a large garden but it has a pool; does that matter?