You may have been wondering who or what are those big shelled creatures that you see patrolling our store aisles. They are African Spurred Tortoises, also known as the Sulcata Tortoise or Geochelone Sulcata. The African Spurred is the third largest tortoise in the world, with only the giant Galapagos and Aldabra Tortoises being larger. These tortoises can easily reach 26-35 inches in shell length, and weigh up to 200 lbs. You can learn more about African Spurred Tortoises by visiting our care sheet section.

We currently have two residents including Percy in our Quakertown store. Percy is 14 years old; he grew up in our Harleysville store now weighing approximately 130 pounds and is about 30 inches long. When we opened the Quakertown store, we built a larger pen to accommodate him. Every year we celebrate the spirit of these amazing creatures with Percy's Birthday celebration. Visit our past events section to check out photo's from this special event.

Rainbow is in Harleysville. He is 8 years old, weighs 35 pounds and is about 20 inches long. Rainbow lives in a big pen near the front of the store. Each tortoise takes a turn throughout the day strolling around their store, meeting the customers and making new friends.

These tortoises carry on a tradition at the store that began with one tortoise named Junior. As a young tortoise--just a few months old--Junior became very sick with a respiratory infection that threatened his life. Tom Herron, the store owner, learned of the little guy in March of 1990 and brought him back to the shop to nurse him back to health. Tom kept him near his side (in a 10-gallon tank on his desk) so he could continue to watch him through his recovery. The store staff began calling the young tortoise Junior (for Tom Jr.) and the name stuck.