This is Soda, my Geochelone Radiata

Of all the tortoises I've kept since '99, Soda is the friendliest. He will follow you around like a dog and will stand up high from the ground and stretch his head all the way out to be stroked. Nothing makes a tortoise owner happier than a healthy tort full of life and personality! You could say that Soda is like a hollywood star and he just loves to pose for the camera.

You'll see what I mean when you see his photo gallery by clicking HERE!

This is Mocha, my favorite Geochelone Sulcata

Got him last May 2007 along with three 2.5-inch baby Sulcatas at that time. Mocha started out the smallest but had the smoothest (unpyramided) shell. After a year, he outgrew all other Sulcatas and still maintained his smooth shell which is hard to achieve in captive bred Sulcatas. It's strange because all his siblings had slightly bumpy shells even if they had the same diet, environment, routine, etc. Now he's more than a foot long!

For more pictures, click HERE!

This is Cracker, my first "home made" Tortoise

On April 2006, Cracker, my first captive bred Indian Star Tortoise was born!

Click HERE for hatching photos and VIDEOS!

This was Whitey, our adult female Radiated tort.

We had her from November 2002 until March 2009. She was already 14 inches and was ready to breed soon. She was a good pet and was used to having people around. When you come close to her, she knows how to make eye-contact! (Very much unlike the reputation of a tortoise that would retreat back into its shell)

I invite you to see memories with Whitey by clicking HERE

How it started

This site started using a free web service on March 2010. As my interest in website making grew, I started to study Dreamweaver, purchase a domain, and sign up for Host service. So here it is now!

Reason for making this site

2 basic reasons, Tortoise Photos & Replicas:

Photos - I wanted to share pictures of my tortoises in a reptile forum but I realized I had too many pictures taken since 1999 all mixed up in my hard disk. So I decided to use a free web hosting service to show more pictures and organize them at the same time. Another reason is I don't have as much free time to participate actively in forums. So with this site I can give an overview about myself, my tortoises, and share stories, information and experiences all at one time.

Tortoise Replica - I wanted a place to showcase our tortoise replicas. These are such beautiful creations and I want all tortoise hobbyists to have at least one! Click here for more Tortoise Replica photos

How this hobby started

I started with 1 Indian Star tortoise on December of 1999. By the end of January 2000, I had 7 Star tortoises. I was then starting my Engineering degree and I only had little resources. But I was determined to have more tortoises and saved up as much as I could. After selling some of my old collections (comic, cards, GI JOE), the Stars were soon followed by Elongatas, Sulcatas and Radiatas. As soon as I passed my boards and got a job, I took my hobby up a notch by getting Redfoots, Leopard tortoises and more Radiated tortoises.

I was not always successful with all of them and deaths do occur, sadly. But some tortoises made it through and they've been with me for several years now! I also kept other reptiles like snakes and geckos but my hobby would always bring me back to tortoises.

I'm from Manila, Philippines and currently working abroad. I spend my vacation at home twice a year. While I'm away, my kind family manages the care of all torts and I also have friends helping me out.

Note: My tortoises were legally registered under DENR-NCR Philippines (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) in Metro Manila, Quezon City during the 2005 Amnesty for exotic pets. These captive-bred tortoises were imported from international breeders and were not caught illegaly from the wild. We'd like to preserve all endangered tortoise species and great efforts are being undertaken to breed them successfully.