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Esther and then.......


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Posted by Georgia on May 12, 2001 at 10:58:49:

In Reply to: Re: Good apartment tortoise? posted by Esther on May 11, 2001 at 22:39:41:

: How long do you plan to stay in an apartment setting before you relocate to a place with a yard? What part of the country do you live in?

: In my humble opinion, I can only say that any tortoises that initially seem small and cute and well-adapted to apt living will quickly outgrow that situation. If you own sulcatas, like I do, you soon will find yourself cooking home a lot more to save the money so that you can move to a larger place with a balcony and direct sunlight for the babies. Be ready for MAJOR life-style adjustments. I don't really recommend sulcatas, they just outgrow everything and you MUST be prepared for them to TAKE OVER and RULE your apartment!:) If you will be moving to a fenced-yard type house in a few years, then that is a different situation. So I guess it all depends on your individual plans.

: Once they turn 4, and you are in an apartment, plan to spend at least 1 hour a day cleaning up after poop alone. And don't buy any rugs that you don't mind, well, stained from time to time.

: And when they knock over your trash can so that they can blissfully sit inside it in the middle of a mixture of spoiled pancake batter, napkins and olive oil, you are not allowed to get frustrated, you just have to laugh (and then find a new solution for the trash because they will pull their best tricks over and over again if left unchecked). When you have a fancy dinner party and they come out and charmingly show off and then poop in front of the guests, you must find a way to gracefully clean it up. They won't be confined to a tank, you know. . . .If you invite a sulcata tortoise into your apartment, guarenteed 4 years later, it will become THEIR apartment. You just exist to pay the rent, that's all! This is a situation that I have happily accepted and look forward to someday soon owning a real house with a real yard, just for their sakes. But I mean, you REALLY have to be ready for that committment.

: : Can anyone suggest a tortoise that would do well in an apartment setting? Thanks!

: : ~Katt

You finally move into that wonderful home and they take over the yard, the patio and still all of your life. They get bigger, the poop becomes massive, we sometimes think we've got horses in our yard. Their urates, well the patio is hosed down daily. Forget clay pots if they are in the way, sulcatas just move them out of the way, usually destroying the pot. Entertaining people, well inside is not a problem but outside bar-b-q's, well they want to be right under foot and if it's time to poop, it's time to poop no matter who is there. If there is entertaining going on inside and they see your through the sliding glass door, be prepared for attempts to join the fun right through the glass door. If your lucky and the only digging they do is in their dogloos filled with timothy hay, then all you have to do is constanly clean up the flying hay. On the positive note, you won't need a gardener but they haven't learned the fine art of edging. They keep the bottom part of the hibiscus trimmed nice and messy. They help clean out their dogloos by pushing them all over the yard as you're trying to hose them out. Sulcatas are not apartment torts, you can't help but love them when they're little and cute, BUT you have to keep loving them as they grow. In the case of our lucky two...they are loved beyond rediculous



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