Hi I am new!

[fluuttrbi]

Hello I just ran across this site searching for a new outdoor pen for my sulcata tortoise. He has outgrown his indoor one, and is ready to live outside most of the time now. He is about 12-13 years old and his growth is stunted. When I purchased him, I was young and didn't know anything about him. I just fed him and took care of him the way the breeder told me to. Well I found out 3 years later, that everything I had been told was incorrect. So we have been on a journey the past 9 years healing and fixing all of those mistakes. His name is Oscar, even though I am not sure if he is female or male I always refer to him as a he. He very well maybe a she though. I have looked at tons of pictures and still cannot decide. He is very healthy now, with a nice hard shell. The only problem we now have is he has some raised scutes from when he started pyramiding from improper nutrition. Too much iron, not enough calcium. Hopefully my ignorance didn't hurt him too bad. I feel horrible for it. I plan on building the outdoor pen in the next couple of weeks, he is outside grassing in the backyard right now It is nice and hot here, and he loves it! I will attach a picture so you can all meet Oscar!

 

[wrmitchell22]

Welcome to TFO! Oscar is a great name and i am glad to hear you are moving him outside. I just moved my 4month old Sulcata outside for daytime and still inside at night Where do you live? If you want you can check out my thread on Boulders new enclosure, it would be a little too small for your guy, but might offer some ideas

 

[jackrat]

Welcome to the forum. The biggest contributing factor in pyramiding is humidity when the shell is growing,especially the first few years. This is a debatable subject,but I believe nutrition,sunshine,and exercise also play a part in keeping the shell smooth.

 

[fluuttrbi]

Welcome to TFO! Oscar is a great name and i am glad to hear you are moving him outside. I just moved my 4month old Sulcata outside for daytime and still inside at night Where do you live? If you want you can check out my thread on Boulders new enclosure, it would be a little too small for your guy, but might offer some ideas

Thank you! I will check that out!

---

Welcome to the forum. The biggest contributing factor in pyramiding is humidity when the shell is growing,especially the first few years. This is a debatable subject,but I believe nutrition,sunshine,and exercise also play a part in keeping the shell smooth.

Yes, trust me I was doing everything wrong! I even took him to vets and they didn't know what to tell me. Thank goodness for the internet and helpful people! I have learned so much! He has a great habitat now, just getting too big for it.

 

[TortieLuver]

Hi and welcome to the forum! It's nice that you joined the forum and your tortoise will love the outdoors. It's unfortunate when breeders don't give the proper information or no information at all. Glad you are on the right track now. Any questions you have ask away on here or you can always type in keywords at the bottom and search past threads.

 

[Laura]

poor guy... well, now that you are here. you can start doing everything right!!
hopefully it will help him. He probably has MBD Metabolic Bone Diesease
he really need good food, calcuim and sunshine and good soakings.
What is his diet?
a 12 year old sulcatas should be about 50 pounds.
welcome... and ask all the questions you want!

 

[fluuttrbi]

poor guy... well, now that you are here. you can start doing everything right!!
hopefully it will help him. He probably has MBD Metabolic Bone Diesease
he really need good food, calcuim and sunshine and good soakings.
What is his diet?
a 12 year old sulcatas should be about 50 pounds.
welcome... and ask all the questions you want!

Yea he is no where near that size! Not even close! Honestly I think he was sick when I got him Not even sure how old he was, I am guessing at his age. But he is only the size of a 3 year old right now, breaks my heart! Yea he has tons of issues I am really trying to help him though, I hope I can.
His diet is very diverse. From different types of hay, veges, fruits (non acidic), LOVES to just munch outside in the yard, grass and weeds. We don't use any types of pesticides or anything. I think what I am finding is that most of all he didn't have the humidity he was supposed to have. Right now he is outside sitting in his shallow water dish in the sun.
We finally purchased our own home so I can build him an awesome enclosure. I was going to start out with cinder blocks just for now, then move up to wood.

Do you have any recommendations for me? Should I be doing something extra or special for him/her since there is obviously something wrong? Thank you so much!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi fluuttribi:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know your name and where you are?

I give you lots of credit for coming on a tortoise forum and admitting you've made mistakes. We won't come down too hard on you. At least now you know enough to try to fix what you've done wrong.

From the picture, I think your main mistake was lack of UVB. The pyramiding along with the sunken carapace that you see on your tortoise is metabolic bone disease (MBD). He got that because he didn't get the vitamin D3 he needed in order to make his calcium work. Without the D3, the calcium he eats just gets pee'd out. Some of it was helpful, but most of it went out in the urine.

Tortoises get Vitamin D3 either from the sun (best) or from a UVB light. Most of us that use these lights prefer the Mercury Vapor Bulb (MVB), because they provide heat plus UV.

But if you are building your tortoise an outdoor pen, you really don't need to invest in this bulb. They're pretty expensive.

Again - Welcome!! I'm very glad to have you here as a member of our tortoise family.

 

[ascott]

Welcome! And enough being hard on yourself....you have been educated enough to know something was not right and that led you here. So let's get on shall we?

I think from just the one pic what he needs is TONS of natural sunlight and let him graze on the grass and weeds as long as he wants as that will prove wonderful for his diet....fruit should not be any part of a regular diet (maybe special treat) and veggies are also a things that would be good in small small amounts...lots of dark green leafy stuff ....dandelions and dandelion greens are a great source of calcium that they love and also have vitamin A which is important....and maybe while he is out you could turn on a sprinkler for him to play in...mud pools and all.....LOL

 

[fluuttrbi]

Hi fluuttribi:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know your name and where you are?

I give you lots of credit for coming on a tortoise forum and admitting you've made mistakes. We won't come down too hard on you. At least now you know enough to try to fix what you've done wrong.

From the picture, I think your main mistake was lack of UVB. The pyramiding along with the sunken carapace that you see on your tortoise is metabolic bone disease (MBD). He got that because he didn't get the vitamin D3 he needed in order to make his calcium work. Without the D3, the calcium he eats just gets pee'd out. Some of it was helpful, but most of it went out in the urine.

Tortoises get Vitamin D3 either from the sun (best) or from a UVB light. Most of us that use these lights prefer the Mercury Vapor Bulb (MVB), because they provide heat plus UV.

But if you are building your tortoise an outdoor pen, you really don't need to invest in this bulb. They're pretty expensive.

Again - Welcome!! I'm very glad to have you here as a member of our tortoise family.

Thank you for not bashing me. No one around me has these kinds of animals, so I have basically used the internet for all of my info. I have been told so many wrong things, I am so happy to have found this site. I am Liza and I live in SC. We have plenty of natural humidity here! He has always had a UVB light over his turtle table, always! And a heat light on one side, with a cool side for him. I think his poor diet and my ignorance has everything to do with it. That is what happens when you let a teenager purchase one of these beautiful creatures I guess. But yes, I am moving him outside now! I plan on starting work next week. I need all of the suggestions I can get! I need GOOD info, so tired of hearing bad info. Is there anything I can do for him now? Or is the damage done? Ugh I could cry for him, I feel so bad. Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate it!

---

Welcome! And enough being hard on yourself....you have been educated enough to know something was not right and that led you here. So let's get on shall we?

I think from just the one pic what he needs is TONS of natural sunlight and let him graze on the grass and weeds as long as he wants as that will prove wonderful for his diet....fruit should not be any part of a regular diet (maybe special treat) and veggies are also a things that would be good in small small amounts...lots of dark green leafy stuff ....dandelions and dandelion greens are a great source of calcium that they love and also have vitamin A which is important....and maybe while he is out you could turn on a sprinkler for him to play in...mud pools and all.....LOL

Thank you! Yes my plan was to basically let him graze all day every day! The only fruit he gets anymore is when my son wants to give him a treat (very rarely). I cannot wait to built his outdoor enclosure, he is going to be so much happier! He will thank you all so much!

 

[dmarcus]

Hello and welcome to the forum...

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome. I can tell you are very remorseful just from all the things you've said so far. Please don't beat yourself up any more. We were all ignorant at one time. I started with African Toroises, both sulcatas and leopards, 20 years ago, and I ignorantly raised them wrong too. Only in the last few years have we all been learning just what to do, and there are STILL a lot of unanswered questions and old mis-infomation. 20 years from now we will probably marvel at our level of ignorance today. Point is: You are not the only one who has made mistakes based on bad advice. What matters is that now you know better and you are trying to so hard to do everything right. Kudos to you for that.

All good advice above. They key points for me are: 1. Hydration, through regular soaks.
2. As much sunshine as the weather will permit in a big outdoor pen. This will give him much needed exercise too. Make sure there is some shade at all times in case he gets too hot.
3. Diet: No fruit. Only small amounts of veggies once in a while. Mostly grass and weeds. Look into getting or growing some spineless opuntia cactus and grape leaves. Also look for some mulberry leaves from a safe source. Some of them will eat dry grass hay as adults. Try timothy, bermuda and "orchard" grass hay. If you have enough grass and weeds growing already, you probably won't need to mess with the hay.

Good luck and keep us posted. So glad you found our community.

 

[Stephanie]

Hello and welcome!
I'm sure Oscar will just LOVE it outside! You already know your mistakes, so you need to stop being so hard on yourself. Everyone here is very helpful and knowledgeable, so you came to the right place (and boo to the breeder that gave you poor information! )!

 

[Turtle Guru]

welcome to the forum

 

[laramie]

Welcome to the forum

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome.

 

[Chad Horne]

Welcome!

 

[DesertGrandma]

welcome to the forum and best of luck with your tortoise

 

[fluuttrbi]

Thank you everyone! I appreciate the welcoming! I am sure I will be full of questions in the coming months. Oscar is doing much better nowadays, the damage was done a while ago. He goes outside everyday to graze and sun, and gets a soak 3-4x a week. But he sits in his big water bowl outside a lot. In the winter I soak him more often in a warm bath. I can't wait to get his pen built and share the pictures with you all. Thank you again for your support!

 

[John]

welcome