New sulcata parent

[ADdie]

Hello! Just wanted to introduce myself as I have been reading through various threads for the past month or so. My name is Angel and I live in the Bay Area, CA. I recently acquired a pair of sulcata babies (approx 2 months now) somewhat unexpectedly from my brother. I have been having so much fun learning about tortoises and caring for my little beebs, named Igby and Rigby. Rigby will be leaving my care in the next couple of weeks to live with a dear friend of mine. We are fortunate enough to have a bountiful garden in our backyard (and also bountiful weeds lol) so I have been able to give my beebs a fresh and relatively varied diet, which brings me a lot of joy.

Their diet so far has included:
- Grapevine leaves
- Clovers
- Grass clippings
- Fig leaves
- Squash leaves + flowers
- Hawksbeard leaves
- Mallow
- Cats Ear
- Rose leaves
- Kale
- Mazuri tortoise food
- Timothy hay
- Cuttlebone (they have no interest in this)

and probably some other stuff that I am forgetting. One is housed in a 40 gal stock tank and the other is in a 50 gal stock tank, both of which were masterfully built into enclosed chambers that stay at ~>80*F and >80% humidity by my angel of a husband who is always on board with my animal adventures. I have them on coco coir topped with orchid bark. They soak for 30-35 min/day in warm water (90-95*F) and get ~1.5hrs of supervised outdoor time in a kiddie pool. I've also started growing some clovers + grass in tubs in our yard for them! Anyway, it's been such a fulfilling experience so far and I am so very grateful for the quality information I have been able to gain from these forums. A few of friends of mine have expressed interest in getting tortoises in the future and I have linked them to this forum. Very excited to be here.

I am also the proud mom of 2 young (human) boys, 1 auggie (mini australian shepard/corgi), and 5 bobwhite quail.

 

[KarenSoCal]

Welcome to the forum! You are a breath of fresh air! ?
It is delightful to have a brand new keeper introduce herself and have babies that are doing well, are in a good environment, AND calls her husband an angel!

You've probably already read these, but just in case you haven't, here are some links to stuff you'll find interesting. If you have any questions, please ask!

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

For Those Who Have a Young Sulcata:

For Those Who Have a Young Sulcata...

Over and over I type up and answer diet questions and try to get people feeding the right stuff, but I find that the "norm" is grocery store food. Grocery store food is expensive, a hassle to obtain, and very low on the list of what is best for sulcatas. These tortoises are GRASS eaters. From...

tortoiseforum.org

4 elements of heating: By Tom
There are four elements to heating and lighting:

Basking bulb. I use 65 watt floods from the hardware store. I run them on a timer and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb.

Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT.

Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish.

UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html

 

[EllieMay]

Welcome ADdie! Looks like your off to a good start! you should start Beebs a thread to show is progress! You’ll look back in a couple years and be amazed and Selfishly, I of course would love to see pictures and watch him grow with you!

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome. Sounds like you found all the right info.

 

[Ray--Opo]

Welcome would love to see pics of your new family members!