# Turtle type? HELP! ASAP!



## LS1FDRx7 (Mar 6, 2007)

Can someone help me out, I live pretty far from the city out in the country... farm type area. Anyways I was riding my bike and spot this rock in the middle in road, I came closer and it's a freaking turtle! It was almost half dead!!! So I walked it back to my house, and gave it some water and some fruits, then I went back and got my bike that I laid down.

Anyways, The next house near us is about a 5 minute drive and I know for sure they dont have any turtle!?

So what do I do? I would like to know the type of turtle it is, because it's growing on me. I'm going to post flyers nearby but if no one claims it I'm going to keep it in my back yard!! I found out it doesn't like my pond, so it's not a water type turtle.. Someone please help out, I dont want it to die. It's very huge and lived a good life and I liked to keep it alive if I can.

Pictures below
















Thanks!


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## Piranha Guru (Nov 24, 2005)

Where do you live?


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

Looks like a Sulcata tortoise.

probably someones pet that wandered out of its pen or someone dumped it


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

yup, looks to be a sulcata, i have wanted one of those for years... i'll be in my new house soon enough


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## Guest (Aug 1, 2008)

Sulcatta tortoises are capable diggers. He may have dug his way out the outside pen he was being kept in.

Either that, or he walked all the way from Africa!


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

Bullsnake said:


> Sulcatta tortoises are capable diggers. He may have dug his way out the outside pen he was being kept in.
> 
> Either that, or* he walked all the way from Africa!*


that would be my guess...


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## LS1FDRx7 (Mar 6, 2007)

Oh wow, Interesting. We'll I'm going to print some flyers and post them around this weekend and see if someone has lost it, It is considered a rarity in the turtle world? It's kind of weird how it wandered itself into a country street road, I mean within a 2 mile radius there's only about 14 houses.

Thanks for the information though, It's eating lettuce and cantelope slices and is doing well. I would hate to see it "die" since it looks to me to be a couple years old, since it's so big!


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

they aren't extremely rare, but they are damn expensive, i would imagine that whoever owns it is trippin right now... unless they dumped it because it got too big and they didn't want it anymore, in which case you can send it to me, haha


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## scrubbs (Aug 9, 2003)

i'm curious, how did you coax the tortoise back to your place? How long did the walk take?

how big is it?

good on you. hopefully it is someone's lost tortoise and you find them.


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## Bawb2u (May 27, 2004)

Don't post it up as "Sulcata Tortoise Found", some shmo might just come and scam it off of you. Post it up as just "Tortoise Found" and make the person that calls describe it.
I found a Russian tortoise wandering around the woods near my house, about 30 years ago, he was a great pet and just passed away last year.


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## LS1FDRx7 (Mar 6, 2007)

The turtle is about 25-30lbs at most, I just took my two hands and picked it up by the side and just walked it back, put it in my front yard and gave it some water. I looked like it was half dead, no movement at all, just laying when I found it. I then went back and got my bike and came back to the house. I then took it and put it in my pond it and was struggling in the water for a minute, so I took it out and just let it roam my back yard which is full of green plants and lust veggitation. It's very active and walk/runs pretty fast for a turtle. That's how I got it back.

I know what to do as far as printing out the flyer, I'm going to just state : Large Turtle found, Must know what kind in order to confirm it's your turtle. Must know coloration of thurtle and such..







I'll think of something more as the day goes by tomorrow.

Thanks for the information though, It's growing on me but I wouldn't want to keep something that's expensive to someone else.... so we'll see how it goes! Like I mentioned above, there's only 14 houses around here and if none of them claim it, I can't imagine that the turtle came from the city which is about... 16 miles from here.


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## EZmoney (May 13, 2004)

It is possible that it hiked all the way from the city before you found it. Those suckas can travel far and live long.


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## scrubbs (Aug 9, 2003)

just to nitpick, i would put tortoise instead of turtle on the flyer. The person will be more willing to think it is theirs. Maybe if they saw turtle they wouldn't think it was theirs. On the other hand, there can't be that many lost turtles and tortoises around can there?


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## Guest (Aug 1, 2008)

You should write the 'Found' poster as if you think it's a cat.
Like this:


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## WhiteLineRacer (Jul 13, 2004)

That's a great looking Tortoise


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## maddyfish (Sep 16, 2006)

Neat pet!, and nice of you to care for it.


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## Doktordet (Sep 22, 2006)

about the lost n found flyer: I would be very careful of what you put in there. There are lots of useless f*cks out there who wouldnt think twice about scamming other people out of anything they can - including a rare African tortoise. The tortoise looks very good btw.


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## Nick G (Jul 15, 2007)

sweet turtle man
kudos to you for doing the right thing.


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## LS1FDRx7 (Mar 6, 2007)

I about to go to work, I checked up on the tortoise and it's doing fine. I gave him a slice of tomatoe and some lettuce and made sure there's ton of water in it's tray before I head to work. Thanks for all the comments. I thought for sure it wasn't going to make it through the night and I would feel so bad if it passed away, this is a big reptile and I never had one before to take car of lol. So I was a little worry.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

From my experience these aren't rare or expensive animals. They are in a huge abundance in the pet trade. And tons of people are constantly trying to dump their larger specimens onto zoos, rescues, etc. You can usually find them at most reptile expos for a decent price. Just an fyi there.

As well... If you are thinking about keeping this animal you should know about its care. Firstly, you should know that it is a tortoise and not a turtle. Very different.







This is one of the largest growing tortoises in the world and can get to a weight of about 200 lbs in some extreme cases, if I remember correctly.

Here's a little caresheet to give you a basic idea of what this animal needs: http://www.wnyherp.org/care-sheets/turtles...igh-sulcata.php

Keep in mind that this caresheet isn't definitive and it would serve you well to do more research. Cantelope and lettuce won't sustain it forever, either. But it's an okay start.

Generally lettuce isn't that great. Iceburg of course is just water. The other lettuces aren't a ton better. If you want some nutritional info I can poke around to see what I can get for that.

Good luck and let us know what happens. And good on ya for not just leaving it in the road to be hit or run over.


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## irishfan 689 (Aug 11, 2004)

Bullsnake said:


> You should write the 'Found' poster as if you think it's a cat.
> Like this:


hahaha oh man that's good stuff


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## LS1FDRx7 (Mar 6, 2007)

Mettle said:


> From my experience these aren't rare or expensive animals. They are in a huge abundance in the pet trade. And tons of people are constantly trying to dump their larger specimens onto zoos, rescues, etc. You can usually find them at most reptile expos for a decent price. Just an fyi there.
> 
> As well... If you are thinking about keeping this animal you should know about its care. Firstly, you should know that it is a tortoise and not a turtle. Very different.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the link, I'd did so a hour or so research on the tortoise itself. I do know that it's the 3rd biggest other than the Galapagos and Aldabra which are 1st and 2nd biggest. I read about it's food diet and feeding, but at the moment that's all I had to feed it that I thought it was good for it. I also read about the sexing of the turtle, I believed it's a female after reading about the difference between male and female. I got most of my informationi from this website http://www.sulcata-station.org/basics.html

And your website helped alot too. Thanks


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## Dawgz (Aug 18, 2005)

im glad ur being very responsible with this find.

GL to u and that tortoise!


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Glad to see you're really investing time and effort into figuring out how to care best for the tortoise.

If you can't find the original owners do you plan to keep it now that you know more about its needs and requirements?

Do you know if they're legal to own in your area?


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## Omnius (Mar 20, 2006)

Also you need to make sure it cannot dig or crawl out of your yard and whatnot.


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