Sulcata Introduction

[cboc54]

Hello! I would like to introduce myself and my Sulcata Scoots. She (Maybe, still young) was more of a impulse buy from a pet shop taking very improper care of her, extremely dry, wrong food (some sort of dry pellet!), with some other complaints including pyramiding. Im a Aquarist for the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas and have always had a variety of reptiles and fish at home and had a free 60 gallon glass Aquarium free to convert for her, and besides I have always wanted a Tortoise. Luckily the place she is from is no longer in business, I do realize rescuing to some extent keeps these places open.

I have had her for around a year, and thanks to the forum and a friend she is doing good and being properly cared for but I'm mostly worried about pyramiding. I do have a few questions but first I'll give some information on her care and plans for the future.

It's naturally a very high humidity region I'm living in, so humidity is easy to take care of. Scoots is currently in a 60 gallon Aquarium, humidity usually is not lower than 70%, the substrate is coconut fiber which usually gets misted (along with her) and watered daily. She also has a humid hide with a hidden sponge located inside where she can't get to and has access to a water dish. She has a heat and UVB lamp during the day and I have a heat pad attached under the Aquarium but not directly under the humid hide. Her diet consists of a variety of grasses and weeds from outside and soaked the Zoo Med grassland tortoise food, I was drawn in due to the included bacteria cultures it supposedly had (basically a few common probiotics) and occasionally add calcium powder. Most of her time even with the lights on is in the humid hide but she will come out when they first come on for a hour or two of sun bathing. I have personally never seen her drink from her dish other than her first few soaks when I first got her, I still soak her a few times a week. I assume she is very sneaky when she does. She is really starting to grow so a nice yard is waiting for her, but I am entertaining the idea if making a Tortoise table for the selfish desire to keep her inside and the fear of raccoons and other predators.

My main question is about her shell, from more experienced Sulcata owners than me how does her shell look? She did have pyramiding when I first got her. Next, the fact that I have not directly observed her drinking a serious thing? Also, this may seem like a weird question but how much is too much food? She is usually offered food daily but it is not unusual to skip days every so often.

 

[lismar79]

She is pretty pyramided but nothing you can't fix over time. I would get a bigger enclosure soon. An enclosed chamber at at least 80% humidity. A humidifier or reptifogger will help. I would also soak daily, at least. She prob will start eating more and it will help shell. I feed mine one in the morning and then she grazes outside in afternoon. Uv and calcium are much needed. Good save with her!

 

[cboc54]

She is pretty pyramided but nothing you can't fix over time. I would get a bigger enclosure soon. An enclosed chamber at at least 80% humidity. A humidifier or reptifogger will help. I would also soak daily, at least. She prob will start eating more and it will help shell. I feed mine one in the morning and then she grazes outside in afternoon. Uv and calcium are much needed. Good save with her!

Thank you for your advice! She will be getting more soaks, possibly a humidifier, and designs are underway for a enclosed enclosure but I foresee a move outside more likely before then. I don't think I did a good job explaining her eating, she eats like a champ more than I would think something her size can every time food is presented to her. She receives Repto-Cal usually once a week sometimes every other, I will be more diligent and up that a little. However, I am only just not noticing a sizable growth spurt after a year of having her.

 

[lismar79]

Mazuri is good to help growth. I do calcium twice a week for my one year old.

 

[Dizisdalife]

Your tortoise would benefit from being outside as much as possible. To protect your little one from predators simply bring it inside for the night. Since at this size it doesn't need a large outside pen, you can cover the top with a protective screen the will keep day time predators out of the pen. Humidity plays an important role in avoiding pyramiding, so create a humid hide in the outdoor pen for your tortoise to retreat to. The absence of growth may be due to parasites. This is sometimes an issue and a fecal exam will let you know for certain.

Even though your humidity is usually above 70% the basking and heat lamps can lower that significantly. They have such a drying effect on the tortoise's carapace. In a study that I read about a year ago it was shown that the humidity level beneath the basking light (on the shell of a tortoise) was less than 20% when elsewhere in the chamber the humidity was recorded at 70% or higher.

In order for you to stop the pyramiding and get more normal growth you will need to be diligent about keeping the humidity level at 80%. I would also suggest that you rely more on natural sunshine for the UV that your tortoise needs and less on the indoor lamp. Results will not appear quickly. It is a tortoise after all. If you are persistent, then in several months you should see some smooth growth coming in. After that it should only get better!

 

[rearlpettway]

Your tortoise would benefit from being outside as much as possible. To protect your little one from predators simply bring it inside for the night. Since at this size it doesn't need a large outside pen, you can cover the top with a protective screen the will keep day time predators out of the pen. Humidity plays an important role in avoiding pyramiding, so create a humid hide in the outdoor pen for your tortoise to retreat to. The absence of growth may be due to parasites. This is sometimes an issue and a fecal exam will let you know for certain.

Even though your humidity is usually above 70% the basking and heat lamps can lower that significantly. They have such a drying effect on the tortoise's carapace. In a study that I read about a year ago it was shown that the humidity level beneath the basking light (on the shell of a tortoise) was less than 20% when elsewhere in the chamber the humidity was recorded at 70% or higher.

In order for you to stop the pyramiding and get more normal growth you will need to be diligent about keeping the humidity level at 80%. I would also suggest that you rely more on natural sunshine for the UV that your tortoise needs and less on the indoor lamp. Results will not appear quickly. It is a tortoise after all. If you are persistent, then in several months you should see some smooth growth coming in. After that it should only get better!

Could you give me the reference (link or web site) to the study that you read?
We have found the same thing.


Sent from Rodney Earl Pettway's iPad using TortForum

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Your tortoise has a beautiful silhouette, however, when you look closely you can see that she is pyramiding. This might be from before you got her.

 

[Dizisdalife]

Could you give me the reference (link or web site) to the study that you read?
We have found the same thing.

It was from a thread on TFO discussing pyramiding. Here is the page that the post can be found.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/what-is-the-physiology-behind-pyramiding.83263/page-4

It actually substantiated something Tom and I discussed several years ago. In small enclosures there is just no place for the tortoise to escape the drying effects of these lamps. Often over sized to begin with, the effect that the lamps have is difficult to mitigate. Spraying, foggers, or humidifiers often help.

There was another discussion on lamps and since my sulcata is outdoors full time I didn't follow it fully. Can't seem to find it now, but will look again later and post it to you.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome cboc.

Joe's two post nailed exactly what I was going to say. The clues are all there in your initial post. You said "...the substrate is coconut fiber which usually gets misted (along with her) and watered daily." This one statement tells me all I need to know. I have spent months of my life working in and around NOLA. Love it there. Regardless of the humidity outside, sulcatas still pyramid very easily inside an air conditioned house in a small open topped tank with a hot bulb over them. They need a warming area, but for a large (relatively speaking in relation to the size tank) tortoise in a small tank, they can't get away from the desiccating effect of the heat lamp. That you are spraying and dumping water daily tell me how fast all your water is evaporating. If I dumped water daily into any of my closed chambers the tortoises would be swimming within a week.

The best thing you can do for this baby is build a large outdoor enclosure for day time, and have a large indoor closed chamber for nighttime and cooler winter days. Here is what I mean by closed chamber: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/closed-chambers.32333/
This chamber should last you for a year or two of this routine. Once your tortoise is around 10"+ then you can move him/her outside into a larger full time enclosure with something like this: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/another-night-box-thread.88966/

Here are some threads that I like to share with new people. Sounds like you are already on the right track with most of this, but there might be a few good tidbits in there for you.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/

 

[Teodora'sDAD]

I agree with the others. If its a closed chambor the water will evaporate, form condensation and then drip back bown in to the enclosure. I add water when I clean the bedding.

 

[cboc54]

Thank you all for your advice, the input about the heat lamp and it's effect when turned on in the enclosure's immediate area was something I was factoring out. Something I'm going to have to work on. Again thank you! And I'll include a few more photos

 

[Moozillion]

Hi, cboc54, and welcome to the forum!

Louisiana is a GREAT place for keeping turtles and tortoises- I'm right across The Lake in Covington! (I have a Hermann's tort).

 

[cboc54]

Hey Moozillion! I actually use to work at the Walgreen's in Covinton a while ago while going to College and I grew up to your west in Hammond.

 

[littleginsu]

The pic with the leg kicking, though, too cute.

 

[Evy]

Welcome to TF! Enjoy the reading



London my lovely Sulcata tortoise :0))