Hello from Miami

Darkmornings

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Jul 1, 2016
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Hi, my name is Melanie and im new to this site. I have a >6 year old sulcata tortoise named speed bump that i found on the road 6 years ago. I found this site Wednsday while searching for info on speed bumps new vampire fangs. I learned alot that day. i went to the vet, got some really bad advice and a beak trim. My poor girl is now stressed but, hopefully will come out of her house and make an appearance later today. Im looking foward to meeting you all and learning new things about my girl.
 

Gillian M

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Jordan
Hi and a warm welcome to the forum!

Please post pics of your tort and his/her enclosure, and do NOT worry: torts take long to adapt to new places, they do not like change.
 

Pearly

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Jul 14, 2015
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Welcome from Texas! I used to live in Lighthouse Point and worked in Ft Lauderdale. Now in TX I'm a grandma to two beautiful yearling Redfooted torts owned by my 11 yr old daughter and find myself on this forum a lot more than she.... If this sounds like "she has a life and I don't" it's wrong. I just enjoy this friendly place of learning and sharing information. Hope you will too
 

Darkmornings

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Jul 1, 2016
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This is a picture i took yesterday of her fangs/face.When she comes out for the day i will take another of her. She is pyramided and I would like to know if shes improving (i think so but, dont know where new growth comes from) . She is also alot darker on her shell than any of the tortoises ive seen on this site. She lives outside in the yard, we burried wire mesh 6' around the fence line. She has a kiddie pool that we use to keep her inside when it gets cold (this is only about an inconsistant week in the winter at night)
image.jpeg
 

Pearly

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This is a picture i took yesterday of her fangs/face.When she comes out for the day i will take another of her. She is pyramided and I would like to know if shes improving (i think so but, dont know where new growth comes from) . She is also alot darker on her shell than any of the tortoises ive seen on this site. She lives outside in the yard, we burried wire mesh 6' around the fence line. She has a kiddie pool that we use to keep her inside when it gets cold (this is only about an inconsistant week in the winter at night)
View attachment 178793
Poor baby! When you said "fangs" in your other thread I was trying to envision what that meant. Wow!!!!i hope she got those taken off. Are you feeding her on hard surface? Many keepers like using nice piece of slate to keep the food from mixing with substrate and it helps file the beak down. Also if you are not using cuttle bone, put one in her enclosure so she can gnaw on it at lib
 

Yvonne G

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Quite a few sulcata tortoises' beaks grow in that fashion, but I must admit, I've never seen them be that long before. @sharkstar 's tortoise, RV, has fangs too. I wouldn't file them. It doesn't look like they interfere with her closing her mouth and it might make it easier for her to bite off pieces of hard food.

Welcome to the Forum!
 

Darkmornings

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Jul 1, 2016
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image.jpeg image.jpeg
She is still pretty upset and wont come out of her shell for me. The first photo is of her and her pyramids. She is smoother on her sides and has the lumps on the top. When i found her all of the top pieces were next to each other and closer to her skirt. I thought she was getting better but she seems more bell shaped than the other sulcatas. The next picture is of her newly trimmed fangs.
 

RV's mom

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Welcome to the forum! Lots of nice folks here with good information, and excellent company besides! RV does have fangs, but hers are a little shorter and they do wear down on their own. I do have a floor tile that I sometimes feed her treats on but that is more my thing about keeping her food "clean" for her eating... (I know, right?) And yes, I too think that they are very helpful in biting through harder items (squash or watermelon rinds, tough cactus pads etc.)teri
 

Darkmornings

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Jul 1, 2016
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Sadly the fangs are gone. They were really cute. On the bright side, after collecting her from her house, shes strolling and chomping her way through the yard again like usual. Its strange that im considering now her intelligence. Shes gone to school with my daughter and has been oggled by 6 classes of high school kids (150 kids) and has come home like it never happened, and then hid 20 hours after one trip to the vet.

I am happy that the advice i was given when she first came into my care was not so terrible. I was told to put her in the yard and after she ate my whole lawn to give her hay. She needed a shelter and we got her a dog house, then i was told that she will dig..alot. We buried the mesh for that because it worked for a dog. We just retrieve her and fill in the whole when she tries to go undr the house. We have one hibiscus plant that we give her flowers from when they bloom and a cactus that we let little kids give her when they come over( every other week or so) Im reading up on what else i can give her and how to make a better house for her. Hopefully she will live a very long time. Shes my husbands tortoise now but, will go with my youngest daughter when we are too old.
 
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