We are experienced reptile people. I have owned huge iguanas, anoles, and gekkos in the past, and currently have a 5' Ball Python and a 3' Savannah Monitor. We are thinking about getting a tortoise. We don't want anything that grows large. Colorful and small would be nice. Nothing too exotic, because we are on a budget. Can anyone make some recomendations?
Indian Stars and Pancake Tortoises are small for tortoises and have great personalities. I think, like many tortoises, they are rather expensive but I'm not sure how expensive. But pretty much any tortoise is going to need a fairly large enclosure so I would first figure out how much space you can spare, then look into tortoises that can live comfortably in that space.
a great small tortoise is the russian tortoise. you can find them fairly easily and they only grow to be about 8-10 inches in length.
box turtles are nice too, they are called turtles but i think they are more like a tortoise (someone correct me if i'm wrong) they are also relatively inexpensive. some are friendly thou, my mom once used one for an art model and it posed nicely
colorful, small, and cheap. I'm not too experienced but if you can find Radiated or Indian Star for a good price that would fit your needs. Russians are pretty good too, although not too colorful. They're very common... thus very cheap, at least in comparison to other tortoises.
