About Soda's Tortoise Garden

by Dennis M.

Our humble tortoise garden is the home of Soda, our eldest tortoise, and his forever partner Cola, our egg-laying female Radiata. Soda and Cola are parents of the first fully documented Radiated tortoise hatchlings in the country. The Radiated tortoise is a CITES Appendix 1 critically endangered species and is a favorite among high-end tortoise collectors and hobbyists. CITES is basically an agreement between governments of different countries to protect certain endangered species.

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How This Website & Blog Started

Date: Jun 6, 2009

I first created this site on March 2009 using webs.com, a free website builder. As my interest in making websites grew, I started to study Dreamweaver and basic HTML, make my own website, purchase a domain, and sign up for my own web hosting provider. It was a perfect channel for me to share pictures of my tortoises that I have all mixed up in my hard disk since 1999. With this website, I can give an overview of myself and my tortoises, and share photos, videos, stories, information and experiences to my fellow tortoise hobbyists. Over the years, this website has evolved from a photoblog (dennistort.com) into a website for Soda's Tortoise Garden (sodatort.com).

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Our Story

Date: Jun 6, 2009

The journey of Soda's Tortoise Garden started as a simple hobby when I got two Indian Star tortoises on December of 1999 from a petshop nearby. I was so excited about them that by the end of January 2000, I had 7 ISTs. I was then just starting my Engineering degree and had only little resources. But I was determined to have more tortoises and so I saved up as much as I could. I also started selling some of my collections as a kid such as Marvel comics, GIJOE figurines, NBA cards and game consoles. By being smart with money, the Stars were soon followed by Elongatas, Sulcatas and Redfoots. As soon as I passed my ECE board exams and got a job, I took my hobby up a notch by getting Leopards, Radiateds and more!

In 2004, I was lucky to be able to register our tortoises during the amnesty for exotic pets at DENR-NCR, thanks to my father who saw the announcement in the newspaper. I then became a CWR-holder, which means that we can keep the tortoises legally.

2006 was my first major milestone as I was able to hatch my very first captive-bred baby, an Indian Star Tortoise. This inspired me so much that my passion for these lovely shelled creatures grew even more.

I worked abroad from 2007-2011 after working in Manila from 2005-2007. I then moved to the US from 2011-2013 to take my master's in Business and Technology Management. During these times that I was away, I had to lock down on a strict tortoise routine built around a solid set-up and teach our family members and household staff thoroughly. Although I came home as often as possible, I have to give credit to my mother and staff for taking great care of our tortoises!

I've been back here in the Philippines since 2013 and the hobby has picked up a lot since then.

In 2016, we were able to hatch our first Radiated tortoise and we were thrilled even more! Watching them hatch, thrive, eat, walk, grow and breed never gets old. We always want them to be happy and healthy.

2019 was another major milestone for us! After about a year of preparing various requirements, we were finally able to receive our WFP (Wildlife Farm Permit)!

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Mission and Vision

Date: Jun 6, 2009

Our mission is to spread the passion that we have for tortoises. We hope that our story will continue to inspire people to take care of tortoises and encourage hobbyists to become breeders as well. If we all engage in legal captive breeding, then maybe we can have a positive impact on the conservation of various species in our own little way.

Selling is not our main objective. We may have a few tortoises available but that won't happen very often. But be sure to follow our Facebook page for updates.

Thanks for reading this far. We are hoping for your support as we try to spread our passion for tortoises, to continue to inspire and educate, as well as promote legal captive breeding.

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Warnings and Disclaimers

Date: Jun 6, 2009

1) Soda's Tortoise Garden is probably the first to breed Radiated tortoises in the Philippines, definitely the first one to do so with complete online documentation of photos and videos uploaded via webpages, social media and video sharing platforms. Since starting the hobby in 1999, I've always asked around if there are any successful breeders of Radiated tortoises in the country because I wanted to learn more. But I never found anyone. This is also the same feedback that I got from various Philippine communities of tortoise hobbyists. This claim has not been contested yet as of this site's latest edit.

2) All tortoises are part of my DENR-WFP headcount. This headcount gets updated everytime tortoises are bred from the original registered animals and also when new specimens are legally obtained from DENR CWR, WFP and WCP holders. Great efforts are being done to breed them and contribute to the conservation of critically endangered tortoise species.

3) I've already received several reports about scammers stealing and using our photos. Always be careful when buying online.