Decisions, decisions..

[J. Ellis]

Katie and I started our whirlwind love affair of tortoises with sulcatas. We had been the beneficiary of a large female sulcata several years ago who became the "house tortoise" of the home we shared with some family members in Georgia. Shortly thereafter we were forced to make the decision to place her with friends of ours who already had 3 large sulcatas due to our cross-country move from GA to TX.

Now that we have settled into our new home and life, with five leopard tortoises already taking up residence, Katie was nostalgic for the days of Olivia the House Tortoise. Our friends in GA have had her for several years and we wouldn't want to deprive them of her...

So I/We joined the TFO, to live vicariously through all of you! Until someone decided to get rid of two little hatchlings and their "entire setup". Of course it's not ideal but we will change all that! I'm going to pick them up after work this evening..

 

[bllauben]

They sound like they are going to have an awesome home with you! Congrats!

 

[Edna]

Congratulations! The adventure begins!

 

[Yvonne G]

Sulcatas are great tortoises. I'm sure you're going to enjoy the heck out of having them.

I'm noticing a bit of pyramiding already. It will be interesting to see if the "soak 'til they drip" theory can help them smooth out.

 

[J. Ellis]

Sulcatas are great tortoises. I'm sure you're going to enjoy the heck out of having them.

I'm noticing a bit of pyramiding already. It will be interesting to see if the "soak 'til they drip" theory can help them smooth out.

That was exactly my intention of getting them. However, if I have read all of the posts correctly, pyramiding is a matter that is decided in the first few weeks. I believe these guys to be 2-3 months old, so we will see what happens!

 

[Yvonne G]

OOOPS! Looks like the demon spam detector has struck again. I'll get Josh to un-ban Josh. Ha!

 

[banned]

I fought the law and the law won..

In any event, I will post pictures as soon as I get them home!

 

[Yvonne G]

Just to keep everyone up to speed, J. Ellis was banned by the Akismet banning program that Josh has in place to I.D. the spammers. I'm pretty sure its because of all the words he has in his signature, but he also had tried to post a second post too soon after posting the first one. \

So he re-joined the forum in order to tell one of us his plight, and joined under the name "Banned." Trouble is, now Banned is also banned, because Akismet also looks at IP addresses and Banned is the same address as J. Ellis.

We're hoping that Josh will come back soon and fix the problem, but for right now, Josh is not online.

 

[JohnathanO]

Congrats on your new pick-up.

Hopefully you'll be un-banned soon lol

 

[J. Ellis]

So I have returned from my life as an outlaw... a.k.a I was unbanned!

I finally picked these guys up tonight! After talking to the lady I was told they were fed a quarter of a cup of either St. Augustine grass or romaine daily, and that was it. They were soaked once a week, maybe. I'm not sure that they were under any UVA/UVB light or that they received any sun light. She told me that she had them for 2 months and purchased them at 6 weeks old. However, she told me the "breeder" was insistent on "just getting rid of them!"

These pictures are huge to show the pyramiding.

I am going to effectively attempt to recreate Tom's experiment with these two to see if it will slow down the pyramiding and smooth these little guys out!

 

[Kristina]

Awww, the little one has a special scute! I love that, both of my babies have one

I would just keep them as humid as possible. In my experience it is the MISTING rather than the ambient humidity that does the trick. My little Greek was starting to show a gap between her scutes, despite having a humid hide, and I started spraying her 3-4 times a day. She smoothed right out in no time.

Good luck!

 

[Tom]

My Daisy was worse than that when I got her at three months old. I started slowly at first with the wetness and humidity as she was the first tortoise that I ever did that with. I kept going wetter and wetter as I was desperate to stop the pyramiding and all the moisture and humidity didn't seem to be hurting her at all. I proceeded very carefully and gradually upped the humidity, the soaks, the spraying and the substrate wetness. Eventually it reached a point where if I got it any wetter, she'd be swimming. Seriously, aquatic turtles would do just fine in her enclosure. It took two full years in this environment for me to see improvement in her pyramiding. She's now three years old and has little nubby caps on all of her scutes, but the new growth looks pretty good. I would recommend the "swamp" routine for these babies. I have found no downside to it and there doesn't seem to be any such thing as "too much moisture". I went to the extreme to see how far one could go before there was trouble. I never found that point and never had any trouble.

It will take a long time for the pattern of growth to change, but there is no reason not to try. Here's what I do:

Cover the top as much as you can to hold in humidity.
Make a proper humid hide box and keep it wet inside.
Spray them at least 4 times a day, but 20 times if you can.
Don't let the temps ever go below 80 and keep a basking spot of around 110 onto a flat rock for around 12 hours a day.
Soak every day.
Soak again after sunning sessions.
Soak a third time in the evening, if you have time.
Sun every day for an hour or two if possible.
Use a calcium supplement several times a week. No D3 if they are getting regular sun.
Feed some Mazuri a couple of times a week.
Use a good substrate and keep it wet. I don't mean damp, I mean wet.

It has been suggested that the reason that I'm able to "get away" with this is because its very dry where I live and those daily sunning sessions outside give her a chance to "dry out". I don't think so because there are times over winter and such where she's been inside for 3-4 weeks at a time. I've never had any issue.

It will be amazing to watch if you go as far as I did and get the same good, trouble-free results. Remember too, that at the first hint of a problem, you can uncover the top, stop spraying, dry out the substrate, and do it the "normal" way. I was sure that something bad would happen, because of what I had been told, but nothing ever did. Seriously, I used to study her plastron with a magnifying glass and zoom in super tight on macro photos to make sure that she wasn't somehow having a problem from all the moisture. She's completely fine and always has been. My new sulcata babies are in the same stuff and they are not just fine, but THRIVING. All 36 of my Gpp hatchlings got the same treatment and you can ask the buyers if they are healthy. My remaining 14 Gpp have been in this routine since mid-August and all are doing fantastic.

 

[J. Ellis]

Tom,

I very much appreciate your comments and will do my best trying to replicate your conditions.

 

[Tom]

Tom,

I very much appreciate your comments and will do my best trying to replicate your conditions.

This is the only thing that I have found in 20 years that works. Until the "swamp" routine, everything else failed for me.

I hope it works for you too.

 

[Marty333]

How much do they weigh? Chevy is only 3 months old and weighs 48g

 

[J. Ellis]

How much do they weigh? Chevy is only 3 months old and weighs 48g

Marty,

The one without the extra scute is 86 grams and the one with the extra scute weighs 90 grams.

 

[RV's mom]

Follow Tom's advice and you'll have beautiful shells... Of course, they are beautiful anyway.

congrats!

teri

 

[livingenzyme]

Just to keep everyone up to speed, J. Ellis was banned by the Akismet banning program that Josh has in place to I.D. the spammers. I'm pretty sure its because of all the words he has in his signature, but he also had tried to post a second post too soon after posting the first one. \

So he re-joined the forum in order to tell one of us his plight, and joined under the name "Banned." Trouble is, now Banned is also banned, because Akismet also looks at IP addresses and Banned is the same address as J. Ellis.

We're hoping that Josh will come back soon and fix the problem, but for right now, Josh is not online.

J.C. (original word abbreviated by mod), haven't you people seen battlestar galactica? You want to replace man with machine? What's next? A holographic dog?

 

[Stephanie Logan]

Scottish Highland Cattle? The ones with long, shaggy-haired coats? Why, may I ask, did you decided to acquire those?

I want photos!

Your torts are adorable. Sweet little toddlers. I hope they flatten out and grow beautifully for you, and that Tom's theories are supported by the results of your care.`