To not get the children christmas presents this year and instead...

[pinkdolly]

Ok, so I know a pet is not just for christmas etc. But the girls are desperate for a pet. They have a cat but they want something else.
They will get lots of toys/gifts from our quite large family so if they dont get big prezzies from us they wont notice. I am thinking therefore of getting them token gifts for under the tree and instead pooling the money we would normally spend on them and buy a tortoise.

We cant really afford to buy the tortoise and christmas presents so I would buy this instead. But maybe not wait until christmas to get it and just sit them down and explain that this would be their main gift.

What do you think?

Well my torts climb and slide down slopes, sunbathe, we bath them and certainly stroke them on a regular basis! They love being tickled under the chin. It's quite funny to see them toddle over at feeding time.

People do think its odd they go in the fridge but its just what we do in the winter! But then I always wanted one as a child and its turned into a bit of an obsession ........

do tortoises carry salmonella the way turtles and snakes do?

if so I would be very worried about getting one for children as pretty fastidious hand-washing is required to keep from getting sick, and even then DH has had bad salmonella probably three times in the time he kept snakes.

Also, the strain of salmonella carried by reptiles is prone to turn to dangerous meningitis in pg women and under-5s.

Just something to think about - don't know if the risk is the same with a tortoise, but is definitely there for turtles.

Can you still get tortoises? I have visions of Esio Trot here

My mum got a stone one and painted it and put it in the garden. Then she moved it every time someone visited so that they would think it was real.

There are some companies that sell on the internet but personally I have always bought in person.

I think there may be a small risk of salmonella but I will need to doublecheck that. No one raised it when I was pg but good hand hygiene is essential when handling different breeds.

here's a couple of links I found off-hand

exoticpets.about.com/cs/reptiles/a/reptsalmonella.htm

www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/communicable/factsheets/ReptileSalmo.htm

I was looking for a graph I saw a few years back about the sharp increase in the incidence of salmonella-related meningitis in under-5s in the US when turtles became popular pets, but I didn't see it.

extoxnet.orst.edu/newsletters/ucd2008/nltrApril08.html#Multistate_Outbreak_

From above:
'In 1972, a study in New Jersey indicated that small pet turtles accounted for approximately 23% of Salmonella infections in children.'

hubpages.com/hub/Salmonella-reptiles

It shouldn't be your deciding factor, just sayin that as someone who has kept reptiles I wouldn't do it now that I have young kids

They're a big commitment tbh, I think guinea pigs are awesome, lost mine a while back and she was sooo lovely- if if had her as a kid it would have been a full blown obsession. Only downside is their life span :(
have you heard about nessa from gavjn and staceys tortoise???

My MIL was recently devastated by the death of her tortoise after approx. 35 years. It was the last reminder of the house being full of children and now she is left on her own.

Originally the tortoise was one of a pair bought for DH and his brother when they were young children. One tortoise simply vanished while hibernating one year, the other survived until last winter doing bugger all expect occasionally eating, trying to bury itself in the garden and hibernating. MIL had all the responsibility of a pet - but none of the rewards (no cuddles, no squeaks when they are pleased to see you be fed, no games, nothing).

marenmj, your husband must have been extremely careless if he got salmoella three times from his snakes. I have kept snakes and lizards for years and never had salmonella. Neither have my children, who handle the snakes often. I also know dozens of reptile keepers, none of whom have ever contracted salmoella.

It is true that reptiles can carry salmonella, but basic good hygene is usually enough to prevent it.

I agree with those who say tortoises are boring pets, not something I would expect a child to be interested in long term.

I love tortoises. I don't think I could ever own one though, just seems wrong to possess a creature.

you're right Midori1999, he's not been as careful as he should have been - particularly in disinfecting other surfaces where the snakes had been, and those incidents may well have been food-related. However, he hasn't had an incident since we stopped keeping pythons. I never had an infection, but I am much more careful than he is.

That doesn't mean I would trust a small child to be as careful about hygiene as they would need to be and it is a risk that the op needs to understand when considering a reptile.

My next door neighbour had a tortoise.

Tip: make sure you know where the tortoise is before you get out your massive petrol mower

I would love a tortoise. We had one in Thailand and I tried to export it. Sadly, we found out that she was on a CITES list and couldn't come with us. She now lives on happily in the school garden.
DD loved her dearly and would feed her tomatoes and cucumber against my wishes and the advice of the tortoise website we consulted. They are dull pets, but I would really like another. We were in the tropics so all the stuff about lights and hibernation didn't apply to us.
Note all the I's in that

I think a tortoise would be a bit dull for your DC. It would be as exciting as having a pet rock.

I have nothing against tortoises BTW its just that my experience of them (looking after a neighbours one when I was child) made me yawn.

Get something a bit more active, something they can handle and cuddle, something they can make exciting runs for like a guinea pig

olderandwider

OP, how about an annual family pass for the zoo? So they can see animals a lot, without the responsibility, of a pet that lives for such a long, long, long time?

My son has a turtle. I don't know much about tortoise, but the turtle isn't interesting to me.

But the present isn't for me, so never mind!

I think that would be a crap idea.

Whateveer animal you buy, the children would be so excited that they would be all over it on Christmas day and probably drive the thing frantic. It's not fair to intriduce an animal at such an exciteable time. Best get an animal in the summer months or something.

I want a tortoise now, Nothernlurker says they climb things, I want to see what must be the quite bizarre sight of a tortoise climbing a wall.

if your search the archives on here and my name and tortoises you'll find the thread where i was given advice on tortoises - we got rabbits in the end!