(upbeat music)
- Hey, good Morning everybody, and welcome to the blog.
Of course, just spending some time with my girl Matilda,
who has gotten so brave now, that she doesn't even mind
walking around on the slippery floor.
she's out pretty much every day, just cruising around.
And I love the fact that she's kind of come out
of her shell, so to speak.
That's right.
And you know, I tell that tortoises are certainly,
one of the coolest pet reptiles.
I mean, they're probably the most popular,
as a matter of fact, if you actually look at the ratio
of people that keep reptiles,
turtles and tortoises make up the majority of people,
which is crazy, right?
Cause I'm a snake guy, I love lizards,
but the truth is turtles and tortoises comprise the majority
of people's love of reptiles,
which I think is amazing.
Now I have to ask myself what tortoise,
would make a good pet, you know.
Matilda, the Aldabra tortoise,
is one of the giant tortoises.
Of course, parallel evolution
with the Galápagos Island tortoises.
But these guys come from the Seychelles islands
off of Madagascar.
Again, Matilda is gonna be 400 pounds one day.
She's only about 150 pounds right now.
And they are absolutely wonderful tortoise.
You can see, they love pets, they love to hang out,
they're amazing.
But you know, is this really a pet animal?
I mean, can most people have a 500 pound tortoise,
that's gonna live 200 years?
Probably not, right?
Now, don't get me wrong, I think she's probably one
of the most incredible pet tortoises you can have,
because the personality of Galápagos and Aldabra's
are absolutely wonderful.
But the truth is, it's just not practical
to have a 400 pound tortoise.
(upbeat music)
Hey Speedy,
there you go bud.
And listen, the majority of people,
that majority of people,
but a lot of, lot of people get so cottage.
because the Africans spurred-thighed
are probably the most commonly bred tortoise in the country,
to be totally honest with you.
And they're so cute as babies.
They're absolutely amazing.
The problem is of course,
is that these guys are little tanks.
I mean, they are unbelievable.
Not only do they have tremendously hard shells,
just like all of them,
they have those really tough spurred-thighs,
but these guys are burrowers.
So if you put these in your backyard,
they'll literally sometimes burrow down five or six feet,
and make huge dents and stuff like that.
On top of that, they will literally go through
like a dry wall.
This guy literally is a tank,
like you can't believe when there's an obstacle in his way,
he'll just burrow right through it.
It's not because they're bad animals.
It's just because that's what they do, you know,
they just kind of go at it.
The problem is too, is that this is still one
of the biggest tortoises in the world, you know.
A big sulcata, can get a hundred plus pounds,
even up to 150 pounds.
Now that's a big, big tortoise.
So when they're babies they look unbelievably cute
and they're relatively cheap,
that's the other thing it's like, they're cheap.
So people like, Oh wow, get a sulcata tortoise.
But then, with a guy like speedy,
that's about nine years old right now,
maybe even 10 years old,
he's starting to get big, but he's gonna get huge,
he's gonna get three, four times the size.
And we have the ability take care of something like this.
But on top of the fact that they get big, they eat a lot,
they're destructive, they poo and pee a ton.
They're definitely one of the most dirty tortoises
that I've ever kept.
Now we love him to death,
and we've even trained him to be honest,
where he'll like sometimes go and follow me around.
I can point in a direction,
he'll turn his direction and stuff like that.
So they're amazing animals if you have the ability,
and certainly if you live in Arizona or Florida
and can have them outside, that is awesome.
But again, even when they're outside,
you've got to be careful about them
burrowing underneath your fence,
but other than that, they can be amazing.
But when you're in the rest of the country,
these guys are hard to keep inside.
Man, I'm telling you what, they need a lot of space.
They need a lot of time.
They need a lot of energy, and you can see he's coming over
saying, "Hey, can I eat you?"
No, speedy, I love you to death.
So, listen spurred-thighed tortoises can be great,
but they are definitely not for most people.
(upbeat music)
There's no doubt when you get into the smaller species
of tortoise, like leopard tortoises,
they are definitely more reasonable
when it comes to a pet animal.
There's no doubt about that.
I mean, again, leopard tortoise, they get pretty big,
but they don't get absolutely mammoth, you know?
And they're just not as destructive as either, right?
They don't dig quite as much.
They're a little bit better
when it comes to that type of thing.
And they will still live 150 years.
So Steve here is an absolute beautiful,
beautiful, 22 year old leopard tortoise right here.
And I love them to death.
So again, I'm not saying you shouldn't get a sulcata.
I'm not saying you shouldn't get a Galápagos,
or Aldabra, if you can keep them,
I'm just saying, when you start getting
into the smaller tortoises,
and, but you still want a relatively big one,
a leopard tortoise, isn't a bad option,
to be totally honest with you.
Because they get large,
but not so large that you can't keep them.
You can have a nice pen in your backyard,
and have a handful of these guys.
And they're absolutely wonderful animals.
And it's so good because,
they're pretty easy to care for, right?
I mean, you know, so many animals
are so difficult to care for,
when it comes to most tortoises, they're pretty simple.
I mean, obviously they're vegetarian,
they eat lots of roughage, you know,
definitely a little bit of fruit at the most.
You don't want to give them fruit very often, but you know
any kind of like rough greens, Hayes, a cactus pad,
all that type of stuff are really good for these guys.
And they absolutely have so much personality.
I mean, I'm telling you what, I get so much joy
out of the leopard tortoises,
of course Aldabra tortoises, speedy is my man,
I love that guy to death.
Most people that wanna get into tortoises,
and can keep tortoises,
should probably keep their expectations a little smaller,
with something like a leopard tortoise, or even smaller.
(upbeat music)
What's the difference between a turtle and a tortoise.
Do you know?
If you do, tell in the comments below, what you think it is.
Okay, I'm gonna tell you right now.
The truth is, turtles are typically aquatic.
So they spend most of their life in the water
and tortoise to spend most of their life on land.
Now, theoretically in parts of the world,
everything with a shell like this, is a turtle.
So sometimes in parts of Europe,
they'll call tortoises turtles,
and they're not really wrong.
But the fact is that if these are really terrapin,
and they actually spend their life in the water,
whereas tortoises, really spend
the majority of your life on land.
But that doesn't mean,
that all tortoises are desert dwellers.
Take for instance, the red foot tortoises.
Of course, these guys aren't desert dwellers at all.
They actually come basically
from the subtropical and tropical rainforest.
So they like higher humidity.
And these guys will actually spend a lot
of time in the water,
not swimming around,
but they love to kind of trudge through mud
and water and they drink a lot and something like that.
So you want a higher humidity,
that's the only thing that you'd really have to figure
out when it comes to tortoises,
is that, what do they like, right?
Some tortoises are very dry dresser type animals,
so you want really arid areas,
and some tortoises like these guys,
actually like it humid, with a lot of water
because they come from a very humid area.
And these guys don't get even as big as leopard tortoises,
so, I love red foot and yellow foot tortoises as pets.
I mean, they are super adorable,
absolutely amazing.
This guy's named chip actually.
And they don't get large at all.
He's going to get maybe one and a half times
the size or so, and that's it.
So they're gonna be relatively apartment sized tortoises.
So you can have all the fun that you have
with a giant tortoises, in a little shell body.
And that's absolutely incredible.
Now, keep in mind those, you guys don't know a lot
about tortoises, that this shell right here
is actually attached,
right to their spine and their nervous system.
So they don't shed their shell.
They don't call out their shell.
They're born with that shell.
They stay with that shell their entire life.
And they can actually feel when you touch their shell.
Some of the cutest videos out there,
are the ones where people are scratching the rear end,
of their torts, and it's kind of shaken back and forth,
that's cause it can actually feel that scratch.
I mean, tortoises are absolutely amazing.
(upbeat music)
The fact is, there's tons of options when it comes
to tortoises, you know,
and I know I'm a snake guy, I'm a lizard guy,
but I'm also a animal lover, i.e. the new animal ambassador
drag on the spot.
I love all animals and tortoises certainly
are absolutely incredible.
And it's not just the ones that I've shown them.
That's all we keep here, but there's great tortoises,
there's Russian tortoises,
there's a lot of really small tortoises,
that can be amazing.
And so, you just have to do your research, you know,
make sure you buy good animals,
in particular, I really think
you should always buy captive bred.
There's no reason to buy wild caught animals these days,
they're being produced in numbers, that make complete sense.
So, the fact is, if you can find whatever tortoise
fits your needs, and hey,
maybe your tortoise like Matilda fits your needs.
Maybe you have a huge plot of land,
somewhere where they'll actually thrive in.
And I think that's absolutely amazing for you.
But the fact is, is that, you can have little tiny tortoises
that are just as cool as Matilda.
And they really do make great pets.
They live a long time.
They're relatively easy to care for,
and they are great companion.
So although I'm usually talking
about snakes and reptiles of other sorts,
today I wanted to give you the kind of tortoise treatment,
if you know what I mean, and see what goes on.
But nevertheless, I love tortoises,
and you should too.
- [Man] Laura, I noticed something
different about you today.
- Don't,
don't start with me.
- Yeah, I did really wanna ask you, you know,
I've talked about tortoises today, in the blog,
that all about tortoises Matilda,
and would you say Matilda's your favorite animal here?
- I think so.
- I mean, besides Fibby of course, but the actual tortoise.
- Yes.
- So why, why do you love Matilda so much?
What is it about tortoises that are so amazing,
and Matilda in particular?
- You know what, I don't really know.
I mean, I, I don't have that answer
of all the animals, reptiles, whatever we work with,
I've always loved tortoises.
Probably the most.
I just, I think they're neat.
They have cool personalities.
I like the way they look.
I like the way they interact.
- Do you think it's weird that literally don't,
you think that Matilda is literally Fibby.
- (laughing) She is.
Yeah, I say that all the time, they act the same.
They're big and scared of everything,
(laughing) they're goofy.
- But tortoises are amazing?
- Yes, yes.
So you're pretty lucky. Well, maybe I'm lucky, I don't know,
that we don't live in like Florida.
Otherwise we would probably have a huge tortoise collection,
(laughing)
- You'd have a tortoise scenery?
- Yes, and outdoor, (laughing), towards the area.
- Towards the area,
well here's your pet.
That's my baby.
- It's a rare time that you're gonna hear me
slide the whole blog, talking about tortoises.
But now, they are amazing.
I do love tortoises.
And I hope that this kind of helped you,
love tortoises a bit too.
They can be amazing animals.
And I think that, if you want tortoises,
do your research, find the right
tortoise that is right for you.
Because there are so many to choose from.
I know that you can.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
If you did, here is a playlist,
of a bunch of cool animals that I played with,
that you guys might want to take a look at.
Please check that out, if you don't mind.
Up here, you can actually subscribe to my podcast channel.
We'll probably talk about tortoises sometime.
On this side, you can subscribe to this blog,
hopefully you already have.
Turn your post notifications on,
have an absolutely wonderful day.
Remember, be kind to someone and I promise,
I'll see you tomorrow.