Most of us have probably seen costumes for pets. They are sold at numerous stores and seem to have become more colorful and detailed year by year. Most of these costumes are for dogs, and some are designed for cats. This year I decided to dress my dog and my tortoise up for Halloween and have pictures taken, and then use the pictures to have Halloween cards made to send to family. I began the search for a costume for my tortoise. It turned up nothing. I was forced to get creative.

I found that cat costumes can be easily converted to a costume to fit your pet tortoise. Cat costumes are generally smaller than dog costumes and also seem to have more elasticity and stretch, where as dog costumes tend to be held on with only Velcro or tied on. The elasticity of a cat costume makes it easy to alter to fit your pet tortoise.

In my case, I bought a butterfly costume designed for a cat. I then measured how large the costume would stretch to fit the wings around my tortoises shell. I extended the girth of the costume by stitching a longer piece of elastic in place of the existing elastic. It was very easy. Bruiser, my tortoise, wore the wings like a champ and was much easier to corral for pictures than my sheltie was.

The antennas of the butterfly were designed to be held onto the cat’s head with Velcro. This obviously would not work for a tortoise because her head is much smaller than that of a cat, and because she has the ability to pull her head into her shell at any moment. I modified the antennas to fit Bruiser by simply removing the Velcro straps and used a very small piece of packing tape rolled up to stick the antennas to Bruiser’s shell just above her head. They barely clung to her shell, but held on long enough to get some really great pictures. A person looking at the pictures cannot tell at all from the pictures that they were taped down.

Just because you have a pet tortoise instead of a dog or a cat does not mean you are excluded from the fun that Halloween brings about. Think outside the box and spend a few minutes figuring out how to alter an already existing costume (or if you’re really creative, make one yourself from scratch!) and you just might be surprised by how cute the result can be. We got awesome pictures and our family is sure to enjoy the individuality of our Halloween cards.

Keep in mind though, this article is geared towards tortoise owners. Tortoises do not bite and generally will not scratch. They do not move quickly enough to get cloth or pieces of the costume into their mouths. I would not advise attempting to put a costume on just any reptile – only try this on those that cannot hurt themselves or others if they do not enjoy being dressed up!!

Happy Halloween!