- Joined
- Apr 25, 2014
- Messages
- 3
Warning: Very long post incoming.
Hello Everybody! I've had my 2 hatchlings for close to 9 months now, and have been trying very hard to take good care of them. Before these two, I had suffered through a bad experience trying to care for baby sulcata. I had bought him from a repitle show, and he was always very lethargic, would eat little, and never grew in the 6 months I had him. I think he had internal organ failure, but I really don't know.
WIth both the first sulcata I had and the two I have right now, I've always come to this forum and looked through many of the helpful posts for help in taking care of them, but I feel there is only so much I can do by just looking through other people's questions, and I feel it's time to ask several myself.
A little background on them first.This first little guy is Bulbasaur (first 2 pictures), and the second one is Groot (because he's so much bigger than Bulbasaur). Groot is very shy, and he'll hide if he's handled too much. He's also got a temper to him though. If he's cozy in a certain spot, and I move him for whatever reason, he'll start wailing his arms violently until I put him down, and will rush back to his spot and just lay there. Bulbasaur is not as shy as Groot, and is a little more outgoing. He's always the first to go eat whenever I leave food on their plate, while most of the time I have to place Groot directly in front of the food so he can start eating.
When I first got them, I had them both in a glass tank, with coco coir bedding. I would try and soak them every day or every other day, and would make sure their substrate stayed damp. Slowly, as work got more hectic, I had less time to soak them, but would keep it to at least 2 times a week. When I got them, the breeder gave me some mazuri pellets mixed in with some grass pellets and some red and green pellets (don't remember what they're called). I tried feeding them the pellets but they wouldn't eat them, so I resorted to feeding them organic spring mix from the grocery store (Not ideal, i know...). In my mind I always said the spring mix would be temporary until I found a better solution, but the convenience of just buying the tubs of mix from the grocery store was just too great, and they ended up eating solely spring mix for a good 6 months. They got accustomed to the spring mix, and would refuse to eat anything else. I would try to sprinkle some of the pellets in with their food every once in a while, but they would eat around them. I tried soaking the mazuri pellets to make them soft and smear them over the mix, but they weren't having it. This continued for a while, until I decided that I really did have to do something about bettering their diet. I bought some seeds from tortoisesupply.com, and within a week had some healthy grass growing. I tried feeding them the grass, but they flat out refused to eat it. It was like they didn't know it was food. They did not eat for over a day and a half with the grass in their plates, but as soon as I placed some mix in there, they devoured it. A similar thing happened when I tried to feed them cactus. This continued for a couple of more months, until a couple of weeks ago. I finally managed to get them to try the mazuri pellets, and so far they've liked them. They finally acknowledge the pellets as food, so I've been trying to alternate with feeding them pellets and feeding them spring mix.
3 months ago, I decided that they were getting a bit cramped in their glass tank, and built them a large 8'x8' enclosure, and filled it up with coco coir. I figured that this would give them a lot of room to walk around, and they would enjoy it. At first they seemed lost in it, and would walk around for a bit before heading to one of the 4 corners of the enclosure and just digging themselves in. They later realized "Hey, this human always feeds us at the same spot", so they would just hang out around where their food plate was, and left the other 95% of the enclosure unused. This was no different than just having them in the glass tank, so I just moved them back. While in the big enclosure, their appetite also diminished greatly, and they were only eating once a day, if at that (They usually eat twice a day, and are quick to devour the food).
This brings us to their current status. They are currently back in the tank, with a zoo med heat lamp during the day (the expensive ones that provide heat and all the ultra violet stuff), and a ceramic heating lamp during the night. They're eating twice a day, most of the time spring mix. I try to feed them mazuri pellets 3-4 times a week, but am thinking of slowly weaning them off the mix, and get them to just pellets. I'm up to soaking them 3-4 times a week now, and am trying to keep their substrate moist.
Now for my questions:
1) Groot is so much bigger than Bulbasaur (almost twice as large) but as far as I know, they hatched at the same time. Bulbasaur even eats a lot more than Groot, and he's still small compared to him. Is this something to worry about? I feel like they've both grown a lot since I got them, but Groot's growth is definitely more noticeable.
2) I think Groot's shell is starting to pyramid a bit. It also looks like Bubasaur might be headed that way too. I blame myself in that they're diet isn't the greatest, and that I've been somewhat lacking in the soaking department. I feel bad that I let it happen, but am trying to keep it from getting out of hand. Other than soaking them more regularly and keeping their substrate moist, is there something else I can do? I've read about the humid hides, but I honestly don't understand their function. Are they just supposed to spend time there? How is the humid hide any different than from just the tree trunk they used to hide under? And how do they really work? Is it just a matter of keeping the substrate inside the humid hide moist?
3)Is their size appropriate relatively to their age? The only other sulcata I have to go by is my previous one that never grew, so I'm not sure if they're growing at a reasonable rate. Right now they're around 9 months old.
4)How do they look? Do they look unhealthy? One thing the breeder mentioned when I bought them was that you can tell if a tortoise is healthy by looking at their eyes. I'm not sure if that's actually accurate, but their eyes are always dark and glistening, so I figured that was good. This wasn't the case with my previous tortoise, so I thought it might have some grain of truth.
5) What can I do to get them to use/enjoy their new enclosure? RIght now it's just sitting in the middle of the living room, wasting 64 square feet of space since they won't use it. Should I maybe add some rock features or foliage to make it look a little more diverse?
6) What can I do to get them to eat anything other than spring mix. I don't know what happened that got them to try the mazuri pellets, but aside from that they've always been picky eaters. How much damage have I done if they've had spring mix for maybe 90% of their diet these last 9 months?
I know I have many more questions, but these are the ones that come to mind right now.
I know this is a lot to read, but thank you all so much for any help!
Hello Everybody! I've had my 2 hatchlings for close to 9 months now, and have been trying very hard to take good care of them. Before these two, I had suffered through a bad experience trying to care for baby sulcata. I had bought him from a repitle show, and he was always very lethargic, would eat little, and never grew in the 6 months I had him. I think he had internal organ failure, but I really don't know.
WIth both the first sulcata I had and the two I have right now, I've always come to this forum and looked through many of the helpful posts for help in taking care of them, but I feel there is only so much I can do by just looking through other people's questions, and I feel it's time to ask several myself.
A little background on them first.This first little guy is Bulbasaur (first 2 pictures), and the second one is Groot (because he's so much bigger than Bulbasaur). Groot is very shy, and he'll hide if he's handled too much. He's also got a temper to him though. If he's cozy in a certain spot, and I move him for whatever reason, he'll start wailing his arms violently until I put him down, and will rush back to his spot and just lay there. Bulbasaur is not as shy as Groot, and is a little more outgoing. He's always the first to go eat whenever I leave food on their plate, while most of the time I have to place Groot directly in front of the food so he can start eating.
When I first got them, I had them both in a glass tank, with coco coir bedding. I would try and soak them every day or every other day, and would make sure their substrate stayed damp. Slowly, as work got more hectic, I had less time to soak them, but would keep it to at least 2 times a week. When I got them, the breeder gave me some mazuri pellets mixed in with some grass pellets and some red and green pellets (don't remember what they're called). I tried feeding them the pellets but they wouldn't eat them, so I resorted to feeding them organic spring mix from the grocery store (Not ideal, i know...). In my mind I always said the spring mix would be temporary until I found a better solution, but the convenience of just buying the tubs of mix from the grocery store was just too great, and they ended up eating solely spring mix for a good 6 months. They got accustomed to the spring mix, and would refuse to eat anything else. I would try to sprinkle some of the pellets in with their food every once in a while, but they would eat around them. I tried soaking the mazuri pellets to make them soft and smear them over the mix, but they weren't having it. This continued for a while, until I decided that I really did have to do something about bettering their diet. I bought some seeds from tortoisesupply.com, and within a week had some healthy grass growing. I tried feeding them the grass, but they flat out refused to eat it. It was like they didn't know it was food. They did not eat for over a day and a half with the grass in their plates, but as soon as I placed some mix in there, they devoured it. A similar thing happened when I tried to feed them cactus. This continued for a couple of more months, until a couple of weeks ago. I finally managed to get them to try the mazuri pellets, and so far they've liked them. They finally acknowledge the pellets as food, so I've been trying to alternate with feeding them pellets and feeding them spring mix.
3 months ago, I decided that they were getting a bit cramped in their glass tank, and built them a large 8'x8' enclosure, and filled it up with coco coir. I figured that this would give them a lot of room to walk around, and they would enjoy it. At first they seemed lost in it, and would walk around for a bit before heading to one of the 4 corners of the enclosure and just digging themselves in. They later realized "Hey, this human always feeds us at the same spot", so they would just hang out around where their food plate was, and left the other 95% of the enclosure unused. This was no different than just having them in the glass tank, so I just moved them back. While in the big enclosure, their appetite also diminished greatly, and they were only eating once a day, if at that (They usually eat twice a day, and are quick to devour the food).
This brings us to their current status. They are currently back in the tank, with a zoo med heat lamp during the day (the expensive ones that provide heat and all the ultra violet stuff), and a ceramic heating lamp during the night. They're eating twice a day, most of the time spring mix. I try to feed them mazuri pellets 3-4 times a week, but am thinking of slowly weaning them off the mix, and get them to just pellets. I'm up to soaking them 3-4 times a week now, and am trying to keep their substrate moist.
Now for my questions:
1) Groot is so much bigger than Bulbasaur (almost twice as large) but as far as I know, they hatched at the same time. Bulbasaur even eats a lot more than Groot, and he's still small compared to him. Is this something to worry about? I feel like they've both grown a lot since I got them, but Groot's growth is definitely more noticeable.
2) I think Groot's shell is starting to pyramid a bit. It also looks like Bubasaur might be headed that way too. I blame myself in that they're diet isn't the greatest, and that I've been somewhat lacking in the soaking department. I feel bad that I let it happen, but am trying to keep it from getting out of hand. Other than soaking them more regularly and keeping their substrate moist, is there something else I can do? I've read about the humid hides, but I honestly don't understand their function. Are they just supposed to spend time there? How is the humid hide any different than from just the tree trunk they used to hide under? And how do they really work? Is it just a matter of keeping the substrate inside the humid hide moist?
3)Is their size appropriate relatively to their age? The only other sulcata I have to go by is my previous one that never grew, so I'm not sure if they're growing at a reasonable rate. Right now they're around 9 months old.
4)How do they look? Do they look unhealthy? One thing the breeder mentioned when I bought them was that you can tell if a tortoise is healthy by looking at their eyes. I'm not sure if that's actually accurate, but their eyes are always dark and glistening, so I figured that was good. This wasn't the case with my previous tortoise, so I thought it might have some grain of truth.
5) What can I do to get them to use/enjoy their new enclosure? RIght now it's just sitting in the middle of the living room, wasting 64 square feet of space since they won't use it. Should I maybe add some rock features or foliage to make it look a little more diverse?
6) What can I do to get them to eat anything other than spring mix. I don't know what happened that got them to try the mazuri pellets, but aside from that they've always been picky eaters. How much damage have I done if they've had spring mix for maybe 90% of their diet these last 9 months?
I know I have many more questions, but these are the ones that come to mind right now.
I know this is a lot to read, but thank you all so much for any help!