Normal growth? Help me :(

[franz_see]

If I recall, he didn't have the best start. 48 grams for a 5 month old is tiny. But the new growth while you have had him looks pretty promising. It is a good indicator that things are okay and this one is going to make it and be fine. He'll hit a growth spurt soon enough. Don't worry about 2 grams one way or the other.

See all those hairs on your carpet? That's why you don't put them down on the carpet.

Definitely agree with @Tom here. @thegame2388, your baby just had a slow start. But with your care, he's growing at roughly at 40% per month. Now that's fast considering most sulcata hatchlings (that i've observed) just grows at about 23% per month

Just don't compare his current weight with that of other sullies his age. It will take time for him to catch up, but he'll definitely catchup. Especially with that monstrous growth rate

And don't worry about losing 2g (or in your case, 2% of his body weight). Try weighting his poop. I bet it's somewhere between 5-10g (i.e. 5-10% of his body weight) He can easily fluctuate +/-5% of his body weight within 24 hours

Personally, I think you're doing great with him

FYI : I did a collection before of other people's growth charts. You can compare yours under sulcatas, and you'd see that yours is actually growing faster than most in that collection : http://bit.ly/tortoise-growth-charts

 

[Agent007]

So I've had my tortoise since late January...and I was wondering if its size/weight is okay. The previous owner said it hatched in late August, meaning I had gotten it at 5 months and it is now 7 months old.
Oh boy he looks healthy. My tort used to be like him(Now he's 2 KG) Its normal my 8 month old tort used to be 100 grams.


January 30: 48.7g
February 6: 52.6g
February 13: 58.7g
February 20: 67.9g
February 27: 76.1g
March 6: 83.2g
March 13: 90.1g
March 20 99.6g
March 27: 97.5g (he lost 2 grams??? what???)

The pictures posted are from today's weigh-in of 97.5g which is 2g less than last weeks....which kinda freaks me out. Only explanation is that he took a poo and maybe that's it...either way, I was expecting him to be 105g+

 

[thegame2388]

Definitely agree with @Tom here. @thegame2388, your baby just had a slow start. But with your care, he's growing at roughly at 40% per month. Now that's fast considering most sulcata hatchlings (that i've observed) just grows at about 23% per month

Just don't compare his current weight with that of other sullies his age. It will take time for him to catch up, but he'll definitely catchup. Especially with that monstrous growth rate

And don't worry about losing 2g (or in your case, 2% of his body weight). Try weighting his poop. I bet it's somewhere between 5-10g (i.e. 5-10% of his body weight) He can easily fluctuate +/-5% of his body weight within 24 hours

Personally, I think you're doing great with him

FYI : I did a collection before of other people's growth charts. You can compare yours under sulcatas, and you'd see that yours is actually growing faster than most in that collection : http://bit.ly/tortoise-growth-charts

Yes thank you. That 2g loss was from almost 2 years ago. I'm not worried. 40% growth...I haven't calculated it month to month. I'll look into that. He's at 5000g now and he's 2.5 years old. Would you guys say that's above average for his age?

 

[thegame2388]

C'mon Mike! We need pics of all this!

Nice.

Hey Tom, maybe I'm going about this the wrong way...I had a good ol' humidifier but it keeps breaking. Is humidity even needed at this point? The humidifier would run all night long with 85F temps (when I know, for a fact that he's in the night box) but is it worth all the hassle? If so, the crane humidifers would WORK but wouldn't maintain humidity. I bought the ReptiFogger for **** and giggles, and it seems to be working but it's slow and doesn't even take the % up to 80%+.

Do I just move on, get a mister like the RS400 or, just keep at it? Put in plants? How would you optimally maintain humidity?

 

[Tom]

I don't use humidifiers. I think its the wrong approach entirely.

Indoors I use closed chambers to contain humidity and warmth. Outdoors I use tubs or buckets of water to add some moderate humidity to my heated night boxes.

At 10 pounds he still has a lot of growing to do, so I would keep up humidity in the night box for at least another few years.

 

[thegame2388]

I don't use humidifiers. I think its the wrong approach entirely.

Indoors I use closed chambers to contain humidity and warmth. Outdoors I use tubs or buckets of water to add some moderate humidity to my heated night boxes.

At 10 pounds he still has a lot of growing to do, so I would keep up humidity in the night box for at least another few years.

Oh...in outdoor nightboxes, tubs won't do diddly squat. I could stick a 10 gallon bucket in there and nothing would happen. I'm rocking the ReptiFogger so far and we'll see.

 

[Tom]

Oh...in outdoor nightboxes, tubs won't do diddly squat. I could stick a 10 gallon bucket in there and nothing would happen. I'm rocking the ReptiFogger so far and we'll see.

What is different about your night boxes vs. mine? Tubs work very well in mine.

 

[thegame2388]

What is different about your night boxes vs. mine? Tubs work very well in mine.

I don't know. Mine's insulated...but I doubt insulation would affect humidity anyways. Heat sure, but not moisture levels. And by "high" humidity, what do you mean? I want my levels to be 70%+

 

[Tom]

I don't know. Mine's insulated...but I doubt insulation would affect humidity anyways. Heat sure, but not moisture levels. And by "high" humidity, what do you mean? I want my levels to be 70%+

My boxes hover between 60 and 80% humidity depending on the weather and temperatures. The hot Santa Ana winds dry things out a bit, and super cold nights make the heaters run longer and dry things out more than usual, but outside of those two things, the humidity in my boxes stays near 70-80% most of the time. I have shelves with tubs of water in each box.

 

[thegame2388]

My boxes hover between 60 and 80% humidity depending on the weather and temperatures. The hot Santa Ana winds dry things out a bit, and super cold nights make the heaters run longer and dry things out more than usual, but outside of those two things, the humidity in my boxes stays near 70-80% most of the time. I have shelves with tubs of water in each box.

Hmmm I've seen those pics but I don't understand what you're doing or have installed, that I haven't...

 

[Tom]

Hmmm I've seen those pics but I don't understand what you're doing or have installed, that I haven't...

Did you seal your box with caulking as you built it?
Is the top weather-stripped where it meets the lid?
Do you have vinyl door flaps to helps hold the heat an humidity in?

Seems like your humidity must be escaping somehow, while its trapped in my boxes.

If I ran a humidifier in one of my boxes, I think the walls would be dripping.

 

[thegame2388]

Yes.
Yes. Though I will buy some tomorrow since my old ones are coming off.
Yes (and the door closed at night as well)

I'd love to know whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

 

[Tom]

Yes.
Yes. Though I will buy some tomorrow since my old ones are coming off.
Yes (and the door closed at night as well)

I'd love to know whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Hmm…

You've seen my pics with all the tubs on shelves in there, right? Have you tried your box with that many tubs? In others words, have you tried with with a large surface area of water for evaporation?

A single five gallon bucket will not deliver the same amount of evaporation as five wide, shallow one gallon containers with a much larger total surface area, for example.

 

[thegame2388]

I could try but I doubt enough water would evaporate to such a degree where the humidity would increase. What if I added plants? Why are you against humidifiers?

 

[Tom]

I could try but I doubt enough water would evaporate to such a degree where the humidity would increase. What if I added plants? Why are you against humidifiers?

Mine will trample and eat plants and my night boxes are dark. Are you running lights inside your night boxes?

I'm not against humidifiers, I just see them as a way to deal with symptoms, rather than fixing the problem. Worded another way, rather than continually trying to bail out a sinking boat with a bucket (humidifier), I would rather plug the hole (containing existing humidity).

 

[Tom]

Its past my bedtime. I'll check this thread in the morning to continue the conversation...

 

[thegame2388]

Mine will trample and eat plants and my night boxes are dark. Are you running lights inside your night boxes?

I'm not against humidifiers, I just see them as a way to deal with symptoms, rather than fixing the problem. Worded another way, rather than continually trying to bail out a sinking boat with a bucket (humidifier), I would rather plug the hole (containing existing humidity).

That's true. So what happens if I can't plug the holes? I caulked last year, and only thing I can think of is that the weather stripping wasn't thick enough.

 

[Tom]

That's true. So what happens if I can't plug the holes? I caulked last year, and only thing I can think of is that the weather stripping wasn't thick enough.

How about a pic of the box? Maybe I will see something that is not coming across in the typed word.

 

[thegame2388]

How about a pic of the box? Maybe I will see something that is not coming across in the typed word.

Tips?

 

[franz_see]

I don't know. Mine's insulated...but I doubt insulation would affect humidity anyways. Heat sure, but not moisture levels. And by "high" humidity, what do you mean? I want my levels to be 70%+

Actually, although heat does not affect absolute humidity, it does affect relative humidity.

For example, your cool spot might be 80% RH but your hot spot at 60% RH only. I dont think it's possible to have both cool spot and hot spot at the same RH especially if there's ~10 celsius difference.