Another New Sulcata Keeper!

[Doc Holliday]

Hi everyone!

Two weeks ago, at the recent NARBC here in Arlington, I purchased a sulcata tortoise from a vet who's sulcatas bred without him knowing (Molly, 2 months). Then, I ordered one from Arizona Tortoise Compound (Mr Blonde, 6 months) after I read an article about tortoises being capable of social learning. Now, I saw here that bullying can be a problem (as you can see below), but hopefully I can give them both enough space?

Here's the setup:
2 2-2.5" sulcatas
1 29 gal aquarium (glass covered on 2 sides)
2 hidespots in the warm end
1 hidespot in the cool
1 100 watt red (night) heat lamp - timer 10 AM - 10 PM
1 10.0 UVB Repti-glo lamp - timer 8 AM - 6 PM
95-97 warm end peak
77 cool end peak
67-72 near room temperature night low
Zoo Med Vita-Sand substrate
1/2" high water in water dish in cool end
eating Romaine Lettuce, 'Spring Mix' lettuce, spinach, cilantro, white clover, Henbit
not eating Zoo-Med Grassland Tortoise food

I feed them a tortoise sized pile of salad, grass, clover and moist commercial food once a day. I leave a broken piece of cuttle bone in the food. I get them out in the sunshine for at least an hour 3-4 days a week.

my concerns:
When will they outgrow this enclose and I need to move them into a larger one?
They seem to only be eating the lettuce, cilantro, and clover and completely picking out everything else. How can I get them to eat the commercial food and if not that, something more mineral-rich than lettuce?
For almost the entire 1st week I fed them oxalis before I realized it was oxalis! How bad is this?
What is this - clover or oxalis?




Here's some pics!








and a video!

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn_LIz5mETc[/video]



Help me be a good care taker for these adorable guys! I hope one day I can pass them down to my grandchildren...

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Doc Holliday:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

I'll pick you apart just a tiny bit.

I don't like the flourescent bulbs. I don't think they put out enough UVB to make them worth while. With outside time like you have it, I think you can get by with just a regular 100 watt incandescent bulb in the house, but if you think they need the extra UVB, then my bulb of choice is one of the MVB's. (Mercury Vapor Bulb)

Sand, even though it says on the label its a good thing, is NOT a good substrate. As you can see by your poor tortoise in that one picture, it sticks to everything. Look at his eyes. They're very moist, probably excess moisture in order to clear the sand out of his eyes. Besides that, if the tortoise isn't well hydrated, sand causes impaction.

Your tortoises are very pretty. I appreciate that you've shared pictures with us. If you have lurked for very long before joining, you know that we LOVE pictures!!

What would you like us to call you?

---

Oh, I almost forgot...that looks like clover to me, but does the flower look sort of like a puff ball (like the clover that Thumper ate in the Disney movie) or is it more of a bell shape?

 

[Doc Holliday]

Doc or Will

I have half the cage set with that Eco-earth in the cool end. The thing is they never stay in the cool half. But everything I read acts like upper sixties to seventies during the day shouldn't be too cold for them. Still though, if you suggest removing the sand, I will.

 

[Arizona Sulcata]

Welcome!

 

[Doc Holliday]

Oh! Also I have been anal about giving them a bath once a day per some comments I read on pyramiding.

I guess my reasoning on the sand was, 1 I had bags of it left over from a store closing, 2 they seem to like to burrow in it, and 3, just another way to get them more calcium as they often pull food out of the dish and eat it on the substrate. Is there a substrate that is less likely to cause impaction than the Vita-sand or Eco-earth? Should I stick with the Eco-earth (I have bags of this stuff, too)?

As far as my personal experience? Tortoises 0! So, I am reading as much as I can here! But, I've had Red-eyed and American green tree frogs for six years and a boa constrictor for 1 1/2.

 

[dmarcus]

Hello and welcome to the forum...

 

[laramie]

Hello and welcome Doc Holiday (love your user name) Molly and Mr. Blond are just too cute!

 

[Tom]

I'm yo huckleberry... Hahaha couldn't resist.
Hello and welcome. I agree with Yvonne about the sand and the fluorescent lights. I'll add to hers by saying that I don't like colored bulbs for daytime use. It makes things look funny to them and sometimes it will cause the, to eat things that they shouldn't, like sand or coco fiber. One of your babies is already starting to pyramid, so act fast before it gets worse. Here are a bunch of threads I put together. In them are temps, pyramiding info and a whole thread on pairs.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Helpful-Threads#axzz1oGx63Xvq

Good luck and congrats.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I was afraid that was pyramiding!

Thank you for the links! I'll read those now. I've only had the guys for 2 weeks and my biggest concern is diet as salad mixes and clover seems to be the only thing they will eat and it goes as far as them picking the lettuce out of grass and the commercial feed I mix in with it. But, I will switch out the bulbs and the sand for the Eco-earth.

 

[Jacqui]

Welcome! While I agree straight sand is not good, I find I (and my tortoises) really like the coir with some sand mixed into it. Not the vitasand, but regular old play sand. Babies do tend to like the tender lettuces a lot. How small of pieces are you making the lettuce, when you mix it in with the commercial food? Also try starting with a small percentage of the commercial food to a lot of the greens. Slowly add less greens and more commercial. See if that helps.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I chop up the lettuce, grass, and clover to about 1/4-1/2" or roughly a little bigger than mouth sized. It's about 1/3 lettuce, 1/3 grass & white clover, 1/3 commercial then topped with calcium D3 powder every other day. At the end of the day, nearly all of the lettuce is gone and the commercial stuff looks pretty much untouched. I'll try less, like you suggested.

As you can see in the video, they basically have the sand covered up with the coir now. When I clean it tonight for feces and untouched food, I'll mix the sand with the coir. I won't buy anymore vitasand, but I have about 20 lbs of it from a lot of store items I bought.

I really appreciate the help. The redtailboa.net community has been utterly fantastic and I was so glad to see a forum for tortoises as well! Thanks everyone for welcoming me into the family!

 

[Jacob]

Welcome,

 

[coreyc]

Welcome to the forum

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome!

 

[TORTOISEMAN1]

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!