Are African spurred tortoises a lot of trouble?

Question

I recently found one on the side of the road(in southern Indiana no less) and would like to know what i am in for.It's about 9 inches across and weighs about 3 pounds, how old is it likely to be?

Veronika S · Accepted Answer

i think that either that is an african spurred tortoise(sulcata) that someone dumped, or it isn't that species, because obviously they live in subsaharan AFRICA.

well they live at least 60-100+ years, so you're probably going to die before it does. they are a huge responsibility and require HUGE outdoor enclosures. They usually grow 2 1/2 feet ( 30 inches)

you need to research on how you can provide the proper home it needs, it needs to be kept outside, and brought indoors during winter. Your going to have to build it an enclosure.


Research about them, not easy to care for, advanced keepers have difficulty

http://www.chelonia.org/articles/sulcatacare.htm

http://whozoo.org/Intro2001/kimstagg/KES_africanspurredturtle.htm

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Articles/firstlandturtle.htm

http://home.earthlink.net/~rednine/sulcatacare.html

setups

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.turtlestuff.com/Sulcpenleft.jpg&imgrefurl=http://turtlestuff.com/enclosures.html&usg=__IrUn8aT0vujbHyZHurTcU4SR2D4=&h=264&w=349&sz=67&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=NmvvRZrwsdLzDM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsulcata%2Btortoise%2Benclosure%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DX

http://www.turtletalkrescue.com/Turtle%20Boxes.jpg

good luck if you decide to keep this tortoise, you'll have to pass it down to your grandkids, and their kids, a real family pet.

fruitcake · Answer

ok honey you have either found a lost pet or the tortoise you have found is not a african spurred tortoise, or sulcats as they are also known, with out pictures all i can do is to give you some sites to help identify what type of tortoise you have found, you will also find the care sheets on these sites as well so you will be able to see how to care for a tortoise
http://www.sulcata-station.org/index.html
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/
http://www.tortoise.org/

http://www.gophertortoise.org/tortoise/facts.htm
 but can sulcata's be a lot of trouble :) yes they can but if you get the conditions right they are suchan enjoyable tortoise to watch and keep,  as for the age of the torotise it depends on what type of torotise you have found, telling the age of a torotise is not easy and at most you can only really guess what age they are, best of luck honey hope you find the information you are looking for

Are African spurred tortoises a lot of trouble?

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