Recently my girlfriend and I decided we would like to get a Tortoise. So, the other day I was talking to a co-worker about this and she said that she had a Desert Tortoise that she would like to give to someone because she was no longer able to take good care of him. I started to inquire about him and she told me that he lives in a small aquarium with no lighting or heat and his main diet (or no diet at all) is lettuce. I found some care information online and first off it seems that desert tortoises need to be kept outside preferrably, secondly lettuce provides them with no nutritional value and can be bad for him, and thirdly that they need to be provided with uvb rays or natural sunlight to promote vitamin D. I feel really bad for this tortoise and I would like to adopt him but I live in an apartment and I don't know if he already has any health problems. I'm thinking that at least I could take better care of him and possibly talk to some of the conservation groups (they are considered endangered in the wild) about possibly getting him a good home. I feel bad that I'm sort of undermining my co-worker but she doesn't know how to care for him correctly. In fact I'm thinking of telling her to get rid of all of her animals because when I asked her about her chamellion (what type of enclosure, lighting, humidity, etc.) she said she didn't provide him with any lighting or humidity source and that she had purchased two other chamellions that had both died (I wonder why?). This situation is really sad for me and I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions. What should I do?