One of the big things to keep in mind when taking the plunge is that a tortoise can easily outlive its owner. There are other varieties for those living in cold-weather climates, including the smaller Russian tortoises, which can live in heated indoor enclosures. Adult desert tortoises are much smaller, reaching a bit over a foot (30 centimeters) in length and weighing about 8 to 12 pounds (3.6 to 6.8 kilograms). They don’t dig huge holes, they don’t rearrange backyard furniture” like the sulcatas can, she said. “These guys are better suited for the backyard. “People get them, and they don’t have any idea what they’re getting into.”įor people who live in the Southwest, Wolf says the native desert tortoises are a better fit. “The sulcatas are a huge problem in California,” said Misiak. Their size and longevity can overwhelm pet owners, and they are frequently rehomed.
One popular variety is the African sulcata, the largest mainland tortoise, which can easily hit 100 pounds (45 kilograms) and grow 2 ½ feet long (76 centimeters). The rest comes from plants in our garden or the pockets of our daughter, who picks bright yellow trumpet flowers from the schoolyard to hand-feed to her.īut there are other types of tortoises that people keep as pets. Most of her diet consists of our lawn, which she happily grazes on. So people, especially kids, should wash their hands after touching or interacting with them.ĭotty is an Arizona native, which means it’s relatively easy to set up a habitat that suits her needs in the Sonoran Desert.
One thing to beware of: Like other reptiles, tortoises can carry salmonella. Instead, she splays out, legs akimbo, head frequently lolling to the side. And when she sleeps, she doesn’t tuck up inside her shell, as cartoons would have us believe. She was surprisingly friendly, trotting up to greet us when we would go out to visit her and even clambering into our laps when we sat cross-legged in her habitat. Other unexpected behaviors: She was much zippier than we imagined, exploring the yard at a rapid pace. Minutes into the drive home, she pulled herself up the side of the cardboard box she was in and stretched her head up high to see what was happening. Our first observation about her behavior: She’s very curious. Her neck can extend out several inches, and she has a bubblegum pink tongue that pokes out when she’s chowing down. Dotty is about a foot (30 centimeters) long, with scrappy legs made for digging. We met with Wolf on a recent sun-baked Arizona day when we picked up our desert tortoise, now named Dotty for the light brown spots on her shell. “And then they have 15 of them roaming their backyard.” They start out so small and then people don’t realize how big they get,” she said. “People are still breeding them in captivity. Tegan Wolf, who runs Arizona’s adoption program, says there are roughly 200 tortoises at her center, and about 150 of them are babies. So finding a reputable group to adopt from is important. The reptile pet trade can be fraught, with poaching a particular concern for certain turtles. Add to that a 50-plus-year lifespan and the result is hundreds of tortoises surrendered to the state every year. And backyard breeding, which is now illegal in Arizona, means more baby tortoises than adoptive families. It’s unsafe for captive tortoises to be released into the wild, because they can spread diseases to dwindling native populations. So why does the Arizona Fish and Game Department have an adoption program? Because of the problem of overbreeding.
“The funny thing about tortoises is they love people, but they don’t love each other,” said Sherri Graves of the nonprofit Tortoise Group, which helps people adopt and rehome tortoises. And you don’t need a second tortoise to keep your pet company. They also don’t need water daily, since they’re well-adapted to their desert homes. It wakes up in the spring and they have a brand-new pet,” she quips.ĭesert tortoises are herbivores and munch on Bermuda grass, weeds and many native plants. “The tortoise is awake, they play with it, they get tired of it, it goes to sleep. Human-made burrows can be built out of large PVC pipes, plastic garbage cans or some cinderblocks with WonderBoard as the roof.įor families with kids, there’s an extra benefit of the brumation process, says Lynda Misiak, who administers the desert tortoise permit process in California. They need a cozy den to keep them safe and warm. Tortoises sleep through the winter, a process known as brumation in the reptile world.
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