Hello from Puerto Rico

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jecdx

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Hi guys!!

First i want to congratulate you!!! This forum is awesome :)... Second, sorry if my english is a little rough, i live in a non english speaking country...

Ok now for the introduction....my name is Javier im from Ponce, Puerto Rico...a couple of days ago i adopted a baby sulcata from a guy that posted an ad in a local webpage...He gave the tortoise with a bag of substrate, a bag of "food" and a "heat lamp" I need a little assessment from you guys...i have a couple of questions....

1. What "age" the tortoise could have??



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The matchbox is for size reference



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2. Is this substrate safe for the tort?


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Lighter is for size reference

3. What is this "food"? It looks like dog food?? What damage it have cause to the tort if it was the only source of food for 3 months 2 times a day 3 balls in every serving?


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4. Is the tort coloring right??? Or the tort is stained from the substrate??


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5. Is this an effective heat lamp??


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Eko terra sun glo 15w

Thank you for you answers!! :)
 

mainey34

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Hello Javier, and welcome...first of all I must say that you have a very nice looking sulcata. Seems to be very smooth so far. Everything that you have looks right. The only thing that concerns me is the pellets. Did he tell you the name of them? I believe they should be equivalent to mazuri. Which you soak a couple of them and feed. Maybe once or twice a week. You can mix with greens or by its self. There are sulcata care sheets and threads here, if you type in the search bar there is lots of reading. There is lots of sulcata owners here also who have great advice, so any questions you may have just ask...good luck.
 

jecdx

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Thank you guys for your welcoming....

Mainey, no he didnt tell me the name of the food...i hope is mazuki....
 

wellington

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Hello and Welcome:) The food does look like Mazuri, however it's hard to tell. If you can contact the person and ask that would be good. The lights, I really wouldn't bother with. Replace them with a flourescent UVB bulb or a MVB (mercury vapor bulb) the MVB will give heat, light and uvb. the flourescent wil give light and uvb, no heat. If heat is needed at night time, when lights are off, get a ceramic heat emitter. The bag of bark is okay. I prefer coconut coir, but that's my preference. Also, check out the threads at the bottom of my post. They will help you on how to keep the enclosure with heat and humidity, to grow a smooth sulcata. Can't help you with age. I would guess a year or little younger. Others should be able to help you more on that. They can only give guesses, as all torts grow at different paces.
 

jecdx

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Thanks for the info wellington...i checked on the eko terra website and says that the bulb is for heat and no uvb....i need one with uvb and no heat because here in Puerto Rico the climate is fairly hot...
 

Yvonne G

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Welcome to the Forum, Javier!

The size of the tortoise looks to be a year old or so, however with all the growth lines between the scutes, I'd guess its probably a very small 3 or 4 year old tortoise.

Gradually change his diet to dark, leafy greens. If he's used to eating those pellets, go ahead and continue to feed them to the tortoise, but add in the greens. Eventually he will graduate to grazing on weeds and grasses outside, but for now, dark, leafy greens is an ok diet.

The substrate is ok, but I like a smaller chunk type better for babies. Even dirt from outside would be ok.
 
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