My daughter has a tortoise that she only got last Christmas and (rightly so) , wants to take with her when we cross the pond.

He's only a little fella. Not like the bruisers you used to get in the Blue Peter garden when i was a kid (6x inches approx. Maybe 8x when he stretches his kneck!). He's a totally indoor house pet & spends most of his days catching rays under his sun lamp.

Anyway , my question is ; Do you think an airline would be opposed to us carrying him on & having him with us as "hand luggage" so's to speak ? I concede that you can't have cats & dogs running amoc in a plane cabin. But this little guy ... he's barely mobile at his most active (the number of times i've had to poke him , for fear of having to tell my daughter he's passed on!). He'd sleep the whole journey.

The reason i ask is ; i begrudge paying a pet carrier company hundreds upon hundreds of pounds , only for them to pop him into one of their own carry cases & put him on the plane. When i can get my own cardboard carry case from the pet store , like the one he came home in , for under a fiver & carry him on the plane myself!

& do you think the relevant vetenary authorities at the airport when we land would have any issue with him coming off the plane with the passengers rather than with the suitcases ?

Please don't think me a tight wad! We also have a dog & two cats & i am already resigned to the fact that they are going to cost me a bloody fortune to get over there!!!

You need an import permit for tortoises - no airline is going to let you take one in the cabin, surely!

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/...turtlese.shtml

Hi there!

Good for you for not wanting to leave your pets behind.....but I hate to burst your bubble about taking the tortoise on the plane as hand luggage. It just ain't that easy!
Here is a link to the animal import regulations for Canada, have a good read http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/...turtlese.shtml

As you will see - they have one regulation for reptiles and a separate one for turtles & tortoises. Your pet will require an import permit before you will be allowed to transport it from the UK. There is mention of fees, but I guess you have to fill out their paperwork before they can advise you what the fee is.

Once that side of things is sorted, you will have to contact the airlines you think you would be using and ask them what their policy is. I'm afraid I am not up to speed on that, it has been some time since I last checked. I had to re-home a beautiful ball python as I just couldn't afford to get him to Canada. Like your situation, my pet would have happily curled up into a sandwich box despite being almost 5 ft long. At that time there was no choice but to use a pet transport company. But if you are forking out to transport your dog & two cats, what's a bit more for the tortoise eh?!

Hope it works out for you

Er, well, quite.

I had to rehome Ali baba and Fatima before we moved as I didn't have the relevent paperwork to be able to get the relevent paperwork They went to a 7 year old boy who had been saving 75p of his pound a week pocket money for a tortoise, he kept their names and they are doing really well.

If it is to prohibitive to ship them, then you can get torts here, just make sure you don't go for the cheaper Sulcatas - 3rd largest tort in the world It broke my heart when I realised we had made a huge mistake in these wonderful animals and I worried so much about what I would do with them when they grew, I ended up rehoming them too.

I will have torts in the future, but will stick to a Hermanns (unless I have a huge complex for them then I may get massive ones again - how cool?).

I've seen Snakes On A Plane thank you. I'm so glad you did rehome it!

I guess we should be thankful we don't know what's in the cargo hold on our flights.

Boooo shame on you
Those are harmless, gentle wee creatures! They get their name 'ball' python because when they feel threatened they curl into a ball around their own head.
They are the cutest snakes, I will have another one day

Go on, tell me this doesn't melt your heart
OK, just me then......

Not just you...but could do with a bigger piccie

Yea it doesn't do him justice, haven't a clue how to make it bigger!

Oh no , Piff Poff. You're worrying me now. I know i was maybe a bit naive with regards to taking him on the plane with me & would gladly pay a pet carrier if required , but not taking Jeff at all! That'd break my daughters heart!

I could re-home him no bother (my daughters cousin already put first dibs on him). But i don't want to. It was always a given that he was coming with us.
Even more so than the dog & one of the cats (they're very old & we've always had it in the back of our minds that the vet just might say they couldn't cope with the journey).

Think i'd better look into this in more detail ... keeping everything crossed!!!

I like snakes too. I've had relatives and friends who've kept snakes.