I am a proud owner of 3 and soon to be 4 African Sulcatas, so I am a newbie on this

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JLSchmittou

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RE: I am a proud owner of 3 and soon to be 4 African Sulcatas, so I am a newbie on t

NinjaTortoises said:
yea i know its gonna be a pretty expensive hobby but i am willing to do it :), i will keep what you say in mind, yea i have a uvb and heat light, can you list the variety so i can start buying stuff for them to eat, i know they need more and i went on a hunt to my local nursery with no luck D:, or maybe i didnt search hard enough, thanks though :)

I actually bought seeds online that I've just planted, designed specifically for sully.. I'm pretty stoked about it... Mine like store bought spring mix, and they will love the weeds (basically, that's what I've planted) as soon as they start growing... PM me and I'll give ya the website I bought the seed from (I don't think it's good form to promote a business on a thread)..

4 is a lot. My two are a handful!!! Lol!!
 

tiff3grl

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Welcome.....it won't be long before you feel like you have a horse living in your backyard. At least that's how I feel cleaning up after my two haha. I wouldn't trade them for the world though. Good luck!
 

Laura

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they like to be alone... but you ahve a few years before you will have issues..
go to your local Grocery store... get them spring mix salad in the bag... nmoisten it and be sure to sprinkle calcium on it..
shaving the cuttle bone is fine too..
when you get #4, unless it was from the same breeder and they are the same size. they should be kept seperate for while first.
Read read and READ some more.. ask lots of questions..
and WELCOME!
 
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Maggie Cummings

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Hi and welcome. I am hoping you have a big enough yard so that you can separate the males from the females. We have too many Sulcata now and we don't need any more. Then you'll also need to separate the males from each other as they get older they get more aggressive and they will fight. Frankly, it is foolish to have 4 Sulcata. You'll need 4 or 5 acres of land to raise 4 Sulcata. Do you have that much land? Are you prepared to separate them all from each other?

With that said. There are 4 things you will need to raise healthy tortoises. 1. Lots of exercise. In the wild they walk for miles to eat. We keep them in captivity and they don't get enough exercise. 2. Lots of sun or strong UVB 3 A good and varied diet and 4 about 80% humidity. If you stay on top of those 4 things you might raise healthy tortoises. It is not easy to keep tortoises, you'll need to stay on top and pay attention to those 4 things daily.

here's 2 links for you to read. One is a care sheet with a good diet for Sulcata and the other is the Sulcata Challenge. I want you to realize it is experienced people telling you it is foolish to have 4 Sulcata. It is fun now that they are small but it gets tough as they grow. I know how tough it gets because I keep Bob, who is a 102 pound Sulcata. Do a Bob search and read up on the trials of living with Bob and the trouble he has caused me. It cost $900 for a solid cedar fence to protect him and $1100 for his heated and insulated shed then just recently he flooded his shed and that cost $900 for a new insulated floor. Anyhow, here's those links...

http://turtlerescues.com/sulcata_challenge.htm

http://africantortoise.com/diet.htm

Please stay here and ask questions so that we can help you raise healthy tortoises...

FYI...the baby on the far right is already starting to pyramid. So you need to stop it now, lots of humidity, cypress mulch for substrate not hay and keep it wet, put a top over the habitat and create that 80% humidity they need. He needs more calcium and a better diet.
 

NinjaTortoises

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maggie3fan said:
Hi and welcome. I am hoping you have a big enough yard so that you can separate the males from the females. We have too many Sulcata now and we don't need any more. Then you'll also need to separate the males from each other as they get older they get more aggressive and they will fight. Frankly, it is foolish to have 4 Sulcata. You'll need 4 or 5 acres of land to raise 4 Sulcata. Do you have that much land? Are you prepared to separate them all from each other?

With that said. There are 4 things you will need to raise healthy tortoises. 1. Lots of exercise. In the wild they walk for miles to eat. We keep them in captivity and they don't get enough exercise. 2. Lots of sun or strong UVB 3 A good and varied diet and 4 about 80% humidity. If you stay on top of those 4 things you might raise healthy tortoises. It is not easy to keep tortoises, you'll need to stay on top and pay attention to those 4 things daily.

here's 2 links for you to read. One is a care sheet with a good diet for Sulcata and the other is the Sulcata Challenge. I want you to realize it is experienced people telling you it is foolish to have 4 Sulcata. It is fun now that they are small but it gets tough as they grow. I know how tough it gets because I keep Bob, who is a 102 pound Sulcata. Do a Bob search and read up on the trials of living with Bob and the trouble he has caused me. It cost $900 for a solid cedar fence to protect him and $1100 for his heated and insulated shed then just recently he flooded his shed and that cost $900 for a new insulated floor. Anyhow, here's those links...

http://turtlerescues.com/sulcata_challenge.htm

http://africantortoise.com/diet.htm

Please stay here and ask questions so that we can help you raise healthy tortoises...

FYI...the baby on the far right is already starting to pyramid. So you need to stop it now, lots of humidity, cypress mulch for substrate not hay and keep it wet, put a top over the habitat and create that 80% humidity they need. He needs more calcium and a better diet.

Ok thank you for the information!, i really appreciate it....i shuddered at thw thought of the sulcata baby pyramiding, , all i am missing is the humidity D:....it is at 60 percent :(......i am buying the cypress mulch today....i heard that carefresh was good as well, is it?....also this is a very important question, once i buy the cypress mulch or whichever bedding is best, how do i go about placing it, for best results?, the housing is already enclosed, it has 2 sliding glass door, the hatchlings seem to like sleeping under the heat, is that bad? and how do i fix it, if it is bad, the heat is 80 right where the light is pointing.....please let me know what else and i will be sure to fix it, thanks for you help :)

oh and i shave off cuttlebone onto their meals once every other day, and they eat it with the meal, what is the best diet to keep them on?
 

jesst

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I use the forest bedding from petsmart which is cypress mulch and i add some top soil to that as well. i have about a 4-5" thick substrate for my sully and she seems to love it. if you already have an enclosed enclosure the humidity should start to build with the changing of substrate. i also mist my sully every chance i get and i mist the substrate atleast once a day. if you mix it around daily that will also help. You should look at Tom's thread on the top of the sulcata forum page, it was a great help to me. Your temp under the heat lamp should be 95 not 80. 80 should be on the cool side. Make sure that the UVB light is no more than 12" from your little ones so they get enough rays. Good luck
 

Missy

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NinjaTortoises said:
Missy said:
Welcome. Just a couple questions. Do you have a UVB light and how is your temps and humidity? As far as the food you are feeding, you need way more variety. When they get bigger you could have problems with ramming and bulling so you may have to split the enclosure up. I wish you lots of luck with your Sullies. I have 2 and although I would not trade them for anything, they take a lot of time and $$$$$$ to keep.

yea i know its gonna be a pretty expensive hobby but i am willing to do it :), i will keep what you say in mind, yea i have a uvb and heat light, can you list the variety so i can start buying stuff for them to eat, i know they need more and i went on a hunt to my local nursery with no luck D:, or maybe i didnt search hard enough, thanks though :)

Spring mix is pretty good for hatchlings just remove the spinach it is bad for them. Anything that is called lettuce has little to no nutrition. You want dark leafy greens. Optuna cactus with thorns removed is one of the best foods for them. You can grow it in pots or in the ground but with 4 Sulcatas you better start lots now. They will need to be able to graze outside on grass and weeds that are safe. You will need to do lots of research on safe weeds because some are toxic. For hatchlings they need temps under the light at around 100f and a cool end of 75-80 with good air circulation and lots of humidity. For my Leopard hatchling I have a fogger on a timer that keeps the humidity up. I have 3/4 of the top covered to keep heat and humidity in. You can get plexi glass for that. I also have 2 Sulcata and they over winter in their own heated room in the basement for now till we build them a huge barn shed. I use pig blankets (large plastic heating pads made for baby pigs) and heat emitters and UVB lights. Please read all the links that forum members have given you. If your babies don't get a good start then they can suffer long term effects. We all have a great love for tortoises so if it seems we are being harsh it's only because we see this all the time. People get the cute tiny torts and have no idea how to take care of them. What you do now will either positively or negatively effect them for the rest of their life even after you are long gone. If you ask a question that members have been asked over and over than we will give you a link to read instead of answering the same question over and over so please read the links to other threads that will answer your questions. After reading if you still have a question and the link did not give you the answer than fire away with the question. This is a great forum and members will help you give those babies a good start.
 

wildponey21

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hi and do you know that if any on the slucatas are males they can get to 200 pounds when grown females are about 80 and the males to each have there own space. I have two sullys myself
 

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Missy said:
Spring mix is pretty good for hatchlings just remove the spinach it is bad for them.

I see this statement a lot and it is completely incorrect. Spinach is just fine as part of a varied diet. It does have a higher concentration of oxalic acid, but the nutrition that it provides greatly outweighs any bad effects.

Welcome to the forum!
 

Zamric

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Looks like all has bee said about having 4 Sulcatas and from experiance I can tell you that 2 males in the same enclosure is VERY BAD! (I have a 1/4 acre fenced back yard). They fight.... they will fight to the death if not seperated (you wont have this problem for several years yet... 8 or 9 if your Lucky) but it will happen and a 40lb tort is cool and all, but very hard to find a new home for!
 
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Maggie Cummings

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Carefresh is not a good substrate as it is shredded paper and will mold if you get it wet, and you need a wet subatrate. The temp under the light should be 95 to 100 degrees, not 80. 60% humidity is not bad actually. You want more, but 60 will do if that's all you can get up to. So improve their diet, and get a better and more deep substrate, improve their diet and I believe you will be fine, unless I see something else wrong...:D
 

dmarcus

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What every you decide to feed just make sure it's a varied diet so your torts don't get stuck on one type of food.

BTW everyone those are some of my beetles in my mealworm breading colony. They are getting a piece of apple as a snack...
 

NinjaTortoises

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Tom said:

Thanks! I will

dalano73 said:
What every you decide to feed just make sure it's a varied diet so your torts don't get stuck on one type of food.

BTW everyone those are some of my beetles in my mealworm breading colony. They are getting a piece of apple as a snack...

Oh ok, yea i dont want them to be on one type of food, i feed tem grasses a little bit of lettuce a little bit of mazuri, i mix it up, I am trying to add in more types of food as i become more knowledgable on these tortoises,

haha cool, i thought the beetles were something else :) lol
thanks for your input

maggie3fan said:
Carefresh is not a good substrate as it is shredded paper and will mold if you get it wet, and you need a wet subatrate. The temp under the light should be 95 to 100 degrees, not 80. 60% humidity is not bad actually. You want more, but 60 will do if that's all you can get up to. So improve their diet, and get a better and more deep substrate, improve their diet and I believe you will be fine, unless I see something else wrong...:D

ok i will work on that, is cypress mulch something you use as well or is it good enough?, someone else here mentioned cypress mulch, so i am thinking of buying it

bsr8129 said:
Hey so cali here too, even with a big back yard having four roam around is alot, I currently have 2 that are 4-5yrs old and I couldnt imagine having another two, esp when they get to be 50 lbs each.

Haha awesome, I wont be giving any away to any place, these tortoises will be a part of my life :) and i will make sure they get a place to live after I am gone D:

nikki0601 said:
Hey, congrats on the new babies.. Go to the link Tom suggested, his care sheet in my opinion should be follwed directly, follow the temps, substrate, diet, etc.. Well, thats just what I suggest, I am raising my first Sully hatchling and he is happy and thriving, from what I've heard and read it can be common for hatchlings to fail and the fact that my Sully is so healthy I believe is greatly due to Toms care sheet so I can tell u first hand it works, the only little extra thing I do is I have to have an extra light for use at night, my temps drop too much if not so I use a critter care black light, other than that it is step by step the way Tom does it, Thanks again Tom, I was worried to find out how my Sully was kept before he got to me but he is doing wonderfully

yes at night it getsso cold now, that i get worried lol and wake up to check on them a LOT lol....i have a critter care as well on, they sleep right under it, its dark red color :) I am checking out the links he posted too :) thanks for your input take care

tiff3grl said:
Welcome.....it won't be long before you feel like you have a horse living in your backyard. At least that's how I feel cleaning up after my two haha. I wouldn't trade them for the world though. Good luck!

haha im pretty sure it will, and yea i wouldnt either, i am already starting to see the perrsonalities they are forming lol

Laura said:
they like to be alone... but you ahve a few years before you will have issues..
go to your local Grocery store... get them spring mix salad in the bag... nmoisten it and be sure to sprinkle calcium on it..
shaving the cuttle bone is fine too..
when you get #4, unless it was from the same breeder and they are the same size. they should be kept seperate for while first.
Read read and READ some more.. ask lots of questions..
and WELCOME!

yes its same breeder, and i will do that today :), i need to buy stuff they need too L) like new substrate and other stuff....thanks for your time :)
 
M

Maggie Cummings

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Yes, cypress mulch is something I use myself. I have to drive 45 miles to the Lowes to get it. You can look at the big box stores like Lowes and Home Depot to find it. I have 9 habitats in the house so I use a lot of it. I keep it moist and it creates a lot of humidity that way...
 
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