TortelliniGabe
New Member
Hello everyone,
My names Gabe, I live in Dewey, Arizona and just recently (maybe 5 weeks now) acquired a rescue sulcata tortoise from a family friend that did not have the time to dedicate to her. This is our first tortoise and she has quickly become the coolest member of our animal family. Her name is Tortellini The Terrible (haha, kidding its just tortellini) she measures aprox 17" front to back and we believe is 6 - 8 yrs old, due to the rescue situation we are not exactly sure of age. From what I understand before she came to live with our friend she was kept in a very small enclosure and fed a diet of dog food. Since she has come to live with us we have been trying to even out her diet, providing a mixture of timothy and Bermuda hay daily, (witch she doesn't seem to care for, so if anyone has any advise on how we could make that more appealing to her that'd be great) along with hay we provide a mixture of greens usually consisting of romaine, endive and dandelion greens (she loves those) and sometimes a little summer squash or zucchini. We also mix in some mazuri tortoise food since she doesn't seem excited about eating the hay. She has a large out door enclosure with soaking/water dish, burrow and hide and are currently working on expanding the size to include a grass area for grazing (if it ever grows in this Arizona sun) and a heated night box for when winter comes. She loves to roam the yard and check out the chickens and goats, she will also sometimes use the dog door and come hangout with us in the house. because its so hot right now and the rains haven't started yet she gets daily soaks for about 30min sometimes longer if she doesn't want to get out. The picture of her is after one of her soaks, she decided she was going to roam around the bed room a little bit. We'v done a lot of research and found there to be a lot of contradicting information out there so If anyone has any advice for keeping sulcata in Arizona, or just advice in general( things we can try/do better) we are here to learn. Thank you
My names Gabe, I live in Dewey, Arizona and just recently (maybe 5 weeks now) acquired a rescue sulcata tortoise from a family friend that did not have the time to dedicate to her. This is our first tortoise and she has quickly become the coolest member of our animal family. Her name is Tortellini The Terrible (haha, kidding its just tortellini) she measures aprox 17" front to back and we believe is 6 - 8 yrs old, due to the rescue situation we are not exactly sure of age. From what I understand before she came to live with our friend she was kept in a very small enclosure and fed a diet of dog food. Since she has come to live with us we have been trying to even out her diet, providing a mixture of timothy and Bermuda hay daily, (witch she doesn't seem to care for, so if anyone has any advise on how we could make that more appealing to her that'd be great) along with hay we provide a mixture of greens usually consisting of romaine, endive and dandelion greens (she loves those) and sometimes a little summer squash or zucchini. We also mix in some mazuri tortoise food since she doesn't seem excited about eating the hay. She has a large out door enclosure with soaking/water dish, burrow and hide and are currently working on expanding the size to include a grass area for grazing (if it ever grows in this Arizona sun) and a heated night box for when winter comes. She loves to roam the yard and check out the chickens and goats, she will also sometimes use the dog door and come hangout with us in the house. because its so hot right now and the rains haven't started yet she gets daily soaks for about 30min sometimes longer if she doesn't want to get out. The picture of her is after one of her soaks, she decided she was going to roam around the bed room a little bit. We'v done a lot of research and found there to be a lot of contradicting information out there so If anyone has any advice for keeping sulcata in Arizona, or just advice in general( things we can try/do better) we are here to learn. Thank you