Choosing Your Tortoise
Co Existing With Other Pets
Remember that cats, dogs and ferrets are PREDATORS.  Althoguh cats are no danger to large tortoises they can torment and kill smaller ones.  This applies to ferrets as wel.  However dogs are a bigger danger not only can they badly injure smaller tortoises they can still kill the larger ones too.

The Escape Artist and Speed Demon
Terestrial tortoises live on land and rarely venture into water except to drink.  Contray to myth and urban legend tortoises are far from slow they are speedy little critters and the best escape artist i have ever watched the enclousure needs to be 100% escape proof they even try to shimmy up the corners when they are in the garden, this is while they are far from board... also i ahve to females the males are alittle more adventurious.
Male or Female?
What sex should i have? Well to be honest it doesnt really matter.  Males can be aggressive towards other males and can be quite rough with the females but thats life.  Females lay eggs when they are sexually mature whether or not there is a male around or not.  Both males and females make good pets I only have to females but my friend has a male and he is a lovely little thing.  Females can grow upto 12 inches whereas the males are around 8 inches.
One Tortoise or Two?
You need to decide how many tortoises you are going to have before buying and setting up an enclosure.  Dont put male and female together unless you want the obvious to happen.  But remeber the more you have the more you have to multiple the vets bills.
Females do well in small groups they are usually nbot agressive and get on well.  The males on the other hand come spring get aggitated and start searching for a female. if you decide to keep a male alone theen you must make sure that his enclousure is escape proof.
Species?
Always breed the same species never mix as even if your successful the young will be sterile.  It's also unethical to cross breed.

Wild-Caught or Captive-Bred
Always have captive-bred as they carry far less disease are far more healthy.  Also choosing wild-caught you are decimating the wild numbers which we are trying to preserve and increase.
Captive-bred don't suffer from stress when are thrust into captivity, are less likely to suffer from health problems and are generally easier to care for.