Captive Bred

[Pussygalore]

I,m sorry you have had such a bad experience my babies were our first as well but we did do a lot of research before we commited to buying them because I wanted to be sure of doing the best by them and the cost of buying them in the first place made us think good and hard before deciding on keeping them, TT gave us good advice from the start plus written sheets and was always ready to answer any questions they were £100 each (hermans) I wish more people had access to good advice or did more research before getting any animal, you thought you had and sadly were misinformed but buying from a breeder is still the best way it disencourages the import trade which is horrible and as most petshops sell animals from either dealers or importers its the best way of getting healthy true breed stock.

[Caroline McI]

Yeah, I knew about avoiding pet shops but until recently I hadn't seen any torts in my local one.

I spoke with the breeder on the phone before I went to get Cookie, and he said he meets everyone
first to "vet" them, I thought this was a good sign as I'd expect to be checked over to make sure
I was suitable. I explained about living in a flat, never had a tort before, and he accepted this.

I stayed in touch by phone (he lives about three hours drive away) many times over the years
and he actually saw Cookie in February and although I asked again about her shell he said it was too much
good feeding.

I really wish I knew more about what's involved before I got them, I'd have waited till I was more prepared.

[rachel30b]

my cert says cb and its a slovenia import from a pet shop my first tort

so supposedly not a wild taken tort but bred in another country

it is not worth risking buying from a pet shop or a dealer as previously said you could end up with numerous vet bills

i am looking after a friends tort that is supposedly a year old on cert and its 7cm big, who is from a pet shop, which is so shy sticks his head all time, it had worms and vet could not worm it mouth and it dont eat hardly eat anything so i assume it didnt take all worming stuff in as it sleeps all the time and only comes to life when outside

i have a little hermans from a breeder and he is so active

the lady who posted above with the pyramiding have you posted pics

[Caroline McI]

Hi Rachel, I've put a thread up over on Pics so as not to take up this thread.

[nina]

Originally Posted by niamherrity

It means tht the have not been taken from the wild and bred in this country

I think Rachel has responded to this already, but I just wanted to emphasise that Captive Bred just means bred in captivity -- somewhere (and in fact it more accurately means 'hatched in captivity'). It doesn't mean that the tortoise has been bred in captivity in this country - it could be anywhere. In places like Slovenia there are tortoise 'farm' where eggs are taken from the wild, or gravid females are taken from the wild and their eggs laid on those farms, and then the hatchlings exported under very stressful conditions to places like the UK and labeled as 'captive bred'. This is bad enough, but unfortunately not even all 'captive bred' tortoises are really 'captive bred', as we know that the numbers of tortoise being imported into the UK as 'captive bred' are far too many to have been hatched on tortoise 'farms', and many of them have been wild caught.
The only way to ensure that your torotise is genuinely captive bred in the UK is to buy from a reputable UK breeder, and the best way to find a good breeder is to consult one of the breeders lists like the one on the TPG forum (it's in the database section). http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/T...otectionGroup/

Originally Posted by Caroline McI

If it says UK on the certificates is there any way that could have been faked?

Yes
What some unscrupulous dealers do is get a few adult torts, then buy in Slovenian imports, say they have bred them here and put false certs on the torts

[Caroline McI]

Oh dear How would someone ever find out ?

Originally Posted by Pussygalore

I,m sorry you have had such a bad experience my babies were our first as well but we did do a lot of research before we commited to buying them because I wanted to be sure of doing the best by them and the cost of buying them in the first place made us think good and hard before deciding on keeping them, TT gave us good advice from the start plus written sheets and was always ready to answer any questions they were £100 each (hermans) I wish more people had access to good advice or did more research before getting any animal, you thought you had and sadly were misinformed but buying from a breeder is still the best way it disencourages the import trade which is horrible and as most petshops sell animals from either dealers or importers its the best way of getting healthy true breed stock.

Unnfortunately this so called breeder is committing one of the biggest scams out there - hiding behind his glorious membership of a well known herpetological society. His name is similar to the name for one who has no father!! If you are into torts you will know him, if not it would be easy to be fooled by his disgraceful patter and end up in these sad cicumstances This idiot not only said this tortoise was OK but even sold another to keep it company, something he must have known would be detrimental to it's future health. It is he who needs sorting out rather than the unfortunate owner

[quote="rachel30b"]my cert says cb and its a slovenia import from a pet shop my first tort

so supposedly not a wild taken tort but bred in another country
quote



Supposedly but rarely the case - just as wild as any other import

Originally Posted by Caroline McI

Oh dear How would someone ever find out ?

Unless this breeder was reported and investigated then he probably would not be found out - they all too often get away with far too much.