A 5 year old with a leopard tortoise.?

Question

my mums friend's kid has just got a tortoise.. from what i can see from the picture my mum took it looks like a leopard tortoise. i think its silly such a young child should have an animal that will get very large.. whats your opinion ?

Answer 1

a five year old isn't going to pick up a tortoise. the child is too young. for the most part, the child will poke it's tank a big, especially for the first few days, but after about three days, after noticing the d**n tortoise doesn't DO anything, the kid will loose interest. at the age of five, it's actually the parent's tortoise, and the parents are going to care for the animal.

i wouldn't worry about it till the kid gets to be about 8 years old, and then you have to worry that the kid will do something stupid, like try to give the turtle a bath with shampoo and conditioner. but with this many years to prepare the kid to not do stupid things like that, it should be fine.

a torotise at a really young age is actually pretty cool. tortoises have the potiential to live a good 30-50 years, so these turtles will actually age with the child. there's a potientialll that the tortoise will be given to his own children in the future!

anyways, a leopard tortoise doesn't actually get that big. they tend to stay under two feet. they need a heck of a lot of space to run around in, but it will take 3-5 years for the tortoise to get to that kind of size anyways, and the toroise has plenty of time to get used to a kid too.

Answer 2

It is absolutely nutzo, and probably won't live more than another year. Sad when people do this to innocent animals.

Answer 3

just get your own, dont be a hater. that turtle will live its life side by side with him, its great. how is its size any different than a cat or dog? they get bigger, should he not have one of those either?

Answer 4

I think it is great, my next door neighbours had one when I was growing up and I was so jealous! Why do you care anyway? I think you are 'silly' for investing so much time worrying about your mothers friend!

Answer 5

personally i do not agree with children having tortoises, tortoises do not like to be played with and they can get stressed by keep getting picked up by a child, they like to feel safe and some children are too clumsy to handle a tortoise properly, tortoises should be looked after by adults who can understand what to feed and how to care for one, they are not always easy to look after, i have a 7 year old and although she will help me i will not let her carry the tortoises, but she does help to feed them, but she will not even touch them with out me being there, also at 5 can you really rely on a child to always wash their hands after stroking the tortoise, small children can be over enthusiastic and sometimes stress a tortoise. i will probably get thumbs down but i do not believe tortoises are for children and should not be brought for them, too many people get tortoises with out realising the care that goes into keeping them healthy and there may be a few children who will understand what a responsibility they have but most get bored of tortoises quickly, they are not a pet to be brought on a whim, tortoises are not for children.

Answer 6

It's okay, I suppose, but it's not about size, its about the idea of the child neglecting the animal, as children easily lose interest in things, especially animals...

Answer 7

I think it's perfectly fine as long as she isn't really expecting the kid to do all of the work to care for it.  They're interesting animals.