Hi all,
Never sure where to start with these introductions. Well, we adopted this little sulcata hatchling at a Reptile Convention here in Sacramento back on September 26, 2015; pretty much as an impulse buy (I know, strike 1). The girlfriend and I have been looking at dogs for years but could never agree on a breed or anything beyond 'we want a dog'. Needless to say, our wishy-washiness landed us on tortoise. Sticking with the dog theme we came up with the name Brendel as a play on the brindle dog coat color pattern.
Since then, we've really taken to caring for the little dude. I found, and have been lurking in, this forum shortly after setting up a habitat according to the guy we got him from. The info we first received wasn't entirely wrong, but we did get the "these are desert animals" routine.
We started out with the following instructions:
Substrate: Timothy Hay and Paper
Water Dish: none (gets all water from his food)
Soak: Twice a week for 10-20min
Lighting: Mercury Vapor Bulb
Humid Hide: none
After finding this forum we changed the setup quite a bit:
Substrate: Coconut Coir
Water Dish: 6" tupperware lid filled with water (1/4" deep)
Soak: Daily
Lighting: MVB and Ceramic Coil for nighttime heat.
Humid Hide: Currently a chik-fil-a to go container flipped over and covered with dirt and substrate.
Temps:
Under Lamp: 85-90
Cool side: 80
Night heat: 80-85
When it is warm enough Brendel gets to explore the back yard with constant supervision and grazes on clovers and other weeds. Now that it is cold and raining I setup an exercise pen (3'x4' dog kennel with heat lamp) so that he still gets a change of scenery.
Looking closely at the shell it is pretty obvious how the soakings have had a beneficial effect on his growth. It is hard to explain it, but his initial growth rings were having a pyramiding effect creating grooves between the carapace plates. After we changed over to daily soaks the shell growth has come in much thicker and smoother. There is an indentation or moat-like effect (reverse pyramiding) with the shell growth as it has corrected. I'll have to get a close-up of the shell when wet to show the moat-like groove around each carapace plate.
I want to thank you all for collective knowledge and enthusiasm for tortoise care. I aim to keep posting pics of ♬Little dude♬'s development (FYI, the music notes are there because we sing the phrase "little duuuuude" whenever we say it).
First Soak:
End of Week 1:
End of Week 2:
End of Week 3:
End of Week 4:
End of Week 5:
End of Week 6:
End of Week 7:
Never sure where to start with these introductions. Well, we adopted this little sulcata hatchling at a Reptile Convention here in Sacramento back on September 26, 2015; pretty much as an impulse buy (I know, strike 1). The girlfriend and I have been looking at dogs for years but could never agree on a breed or anything beyond 'we want a dog'. Needless to say, our wishy-washiness landed us on tortoise. Sticking with the dog theme we came up with the name Brendel as a play on the brindle dog coat color pattern.
Since then, we've really taken to caring for the little dude. I found, and have been lurking in, this forum shortly after setting up a habitat according to the guy we got him from. The info we first received wasn't entirely wrong, but we did get the "these are desert animals" routine.
We started out with the following instructions:
Substrate: Timothy Hay and Paper
Water Dish: none (gets all water from his food)
Soak: Twice a week for 10-20min
Lighting: Mercury Vapor Bulb
Humid Hide: none
After finding this forum we changed the setup quite a bit:
Substrate: Coconut Coir
Water Dish: 6" tupperware lid filled with water (1/4" deep)
Soak: Daily
Lighting: MVB and Ceramic Coil for nighttime heat.
Humid Hide: Currently a chik-fil-a to go container flipped over and covered with dirt and substrate.
Temps:
Under Lamp: 85-90
Cool side: 80
Night heat: 80-85
When it is warm enough Brendel gets to explore the back yard with constant supervision and grazes on clovers and other weeds. Now that it is cold and raining I setup an exercise pen (3'x4' dog kennel with heat lamp) so that he still gets a change of scenery.
Looking closely at the shell it is pretty obvious how the soakings have had a beneficial effect on his growth. It is hard to explain it, but his initial growth rings were having a pyramiding effect creating grooves between the carapace plates. After we changed over to daily soaks the shell growth has come in much thicker and smoother. There is an indentation or moat-like effect (reverse pyramiding) with the shell growth as it has corrected. I'll have to get a close-up of the shell when wet to show the moat-like groove around each carapace plate.
I want to thank you all for collective knowledge and enthusiasm for tortoise care. I aim to keep posting pics of ♬Little dude♬'s development (FYI, the music notes are there because we sing the phrase "little duuuuude" whenever we say it).
First Soak:
End of Week 1:
End of Week 2:
End of Week 3:
End of Week 4:
End of Week 5:
End of Week 6:
End of Week 7: