Help us pass the word. Tortoise hatching season is here. In Clark County Nevada, we are fortunate to have a place for hatchlings you find wandering in the street or that have entered your yard. Do no keep them or give them away. Call the Tortoise Pick-up Service for free pick up and delivery to the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center: (702) 593-9027. That’s the law.
Hatchlings are great travelers, so let them walk around in the bathroom until picked up. There they will be cool and within reach for the Pick-up Service. They have a source of food and water in their yolk sac, so there’s no need to offer any.
If you are still breeding tortoises, we know that finding good homes is not easy. Do not let your child take hatchlings to school to give away like cookies to other children. Children cannot make the necessary preparations for a tortoise that must live outside and be protected from our killer heat. Parents must be willing to prepare for them.
We have found that 40% of small tortoises we have given to families who have prepared die because the follow-up care is more than most people can do.
A proper outdoor habitat must be ready before the tortoise is given away. People procrastinate about preparation and the tortoise ends up in an aquarium in the child’s room. It may take 1 to 4 years for a tortoise to die in that situation.
