Hello!, Im New!, Heres Some photos of Tony!

[Robbie Denby]

Hii all, My names Robbie, I live in the UK with my African Sulcata Tony, I got him from a reputable exoctic pet store around 8 months ago. From what i can gather he was just under a year old when i first got him, I was at first advised wrong from the petstore on feeding him, which wasnt very helpful after feeding him mainly a mix of grassland tort mix and fresh spinach for the first 3 months or so!, Ive now corrected this after reading alot from this forum he now has a diet of grassland tort mix and Spring greens (collard greens), i noticed his shell starting to rise, most-likely from the bad advice at the petstore.. never the less this is looking alot better and being corrected.. Heres Tony!:

 

[Jacqui]

Hi and welcome! Yes, looks like Tony has a little pyramiding, but nothing too bad. Sounds like your learning and changing his lifestyle and that's the important part. Tony looks like a sweet fellow and you sound like a very caring keeper.

 

[luvpetz27]

Hi and welcome!
So glad you joined! You can learn a lot here
so his pyramiding doesn't get any worse!
He is so cute! The pics are great!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Robbie, and welcome to the Forum!

 

[pam]

Welcome Great pictures

 

[wellington]

Hello and Welcome love your pics. Glad you found us. Your not the only one that started out getting incorrect info. One thing I would change though is your substrate. Sullies like to burrow and also the chips are a little too drying. I would switch to coconut coir, plain dirt or cypress mulch. If you haven't read them yet, Toms great threads on Sullies are at the bottom of my post. The leopard one also pertains to Sullies.

 

[Robbie Denby]

Hello and Welcome love your pics. Glad you found us. Your not the only one that started out getting incorrect info. One thing I would change though is your substrate. Sullies like to burrow and also the chips are a little too drying. I would switch to coconut coir, plain dirt or cypress mulch. If you haven't read them yet, Toms great threads on Sullies are at the bottom of my post. The leopard one also pertains to Sullies.

Yeah I was wondering about this I noticed other users with soil and damp looking habitats for their sulcatas, but I wasn't sure as im in the UK is extremely cold atm, so tony wouldn't be get outside his vivarium, and because his habit is enclosed and about 85 degrees most of the time, I wondered about the moisture being too Mich? And damaging his lungs? I always leave a water bowl in on the far side of the vivarium.

 

[mctlong]

Welcome Robbie and torts! Thank for sharing the pics. The little tort is adorable.

There's tons of great info on this site. Here's discussion on pyramiding that you might find interesting:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-15137.html

 

[mainey34]

Hello and welcome...sounds like you did get some bad advise...some things you may want to change. Pyramiding is caused by not enough, humidity, wrong diet and not enough exercise. So with that said. The diet you are providing i dont think is sufficient. You need to start giving grasses. And weeds. Things like turnip greens, radacio, arugilo, look up tortoiselibrary.net there is a lot of good suggestions there. As far as your substrate goes, i dont think its too bad. You could either mix cypress mulch in with it, or. You can add a humid hide with moss.. that should be good enough for humidity. I would also spray the entire enclosure down with water several times a day. Just how big is his enclosure? And what type of heat and light source are you using? Also he does need exercise. I would suggest , weather permitting you take him outside to get him some exercise and some natural sunshine. The sunshine will also help....

 

[ArizonaKid39]

Welcome! And great pics of Tony. I have a Sonoran Desert Tortoise so I can't give much info on your Tony. Happy turtlin'

 

[Robbie Denby]

Hello and welcome...sounds like you did get some bad advise...some things you may want to change. Pyramiding is caused by not enough, humidity, wrong diet and not enough exercise. So with that said. The diet you are providing i dont think is sufficient. You need to start giving grasses. And weeds. Things like turnip greens, radacio, arugilo, look up tortoiselibrary.net there is a lot of good suggestions there. As far as your substrate goes, i dont think its too bad. You could either mix cypress mulch in with it, or. You can add a humid hide with moss.. that should be good enough for humidity. I would also spray the entire enclosure down with water several times a day. Just how big is his enclosure? And what type of heat and light source are you using? Also he does need exercise. I would suggest , weather permitting you take him outside to get him some exercise and some natural sunshine. The sunshine will also help....

Wheb I first got him he shown signs of priamiding, it was quite bad at a point but now hes more rounded. Where I live is quite hard to find all these different grasses currently I mix between orchard hays wity a mix variety of dried flowers, to spring greens and dried forest tort food.
I agree with his enclosure not being moist enough but as far as I currently had read (until now) that to much moist causes lung problems, so this isnt the case? I will need some help changing his enclosure, to adapt to this

 

[Robbie Denby]

Hello and Welcome love your pics. Glad you found us. Your not the only one that started out getting incorrect info. One thing I would change though is your substrate. Sullies like to burrow and also the chips are a little too drying. I would switch to coconut coir, plain dirt or cypress mulch. If you haven't read them yet, Toms great threads on Sullies are at the bottom of my post. The leopard one also pertains to Sullies.

I actually ordered some coconut coir after you recommended it what sort of humidity should this have? Do brought it I. What appears to ve blocks? Have you had any experience with it?

 

[mainey34]

Hello and welcome...sounds like you did get some bad advise...some things you may want to change. Pyramiding is caused by not enough, humidity, wrong diet and not enough exercise. So with that said. The diet you are providing i dont think is sufficient. You need to start giving grasses. And weeds. Things like turnip greens, radacio, arugilo, look up tortoiselibrary.net there is a lot of good suggestions there. As far as your substrate goes, i dont think its too bad. You could either mix cypress mulch in with it, or. You can add a humid hide with moss.. that should be good enough for humidity. I would also spray the entire enclosure down with water several times a day. Just how big is his enclosure? And what type of heat and light source are you using? Also he does need exercise. I would suggest , weather permitting you take him outside to get him some exercise and some natural sunshine. The sunshine will also help....

Wheb I first got him he shown signs of priamiding, it was quite bad at a point but now hes more rounded. Where I live is quite hard to find all these different grasses currently I mix between orchard hays wity a mix variety of dried flowers, to spring greens and dried forest tort food.
I agree with his enclosure not being moist enough but as far as I currently had read (until now) that to much moist causes lung problems, so this isnt the case? I will need some help changing his enclosure, to adapt to this

The only time your tort is going to have lung problems is if you have humidity and low temperatures. You must never let your enclosure go below 80% . I dont believe that you need to have really high humidity levels with a tort thats over a year. Me personally, i dont care for cocoir. It is very messy. Others will disagree. But i have used it with my sulcata and i like the cypress mulch. Its a lot cleaner. Anyways, if you just spray down what you have and give him forced soakes feed him well.

 

[kanalomele]

Welcome to tfo! Our shelled friends have lots to teach us still and this is a great site where we are all learning from each other.

 

[cherylim]

Hi, and welcome!

I've always wondered who the brave people are that keep Sulcata in the UK. The shop I got Emrys from sells them, but I just can't even BEGIN to imagine where you'd keep a full sized one, in winter. Incredible. Looking forward to seeing your posts!

 

[Robbie Denby]

The only time your tort is going to have lung problems is if you have humidity and low temperatures. You must never let your enclosure go below 80% . I dont believe that you need to have really high humidity levels with a tort thats over a year. Me personally, i dont care for cocoir. It is very messy. Others will disagree. But i have used it with my sulcata and i like the cypress mulch. Its a lot cleaner. Anyways, if you just spray down what you have and give him forced soakes feed him well.

After you mentioned about humidity ive sprayed Tonys tank down every few hours and bathed him every night, and I already seek to notice a difference in his behaviour he seems alot more active where as before he would just sleep alot , although I did change his UV around the same time, not sure if that had anything to do with it, but I'll keep updating on it

 

[Robbie Denby]

Hi, and welcome!

I've always wondered who the brave people are that keep Sulcata in the UK. The shop I got Emrys from sells them, but I just can't even BEGIN to imagine where you'd keep a full sized one, in winter. Incredible. Looking forward to seeing your posts!

I'm sure some day he will need a room of his own, and yeah you'll hear alot more from me