These are the three babies that I kept outside all summer long. I built a nice solid pen for them, and they were out literally the entire summer.
They didn't grow very well. A little, but not much at ALL. (On a side note - none of my babies that I put outside grew much over the summer, but had growth spurts about two months after coming indoors for the winter.)
I was actually a bit worried. If their shells had been soft, I would have been totally panicked, but despite the fact that they had not grown much, they ate like pigs, climbed around like puppies, had hard little shells and seemed to be really happy babies.
A couple of weeks ago they began to growth spurt, and are showing some nice pretty new growth now.
Here is the last photo that I posted of them, about two months ago -
Not much in the way of growth lines there.
And earlier today -
Dusty is still the smallest, but what a funny little personality!
Dee is the largest and has grown the most, Devon is in the middle weight/size wise.
The growth that they have achieved is utterly smooth.
So, although they are still very undersized for their age, they appear to have crested whatever ridge was standing between them and good growth. They are averaging almost 10 grams a week in the last 2-3 weeks. I do not know what it was that stunted them. I have a hard time saying, "I failed," but I don't keep secrets from you folks because others can learn just as much from my MISTAKES as they do from what I do right.
Only time will tell whether they are truly "stunted" or just growing very slowly. I also want to point out - we have absolutely no idea how fast a wild Sulcata grows. We know how fast a captive hatchling does. But we don't know if that has any bearing whatsoever on wild ones. I have personally always felt that slower growth was preferable to fast growth, because it is closer to what is natural. A wild Russian may only grow for 3 months of the year. A captive raised Russian grows for 12 months. That means a 2 year old CB could conceivably be larger than a 6 year old wild Russian. And in my mind that is the most likely scenario. Especially since ALL of my hatchlings grew slower outside in more "natural" conditions than they have inside where *I* control the conditions.
Anyway, I digress. Dee, Dusty, and Devon are getting bigger at any rate. These three are a hoot and I am enjoying them immensely... Especially Dusty. He lets me rub us little nose and has the tiniest cutest little head (I actually think Dusty will be the one that ends up being female.) But I love the other two also, lol.
They didn't grow very well. A little, but not much at ALL. (On a side note - none of my babies that I put outside grew much over the summer, but had growth spurts about two months after coming indoors for the winter.)
I was actually a bit worried. If their shells had been soft, I would have been totally panicked, but despite the fact that they had not grown much, they ate like pigs, climbed around like puppies, had hard little shells and seemed to be really happy babies.
A couple of weeks ago they began to growth spurt, and are showing some nice pretty new growth now.
Here is the last photo that I posted of them, about two months ago -
Not much in the way of growth lines there.
And earlier today -
Dusty is still the smallest, but what a funny little personality!
Dee is the largest and has grown the most, Devon is in the middle weight/size wise.
The growth that they have achieved is utterly smooth.
So, although they are still very undersized for their age, they appear to have crested whatever ridge was standing between them and good growth. They are averaging almost 10 grams a week in the last 2-3 weeks. I do not know what it was that stunted them. I have a hard time saying, "I failed," but I don't keep secrets from you folks because others can learn just as much from my MISTAKES as they do from what I do right.
Only time will tell whether they are truly "stunted" or just growing very slowly. I also want to point out - we have absolutely no idea how fast a wild Sulcata grows. We know how fast a captive hatchling does. But we don't know if that has any bearing whatsoever on wild ones. I have personally always felt that slower growth was preferable to fast growth, because it is closer to what is natural. A wild Russian may only grow for 3 months of the year. A captive raised Russian grows for 12 months. That means a 2 year old CB could conceivably be larger than a 6 year old wild Russian. And in my mind that is the most likely scenario. Especially since ALL of my hatchlings grew slower outside in more "natural" conditions than they have inside where *I* control the conditions.
Anyway, I digress. Dee, Dusty, and Devon are getting bigger at any rate. These three are a hoot and I am enjoying them immensely... Especially Dusty. He lets me rub us little nose and has the tiniest cutest little head (I actually think Dusty will be the one that ends up being female.) But I love the other two also, lol.
