Hello all, my name is Dave, and I have a hatchling Sulcata.
He has been terrorizing my wife and I since 10-10-13. Unlike most of you, I had no knowledge about tortoises whatsoever before I became an owner/caretaker.
Our story: We are in the Inland Empire in Southern California, USA. On 10-9 we had our first substantial rain(1/4") of the season. The next day the rain runoff had formed lots of debris piles in my admittedly messy yard. When walking in my driveway and observing said debris, I noticed a small "pattern" in one of the piles. I inspected closer, picked it up, and I'll be damned, it's a turtle!
About 2 inches long and tucked in tight, that gorgeous shell only nature could produce. While I was mesmerized by this tiny miracle, I realized that we do not have indigenous turtles in my area. So I took it in the house, put it in a box top and gave it a small water dish.
I jumped on my computer and googled "I found a turtle". Among the first results I came across a suggestion to visit a web forum about turtles, not this one. So I read some entries, and quickly found that I needed to determine the species to provide proper care. I had my wife take the photos and post them up(She's the brains etc.) and helpful folks soon determined I had a very young Sulcata tortoise. I questioned the ID, because I thought it much more likely that it was a California Desert Tortoise, which many people in my area found and took home from desert camping trips long ago. But they assured me that it was in fact a Sulcata. So, a Sulcata eh', WHAT WHAT, 200 lbs!!? 100+ years!!!? Reality check time!
OK, so when my head cleared, we really are in a position to care for a giant tortoise(I hope). The more I learned, the more I figured out that My wife and I offered the best chance for a long healthy life, at least the first part of it, for young T. But detailed care for a hatchling was not found by me at that time, and I was freaking out because he wasn't drinking, or doing much of anything. So in my desperation, I started looking for a local turtle vet recommendation, and I stumbled upon a link to the local tortoise society. I shot off a desperation email looking for help, and almost instantly got a reply from the wife of the president of the society, inviting me to bring young T over to their home in a couple of hours for an evaluation.
How awesome is it that an email from an anonymous internet dweller would elicit an invitation to their home! Way more "balls" than I possess! They were the nicest people ever, and I spent a couple hours meeting them and their menagerie including their 150lb Sulcata. They assured me that T was OK and my panic was unwarranted. I was also invited to attend the next local chapter meeting, one week away(We went, and are now members). One pretty young gal gave an excellent presentation about outdoor habitats, then took time to talk to us and pointed us to this forum, for which I will be forever grateful. She also directed us towards Tom's Sulcatas posts, which we have read a couple of times and are using as a "How-To" manual to raise young T.
It took me almost 3 weeks to piece together a proper habitat for a hatchling. I hope I did not permanently harm him by lack of humidity in this critical part of his life, he was getting daily soaks. His current housing is too small, and humidity seems to average 70%, but we are working on it. He finally decided to eat after 3 weeks in captivity, and seems to prefer romaine lettuce, his first meal, over grass and other offerings from our yard. Still trying to establish a proper nutritional regimen, my wife is going to get some Mazuri, minerals and cuttlebone tonight. Our climate allows T to spend time outside sunning almost every day, after which he gets his soak.
Well, that is our very detailed intro. I've been on here reading for a few weeks, and have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge and feel I owe it to you all. Today's small milestone is our first observed poop! He's been eating for about a week, so we have been worrying about if all systems are go.
Thanks to all for participating, we really needed the info, Dave and Wendy.
He has been terrorizing my wife and I since 10-10-13. Unlike most of you, I had no knowledge about tortoises whatsoever before I became an owner/caretaker.
Our story: We are in the Inland Empire in Southern California, USA. On 10-9 we had our first substantial rain(1/4") of the season. The next day the rain runoff had formed lots of debris piles in my admittedly messy yard. When walking in my driveway and observing said debris, I noticed a small "pattern" in one of the piles. I inspected closer, picked it up, and I'll be damned, it's a turtle!
About 2 inches long and tucked in tight, that gorgeous shell only nature could produce. While I was mesmerized by this tiny miracle, I realized that we do not have indigenous turtles in my area. So I took it in the house, put it in a box top and gave it a small water dish.
I jumped on my computer and googled "I found a turtle". Among the first results I came across a suggestion to visit a web forum about turtles, not this one. So I read some entries, and quickly found that I needed to determine the species to provide proper care. I had my wife take the photos and post them up(She's the brains etc.) and helpful folks soon determined I had a very young Sulcata tortoise. I questioned the ID, because I thought it much more likely that it was a California Desert Tortoise, which many people in my area found and took home from desert camping trips long ago. But they assured me that it was in fact a Sulcata. So, a Sulcata eh', WHAT WHAT, 200 lbs!!? 100+ years!!!? Reality check time!
OK, so when my head cleared, we really are in a position to care for a giant tortoise(I hope). The more I learned, the more I figured out that My wife and I offered the best chance for a long healthy life, at least the first part of it, for young T. But detailed care for a hatchling was not found by me at that time, and I was freaking out because he wasn't drinking, or doing much of anything. So in my desperation, I started looking for a local turtle vet recommendation, and I stumbled upon a link to the local tortoise society. I shot off a desperation email looking for help, and almost instantly got a reply from the wife of the president of the society, inviting me to bring young T over to their home in a couple of hours for an evaluation.
How awesome is it that an email from an anonymous internet dweller would elicit an invitation to their home! Way more "balls" than I possess! They were the nicest people ever, and I spent a couple hours meeting them and their menagerie including their 150lb Sulcata. They assured me that T was OK and my panic was unwarranted. I was also invited to attend the next local chapter meeting, one week away(We went, and are now members). One pretty young gal gave an excellent presentation about outdoor habitats, then took time to talk to us and pointed us to this forum, for which I will be forever grateful. She also directed us towards Tom's Sulcatas posts, which we have read a couple of times and are using as a "How-To" manual to raise young T.
It took me almost 3 weeks to piece together a proper habitat for a hatchling. I hope I did not permanently harm him by lack of humidity in this critical part of his life, he was getting daily soaks. His current housing is too small, and humidity seems to average 70%, but we are working on it. He finally decided to eat after 3 weeks in captivity, and seems to prefer romaine lettuce, his first meal, over grass and other offerings from our yard. Still trying to establish a proper nutritional regimen, my wife is going to get some Mazuri, minerals and cuttlebone tonight. Our climate allows T to spend time outside sunning almost every day, after which he gets his soak.
Well, that is our very detailed intro. I've been on here reading for a few weeks, and have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge and feel I owe it to you all. Today's small milestone is our first observed poop! He's been eating for about a week, so we have been worrying about if all systems are go.
Thanks to all for participating, we really needed the info, Dave and Wendy.