NessiesNoob
New Member
Greetings from a new member, long time Herp Hobbiest and new Sulcata caretaker.
Ever since I was about 5 or 6 years old I have had a deep interest and fascination in turtles and reptiles in general (so for about 4 decades now). By and large, turtles I have kept have been locally native species. Part of this when I was younger was because I would go out hunting for turtles at the local ponds and lakes, keep them a short time and then return them (Mom made me). As I grew older, I continued to keep local species because they were the most sure-fire species to accommodate with humidity, temperature, seasonal variances, habitat re-creation and other things. It also meant that if a turtle got 'too large' or if life forced me to reduce numbers and I couldn't find someone to adopt the turtles, I could find safe places to release them (I know this is frowned upon by some and I know the concerns, but for the sake of an introduction, I would prefer to avoid getting into this matter right now).
In the past I have cared for Yellow-Bellies, Red-Ears, Chickens, Common Snappers, Smooth Softshells, Spiny Softshells, Maps, Painteds, Musks and Muds. The closest I have come to keeping tortoises have been 2 Eastern Box Turtles and 1 Ornate Box Turtle. I have had indoor and outdoor enclosures.
A little over a decade ago, I gave up my passion for a time when my kids were born. Priorities meant changing where our income went and even though I kept my turtles secure and their enclosures clean, I didn't want to run the risk of accidental salmonella contamination.
Now to 'introduce' my wife. For the longest time, she has had fascination not so much with turtles -though she does like them- but more she loves tortoises. Since moving to Florida 8 years ago, she has been pushing me to acquiring a tortoise and recently I gave in and we got her a young -not quite hatchling, but close- sulcata. I actually tried to convince her into getting a redfoot since they would be more amendable to our climate, but thanks to a few youtube videos from Kamp Kenan (jerk! , she insisted on a sulcata. For the purpose of naming, I have guessed the sex of the tortoise as female, judging from the plastron and the position of the cloaca, but I told her that at any point over the next five to six years we could learn that I am very much wrong. She chose Nessie since nobody knows what sex it is (or if it even exists!). Since Nessie is the first true tortoise I have cared for and an exotic as well, I will probably be dropping in from time to time to ask a few questions or to verify some of my decisions regarding her care.
Currently I have her on an adjusted daily feeding schedule. I have read different suggestions on feeding ranging from feeding daily to every other day to even once a week due to the sulcata's slow digestion. The diet I have her on is every other day she will get a healthy helping of greens. The breeder I got her from suggested using the Spring Mix salad bags from the grocery store, but I don't strictly use this. I tend to use a mix of the Spring Mix, a pinch of grass clippings from my yard (I do no spray or fertilize) and a few different safe foliage greens from my garden (coreopsis, wormwood and beebalm). I give her about 30 minutes from the time she starts eating to get her fill and then I discard what she doesn't eat. I have planted some hibiscus for her, but need to wait for the fertilizers and pesticides used by the grower to leave theirs systems before I start feeding her this. On the days between the greens she gets a small 'treat' of some sort. Today was a carrot that was moistened and then dipped into crushed eggshell (seen above). On other days I might give her rose petals, coreopsis flowers or something else 'colorful' (and safe). I try not to feed her the colored stuff with the greens as I noticed the first and only time I did this, she stampeded over the greens to get to the carrot and made a real mess of things.
Her current home is a dresser-top wooden enclosure (above). It is 15 inches deep, almost 5 feet wide and 12 inches tall. I am not happy with the current light setup and I have ordered a new hood from my local pet shop to match the one on the right. The lights in the hood and the bell-housing on the left are both UVB and center 'light' is a ceramic heating element. When the new hood comes in, I will place it on the left side to replace that bell and I will then put in a UVA bulb into that one and have it over near the left corner and I will similarly move the ceramic element to the right corner. The UVA bulb will be on a timer with the UVB bulbs while the ceramic stays on through the night. I also tend to place stones under the heat sources to provide that residual ground heat that some tortoises like (I know my boxies loved this). I need to get two more thermometers so I don't have to keep moving the one seen above to monitor each section. So far the area under the ceramic element can get up to about 105F in the late afternoon. The right side tends to stay around 85F and the left side will dip into the 70's at night. Nessie tends to avoid the left side either due to the lower temp or lower light... or both.
I would have made all four walls solid to reduce stress (I have seen tortoises and turtles 'pace' along glass walls trying to get to the points beyond the glass), but this is next to my wife's desk and she wanted a way to observe Nessie while doing her work. Maybe it's because the enclosure is built up to the front edge of the dresser, but Nessie might walk up to the windows, but she doesn't pace them or try to go through.
Something I carried over from a table I had built for my Box Turtles a couple decades ago is using nested trays sunken into the substrate. For my Box Turtles I would sow the trays with grass and dandelion seeds. When they would devour all plant matter, I could lift out the top tray, leaving the bottom one in and replace it with another planted tray. My boxies enjoyed this setup so much that they rewarded me with a clutch of eggs buried in the grass tray. For Nessie, I have not started planting anything in the trays, but use them to provide different substrates. While the main substrate for the enclosure is timothy grass hay, the tray on the right is filled with soil and bark mulch to give her something to dig into. The tray in the center (that you can't see due to the divider) is filled with sphagnum moss and I dampen this one from time to time to give her an area with slightly higher humidity if she so chooses it. I also feed her over this tray as if she accidentally ingests the moss while feeding (hasn't happened yet), it should pass through her without harm. I am actually hesitant to provide a planted one as I do not know if this would cause her to over-eat.
As 'nice' as the enclosure is for her at this size (I am actually not satisfied with the construction), I am fully aware that it will not last. Next month I will be building another enclosure that is roughly the same length as this one, but more than double the depth. I plan to model it off of Chicken Tractors with wheels at one end for easy movement and this new pen will be placed outside. We do not currently live where we can set up a permanent outdoor pen, but we fully expect to move a bit further south in a couple years with plenty of room to build a pen suitable for an adult sulcata. In the meantime, this portable tortoise tractor should suffice to give her some outdoor time and actual sunlight on the days that I am working in the yard/garden.
So there you have it. A bit long winded perhaps, but I don't think I missed anything. If there are any suggestions regarding the lighting or feeding, please feel free to speak up. Again, this is my first true tortoise and while they might be very much related to the turtles I have kept in the past, the care is a little different and I am sure I will make minor errors along the way.
TL;DR
New member here. Hi.
Ever since I was about 5 or 6 years old I have had a deep interest and fascination in turtles and reptiles in general (so for about 4 decades now). By and large, turtles I have kept have been locally native species. Part of this when I was younger was because I would go out hunting for turtles at the local ponds and lakes, keep them a short time and then return them (Mom made me). As I grew older, I continued to keep local species because they were the most sure-fire species to accommodate with humidity, temperature, seasonal variances, habitat re-creation and other things. It also meant that if a turtle got 'too large' or if life forced me to reduce numbers and I couldn't find someone to adopt the turtles, I could find safe places to release them (I know this is frowned upon by some and I know the concerns, but for the sake of an introduction, I would prefer to avoid getting into this matter right now).
In the past I have cared for Yellow-Bellies, Red-Ears, Chickens, Common Snappers, Smooth Softshells, Spiny Softshells, Maps, Painteds, Musks and Muds. The closest I have come to keeping tortoises have been 2 Eastern Box Turtles and 1 Ornate Box Turtle. I have had indoor and outdoor enclosures.
A little over a decade ago, I gave up my passion for a time when my kids were born. Priorities meant changing where our income went and even though I kept my turtles secure and their enclosures clean, I didn't want to run the risk of accidental salmonella contamination.
Now to 'introduce' my wife. For the longest time, she has had fascination not so much with turtles -though she does like them- but more she loves tortoises. Since moving to Florida 8 years ago, she has been pushing me to acquiring a tortoise and recently I gave in and we got her a young -not quite hatchling, but close- sulcata. I actually tried to convince her into getting a redfoot since they would be more amendable to our climate, but thanks to a few youtube videos from Kamp Kenan (jerk! , she insisted on a sulcata. For the purpose of naming, I have guessed the sex of the tortoise as female, judging from the plastron and the position of the cloaca, but I told her that at any point over the next five to six years we could learn that I am very much wrong. She chose Nessie since nobody knows what sex it is (or if it even exists!). Since Nessie is the first true tortoise I have cared for and an exotic as well, I will probably be dropping in from time to time to ask a few questions or to verify some of my decisions regarding her care.
Currently I have her on an adjusted daily feeding schedule. I have read different suggestions on feeding ranging from feeding daily to every other day to even once a week due to the sulcata's slow digestion. The diet I have her on is every other day she will get a healthy helping of greens. The breeder I got her from suggested using the Spring Mix salad bags from the grocery store, but I don't strictly use this. I tend to use a mix of the Spring Mix, a pinch of grass clippings from my yard (I do no spray or fertilize) and a few different safe foliage greens from my garden (coreopsis, wormwood and beebalm). I give her about 30 minutes from the time she starts eating to get her fill and then I discard what she doesn't eat. I have planted some hibiscus for her, but need to wait for the fertilizers and pesticides used by the grower to leave theirs systems before I start feeding her this. On the days between the greens she gets a small 'treat' of some sort. Today was a carrot that was moistened and then dipped into crushed eggshell (seen above). On other days I might give her rose petals, coreopsis flowers or something else 'colorful' (and safe). I try not to feed her the colored stuff with the greens as I noticed the first and only time I did this, she stampeded over the greens to get to the carrot and made a real mess of things.
Her current home is a dresser-top wooden enclosure (above). It is 15 inches deep, almost 5 feet wide and 12 inches tall. I am not happy with the current light setup and I have ordered a new hood from my local pet shop to match the one on the right. The lights in the hood and the bell-housing on the left are both UVB and center 'light' is a ceramic heating element. When the new hood comes in, I will place it on the left side to replace that bell and I will then put in a UVA bulb into that one and have it over near the left corner and I will similarly move the ceramic element to the right corner. The UVA bulb will be on a timer with the UVB bulbs while the ceramic stays on through the night. I also tend to place stones under the heat sources to provide that residual ground heat that some tortoises like (I know my boxies loved this). I need to get two more thermometers so I don't have to keep moving the one seen above to monitor each section. So far the area under the ceramic element can get up to about 105F in the late afternoon. The right side tends to stay around 85F and the left side will dip into the 70's at night. Nessie tends to avoid the left side either due to the lower temp or lower light... or both.
I would have made all four walls solid to reduce stress (I have seen tortoises and turtles 'pace' along glass walls trying to get to the points beyond the glass), but this is next to my wife's desk and she wanted a way to observe Nessie while doing her work. Maybe it's because the enclosure is built up to the front edge of the dresser, but Nessie might walk up to the windows, but she doesn't pace them or try to go through.
Something I carried over from a table I had built for my Box Turtles a couple decades ago is using nested trays sunken into the substrate. For my Box Turtles I would sow the trays with grass and dandelion seeds. When they would devour all plant matter, I could lift out the top tray, leaving the bottom one in and replace it with another planted tray. My boxies enjoyed this setup so much that they rewarded me with a clutch of eggs buried in the grass tray. For Nessie, I have not started planting anything in the trays, but use them to provide different substrates. While the main substrate for the enclosure is timothy grass hay, the tray on the right is filled with soil and bark mulch to give her something to dig into. The tray in the center (that you can't see due to the divider) is filled with sphagnum moss and I dampen this one from time to time to give her an area with slightly higher humidity if she so chooses it. I also feed her over this tray as if she accidentally ingests the moss while feeding (hasn't happened yet), it should pass through her without harm. I am actually hesitant to provide a planted one as I do not know if this would cause her to over-eat.
As 'nice' as the enclosure is for her at this size (I am actually not satisfied with the construction), I am fully aware that it will not last. Next month I will be building another enclosure that is roughly the same length as this one, but more than double the depth. I plan to model it off of Chicken Tractors with wheels at one end for easy movement and this new pen will be placed outside. We do not currently live where we can set up a permanent outdoor pen, but we fully expect to move a bit further south in a couple years with plenty of room to build a pen suitable for an adult sulcata. In the meantime, this portable tortoise tractor should suffice to give her some outdoor time and actual sunlight on the days that I am working in the yard/garden.
So there you have it. A bit long winded perhaps, but I don't think I missed anything. If there are any suggestions regarding the lighting or feeding, please feel free to speak up. Again, this is my first true tortoise and while they might be very much related to the turtles I have kept in the past, the care is a little different and I am sure I will make minor errors along the way.
TL;DR
New member here. Hi.