Daughter moving out and won’t take her tortoise

[Questionsquestions23]

My daughter got a tortoise when she was 18 - she’s now 22. She’s moving out in September and says she can’t take him. I have done most of the work for him. I get up every morning and forage for healthy greens for him change up his water - I do the same when I get in from work. I prepare him for hibernation, give him a bath a few times a week.

daughter went to uni and looked after him in the holidays but since leaving she works full time so it me.
the tortoise is about 25 so will Probably out live me.
I don’t want this responsibility!
what can I do?

I have never owned a tortoise. My mum had one as a pet as a child and said it was the most boring pet she'd ever had, but this thread makes them sound rather lovely.

@Sparkle88K "Mr Beef" is an absolutely brilliant pet name. 10/10

And Blue Peter were wrong. Tortoises die in cardboard boxes in garages over winter because the temperature isn’t regulated. Especially, as someone said upthread, with climate change.

They need to hibernate at a constant temperature - too low and they die of cold; too high and they wake up and once that happens, they don’t go back into hibernation, their hibernation is over and they need to eat. Because owners think ‘oh Timmy is fine, he’s hibernating happily’ they don’t check, and the poor, now-awake tortoise starves to death. The box is opened come February/March and…..
This is why it’s now best practice to hibernate your tortoise in a fridge where the temperature can be maintained, ideally, at a steady 5 degrees.

IIRC more than one of the Blue Peter tortoises (they had several over the years) died in hibernation.

This place might be worth a call? https://ftrescue.co.uk/ 28 Aymer Dr, Thurcroft, Rotherham S66 9PU, United Kingdom

when my then young teenage child announced they wanted a pet tortoise and a quick check showed if they die before the age of 60 it’s considered premature, it sharp put a stop to that idea!

Tell your daughter that you will be rehoming her pet in a months time. Reach out locally to animal welfare organisations to find a good home.

I have one - they’re very easy to look after! You don’t need to forage for him - you can buy what he needs to eat.

Ps it’s very kind of you to do that. Also I should add - I also have a cockpoo who couldn’t be more high maintenance, so in comparison he seems a dream…

What a delightful thread. I am enthralled by the trials of tortoise rearing.

I think really if you have a tortoise you do have to forage a lot to give them a really balanced diet. Supermarket stuff isn’t really suitable and my tortoise isn’t allowed fruit as it’s really bad for him. Tortoise food from pet shops isn’t meant to be great so the hedgerows and growing some stuff in the garden organically really is best for them. It’s so much work! And you have to bath them ideally and you have to get them to stop eating before hibernation or the undigested food will rot in them when they are asleep which can kill them.
in colder months some of them need a heat lamp and you’ve got to give them clean water obviously every day. And their runs should be really big with all sorts of stimulation.
some tortoise are more solitary and if you have more than one sometimes one will not be kind to the other one by constant ramming. Thank goodness I’ve only one.
well done people who have managed to do it simply! I just do it my way but I’ll try some of the advice and I’ve the vets next week. Thanks all! I’m glad this thread has been popular.
I love him he’s ace, a lifelong commitment! He’s safe and happy and well fed and I’ll speak with my vet next week 🐢

I'm also finding this thread very interesting contrasting the 'Blue Peter way' (which apparently suits many tortoises fine, since they are still living to an old age) versus the new way (specially foraged food, baths, fridge hibernation etc).

I have a similar story with a terrapin, which my Granny had for 43 years (before it was attacked by a fox). It lived free range in the garden during the day, snoozed in front of the fire on my Granny's lap (being stroked under its chin) in the evening, and was put in the kitchen sink filled with tap water (with a little Shipman's sardine and tomato fish paste) overnight. It used to run over to her for a cuddle when she tapped her foot. It wore a powder puff so she would see it against the 70s swirly carpet.

Today's requirements for keeping terrapins are very different! How To Care For a Terrapin | RSPCA - RSPCA - rspca.org.uk

(I'm not saying that now we know better, we shouldn't follow the latest advice, but the contrast is amusing!)

.i was absolutely livid as she’s eighty with no children and I really thought he was coming my way soon

Ah , that is the best "I've been swindled out of my inheritance" story ever .

,

We have a similar situation with a musk turtle which DS kindly left with us. He's the most boring pet known to man, much of the time you can't see him because he's under water, but he makes his presence felt as he gets progressively more stinky if his water isn't changed frequently. We really don't want him but wouldn't let him die, perhaps unsurprisingly, we can't find anywhere that will rehome him, so we seem to be stuck with him. Anyone got any ideas?

Another tortoise owner here, but of a non hibernating kind. I collect weeds once or twice a week, rinse and soak them thoroughly in water, wrap them in a tea towel and keep them in the fridge. Mine lasts for about a week? I mix them with salad stuff, also rinsed and soaked, as although I could totally wild feed her at the moment, I don't want her to get too used to just wild stuff, as it's harder to find enough in the winter.
She's nearly 5, she's in my will to go to my daughter, as it was her idea to get her for me. (With her agreement, obvs!)

From reading your post he sounds like YOUR tortoise, not your daughters. I wonder if you have taken on the care because you do enjoy and love him but thinking of him as your daughters pet, meant you didn't feel overwhelmed by the prospect of his needs long term? If so perhaps when you talk together could you consider making the expectations between you both more explicit - i.e I want you to take him on if I can't and you are more settled in your situation. Or we will rehome him at a point when XYZ occurs.

Maybe your right, I do find myself questioning how other people find it so easy - I have to walk off the beaten track to get the food as I don’t want stuff dogs have peed on - so I go up and down a few hedgerows about 10min walk away - I’ll try and store it again over the next week before the vets appointment and chat with my daughter over the weekend. X

You treat your tort like royalty. My tort is c90 - I inherited him from my grandparents. I can confirm he hasn’t had any of the latest current guidance around torts. He was fed cat food for half his life! I feed him greens and veg from my weekly food shop. Certainly I don’t forage nor does he get bathed that often. Maybe if it’s very hot and when he wakes up from hibernation. I don’t find hibernation that difficult either. He’s a hardy boy!!!

@ManyManyBiscuits you can grow this and it's really easy to self-seed then you'll never get rid of it.

I have a similar thing with our guinea pigs, actually. One minute you're buying a small, low-maintenance pet for a child. The next minute you're investing in palatial cages, deliberating anxiously over the differences between timothy hay and other hays, artisanally snipping off the best dandelion leaves for their veggie snack, and gently massaging pet shampoo into their tiny adorable bodies before tenderly drying them in a big fluffy towel.

And talking to them constantly about what clever, beautiful little floofs they are.

Because they're such clever, beautiful little floofs.

Ok, now I'm invested in this tortoise.

What's his name?

I know a lovely lady in the east of England who takes in tortoises and is very knowledgeable. He'd be in very good hands there. Message me if you'd like more info

Please don't do this.

I understand your love for the tortoise OP. My previous tortoise was so special to me. I used to forage everyday for her fresh weeds. I hated buying supermarket stuff (but did buy florette salad leaves when weeds were hard to find).

I adored that tortoise but sadly I had to have her put to sleep when she became very ill and the vets could do no more.

I miss her so much.

TPG Tortoise Rehoming / Rescue - Tortoise Protection Group

These people might be able to help.

I'm pretty sure there's no tortoise fight club run by underground gangs in this country