I have been keeping turtles for at least 60 years. My first turtle was a painted turtle that a friend of my dads got for me when I was 10. I have been keeping them of and on ever since.
In the 90's they started having reptile shows here every month. I loved it.
Then in the late 90's a vendor had 3 Russian tortoises. After finding out that they remained small , I bought them. I was hooked. I started researching them online. There really wasn't much information on them available. I joined a number of reptile groups and gathered enough information to properly take care of them.
Apparently I did something right. In the spring of 98 . They mated and then laid 1 egg. I improvised an incubator and the egg hatched.
A friend convinced me to star a web page and a email group. It was quite popular.
Members of the group stared asking me about what I fed the torts and what supplements I used. The only one I used was powdered weeds and cuttlebone. It eventually became known as TNT. To sell it I had to find a way to keep track of orders.
In 2000 the store was born. My wife started helping as we got busier. Its been just the 2 of us ever since.
Karen (my wife) does most of the store now and I help. I had a stroke in 2022 that limits what I can do but am still improving an we both enjoy helping others.
If you want more info on Russian tortoises visit russiantortoise.net
I also keep box turtles aboxturtle.com
And redfoots https://redfoottortoise.com/
