Best Pet Garden Tortoises

I have kept and offered Tortoises for sale for over forty one years. The most popular species are Hermanns and Horsfields. These thrive well in back gardens in the UK during dry and warm weather. Many people will fondly remember, keeping a Tortoise in their Garden forty or even fifty years ago. At that time, all tortoises were taken from the wild in their native countries, such as Spain, Greece and Italy. The Importation of wild caught tortoises, was thankfully stopped years ago.

Due to seasonal unpredictability, breeding tortoises in the UK is very much hit and miss. Ninety nine percent of tortoises offered for sale in the UK, are captive bred abroad, and then legitimately Imported in to the UK.

They are bred in what are recognised as CITES Approved breeding facilities. These farms are frequently inspected, and it is not a straight forward, or an automatic right to Import from these facilities. Stringent consideration is given to all Import applications. Some applications are refused. In the UK CITES is Managed by APHA, based in Bristol.

On these farms, as soon as the tortoises hatch, they are put out to bask in the long summer days. This is extremely important to all hatchling tortoises. When they hatch their shell, both the top part called the ‘carapace’ and the underneath part the ‘plastron’ is very soft. It is essential that the complete shell is allowed to harden up as soon as possible. If this does not happen or a hatchling is purchased, especially with a soft carapace, then an infection can soon set in. So to be able to bask in ‘natural conditions’ is by far the most beneficial way, to allow natural growth of these amazing creatures. Did you know tortoises were on this earth, before dinosaurs?

There are some UK bred hatchlings, offered for sale in the UK, but it is not possible to offer these cute tortoises, the long day light hours, in the UK that they really deserve.