Gulf Coast Reptile Refuge and Tortoise Sanctuary

07/04/2025

Y'all be safe out there! 🇺🇸

07/04/2025

It's $5 Friday friends!

Any $5 Friday proceeds will go directly to this week's critter food order! Our biggest ongoing weekly expense.

We need more greens and more Timothy hay.

🥬CashApp $gcrrinc

🥬Venmo

🥬PayPal: [email protected]

OR, we can also pick up curbside orders at Sam's Club in Slidell for the greens, or Tractor Supply in Picayune for the Timothy Hay if you'd like to do a direct online order!

Either way we have lots of hungry mouths to feed, and are so thankful for any help!

Thank you 💚🐢🦎🐍

*Photo of the miracle boy Maverick. Look at that beautiful face!*

07/04/2025

We'd like to welcome (newly named) Leeloo to the Refuge.

Her family could no longer keep her, and drove 6 hours one way to get her to us!

Leeloo is a young Sulcata Tortoise. She does have some pyramiding in her shell, but is definitely young enough to where we can prevent that from getting any worse than it is. Leeloo is settled in for the evening and sleeping now and we look forward to interacting with her tomorrow and learning her personality. 💚

07/02/2025

HAPPY ADOPTION DAY to Lilly!

She is off to a wonderful home with an experienced keeper, where she will be spoiled rotten. So happy for this chunky gal!

07/02/2025

We'd like to welcome Leo to the Refuge.

Leo came from a situation where he needed immediate help, falling under our temporary 'emergency intake only' status.

Leo is around a year old, and has a relaxed temperament. He will join the others in our adoptables line up upon completion of quarantine.

07/01/2025

Found Sulcata; Houma, LA

UPDATE: “Toby” is HOME SAFE!

This guy was found here in Houma in the Broadmoor area. If you lost your tortoise, please DM us with approx size information and any photos/identifying info you have.

He is safe with us and does not need requests for a new home. If you are not his owner, please don’t inquire about him.

06/29/2025

Hi friends! Lets talk about Tortoises for a minute. Specifically Sulcatas. 🐢

Tortoise species across the board are generally a solitary species. They do not need nor want a "friend." Tortoises are territorial.

In their natural habitats, the only time you will typically find tortoises together is for breeding purposes.

In captivity, you will find that sometimes keeping females together in a spacious enough enclosure can be achieved uneventfully, under supervision. IF the enclosure is large enough for them to give eachother space, and none of them are particularly dominant in nature.

Males housed together will be HIGHLY likely to become extremely combative with eachother. They will fight, potentially resulting in serious injury or death. We've had MANY males surrendered to us for this reason.

Housing a male and female together in a captive setting is going to most often result in the male relentlessly mounting/breeding the female. Constantly. This is not a fair quality of life for the female. Not to mention, you WILL have fertile eggs eventually that can hatch on their own with the high temps we have down here. There are simply not enough homes in existance that are properly equipped to house these guys through their entire growth period with how large and destructive they get, reaching over 100 pounds. There is already an abundance of people breeding them excessively.

If one chooses to breed, that is their perogative, but no animal here at this facility will be adopted into a home for breeding purposes, whether you intend to dispose of any resulting eggs or not.

I've had more than a few people over the past few years who have inquired about specifically adopting a breeding size female from us, and when I explain the above, they get agitated/snarky or defensive with me.

To put it bluntly, when I'm educating on what the animal's best interest is, it's not about human feelings, it's 100% about what is in the best interest of the animal(s.) Period. If this upsets you, I don't know what to tell ya.

Also, if you are seeking an animal for breeding purposes, a rescue is NOT the place to go for that. No ethical rescue is going to knowingly adopt out an animal to be used for breeding.

If you have done thorough in depth research, and want to aquire any species for breeding purposes, it is best to obtain your animals for such from a reputable breeder that has a healthy and known lineage of said species. We are friends with some very ethical breeders of various species that we could even reccomend.

If you've read this in it's entirety, thank you!

Feel free to share.

06/27/2025

*ADOPTION PENDING*

Due to no fault of her own, Lilly is back on our adoptables line up.
Lilly is an adult female Argentine B&W Tegu, around 4 years old. She loves to eat and take naps. She is not fond of being handled any more than necessary.

Lilly will require an enclosure minimally 8 feet in length.

For any further questions, please PM the page.

Adoptions take place in Picayune, MS.

Thank you!

06/27/2025

Good morning friends, its $5 Friday!

Today's $5 Friday is dedicated towards our weekly greens order. Any help is so very appreciated!

CashApp $gcrrinc
Venmo
PayPal: [email protected]

Or, an order of the 6 packs of romaine heads and/or 16oz containers of Spring Mix can be made to the Sam's Club in Slidell, LA and we can pick them up directly from there!

As always, thank you for your support!

*Photo of the absolutely adorable Sanctuary resident Wally, in her classic 'sploot' position 💚*

06/27/2025

Hello friends!

At no fault of her own, Big Shirl is back up for adoption! She again joins our lengthy line up of adoptables.

She is a beauty, and I know we are likely going to have alot of interest in her because of that, but we need to be very realistic about her disposition. Big Shirl isn't a fan of being handled. If you're wanting a beardie you can carry around with you everywhere, or you have small kids who would want to hold her frequently, she is not that. She likes to be admired and pampered, but would prefer not to be held much.

That being said, if you think you'd like to add Big Shirl to your family, feel free to submit our online adoption application, and message us with a photo of the enclosure (lighting included) that she would be living in.

Bearded Dragons require a bare minimum of a 40 gallon (front opening,) but a 4x2x2 is optimal/preferred. Linear UV is a MUST. No exceptions. Coil style UV is not adequate for bearded dragons.

Just a friendly reminder: NO animals adopted from our organization are to be used for breeding purposes.

Adoptions take place in Picayune, MS. PM us to inquire about her adoption fee. Facebook will flag our page if we discuss fees publicly.

Thank you!

06/26/2025

We got to bring a few critters to visit some kiddos from the Picayune PD Summer Camp today! It was so cute seeing the kids' enthusiasm over getting to interact with animals that they don't typically get to see on a normal basis.

Today's ambassadors from our crew consisted of:

🐍Mary the juvenile pied ball python
🐍Valentine the corn snake
🐍Jaya the common Boa
🐍Goliath the albino granite Burmese Python
🐢Topaz the Sulcata Tortoise

All of these guys were absolute gems, and Goliath is SUCH a gentle giant. He is one we will definitely bring to any appearences we make.

Sharing a couple pics below.

*I covered the children's faces out of respect because I do not post photos that include minors without parent/guardian permission*

06/24/2025

Friends...after ONE YEAR and five months of being with us...

SCHNITZEL HAS BEEN ADOPTED!!!

We are SO happy! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

His adopter is a gem, and our foster mama Tracy did an amazing job working diligently with his socialization to better prepare him for his new home!

Today is a happy day!

Adorable photo credit: Tracy