About Central Texas Tortoise Rescue
A Rescue Facility For Tortoises And Box Turtles
This all started with a Russian tortoise named Trogdor, a box turtle named Stuart, and a sulcata named Thor. Sometime in the late 2000s while visiting a pet store on a date with my husband, I became rather enchanted with a Russian tortoise that the store had for sale. The employee I spoke with couldn’t tell me anything about the animal; I wanted to know if it was wild caught or captive bred, and about how old it was. He didn’t know, but laughed at me – actually laughed! – when I said I wanted to know if I was looking at a 5 year old tortoise or a 50 year old tortoise. Apparently that was a funny question, but to this day I’m not sure why.
Fast forward a few days and my sweet husband presents me with a gift. You guessed it: the Russian tortoise from the pet store. We named him Trogdor, and kept him until we learned just how magnificent of escape artists Russian tortoises can be. Because we had one tortoise, friends recommended me as a “tortoise keeper” to an adventuresome woman who was leaving the country to travel to far away lands following her husband’s job, except she couldn’t take her three-toed box turtle, Stuart, with her. So Stuart came to live with me, and to this day I look forward to seeing her sweet curious face every single morning.
African Tortoises
African Spur-Thigh (Sulcata), Leopard Tortoise
Minimum space to dedicate to this animal:
6,000 square feet
-Sulcatas can reach 150lbs or more. Leopard tortoises can reach 80lbs or more.
-African tortoises may live to be over 100 years old and need to be included in an estate plan and/or a plan for when they become too heavy to care for as their keepers age.
-Your yard should have a mix of sun and shade areas to allow tortoises to thermoregulate.
-These tortoises are herbivores who eat primarily grass and cactus. They don't need grocery store produce and cannot tolerate high concentrations of oxalates.
-African tortoises do not hibernate, and require heated winter housing that they can access whenever outdoor temps drop below 50 degrees.
-Sulcatas don't typically get along in groups, just one per yard is sufficient. Yours isn't lonely, I promise.
Adoptable Animals
To submit an application for an animal located at CTTR, simply click the picture of the animal you are interest in below and then click the “Apply for Adoption” button.