littledudesmama143
New Member
Hello fellow sulcata tortoise owners 🐢
This may be a very repeated question, but i NEED to know. I've been losing sleep because of it!! I recently became a new tortoise owner after this cute little dude kind of just fell into my lap and I've been loving every second of it. Well, almost every second. See, I wasn't exactly planning on becoming an owner of a sulcata but a family member of mine took them in and the responsibility kind of just became mine. Not that I'm complaining, I just want to make sure I'm giving this Dude as much as he needs and doing it properly. I've done endless research, bought hundreds worth of tortoise things/necessities, he has essentially become my full time job.
So my problem is that I'm worried about how this little guy is sleeping and if I'm doing the right things. I've read that tortoises tend to have the most oddest sleeping positions, but I've yet to see an image of one like mine. What he does is he'll sleep with his head propped up onto the wall, like it'll look like he's choking due to the way his head is resting between the wall and his shell! To me, it just looks super uncomfortable and downright dangerous. But every time I try to move him, he always ends up just scooting back to the same position. It's incredibly frustrating because I can't sleep thinking I'll wake up to a very heartbreaking situation. So about every 30 min to an hour, I'll wake up and check on him to see if he's still breathing. Sometimes he'll sleep normally with his little head and arms sprawled out but this seems to be a position he loves to go to.
I'm worried that it might be his enclosure. The family member of mine had kept him in a small plastic tub and he was constantly trying to climb out. My natural assumption was that he needed more space so I had ordered this 39.4x24 wooden tortoise house off amazon and just recently moved him in yesterday evening. He's still trying to climb up the walls though. This morning for the first time, my mom found him upside down, which I could only assume was from climbing the walls again and that he had made himself upright when climbing and fell back. Thankfully his substrate is very soft and a little deep so his shell was unscathed. It still scared me really bad as he was also under his heat lamp. Luckily, my dad had seen him about 20 minutes prior and said he was right side up so it couldn't have been more than 25 minutes but still, I watched him like a hawk all day for any changes in his behavior/appetite. Right after though, he was still the same little dude but I'm still going to keep an eye on that. I feel like he was maybe trying to get back to this sleeping position again, I'm not sure. But I also feel like he may be stressed out by the space if he's still trying to climb the walls.
I take him out as much as I can during the day, but I also have a uvb light bulb and heat bulb for him since he is indoors with me. I've been giving him soaks every other day, he's not a hatchling but he's definitely not an adult, he's about 6-8 inches. I'm trying to figure out his diet and he seems to be picky but he's still eating and I give him fresh water every day or if it gets dirty. He has a calcium block but he doesn't really touch it so I've been sneaking some calcium powder on his romaine, his favorite. His poops and urates look normal. He loves head rubs/massages. I got him a pretty good sized hide while still keeping his little makeshift one that he seemed to like and I just switched him to a fine coconut substrate that has been able to hold more humidity than his last one. Although, I don't have a heating pad for his hide. I wasn't sure if I should get it since he might want an area to cool down from the heat lamp. I still need to get more things that I feel like might help with this situation, like little wooden bridges, a small tortoise ball thing he can eat some greens out of, and I was thinking maybe some pebbles to surround his water dish or slate. As well as this realistic desert wallpaper to cover the boring walls, small garden beds to grow his own grass or microgreens, and maybe some fake plants to liven it up a bit more. (fake plants, I'm still very much on the fence about that though, I'm worried he might try to eat it) But all this for visual and mental stimulation. I'm really trying to give this guy the best life as possible but I'm worried that he's stressed out and that this sleeping position may be a sign of that. My dad and I are planning on fixing up our backyard and building him another enclosure out there to give him more space, but it's going to take awhile. I also live in Arizona and we're approaching that 110 degree weather soon, so I'm still going to keep this wooden one to bring him in on days it's too hot. Please help me, I'm very open to hearing any thoughts/opinions and would love to receive feedback on what I may be doing wrong or what I should continue to do. As well as tips/suggestions. I'm also trying to find him a veterinarian for a check up and to get some advice from too. If you read this whole entire thing, thank you so much. I really appreciate you hanging in there, hearing my worries and I hope to hear back from any of you. God bless you tortoise friends!!
This may be a very repeated question, but i NEED to know. I've been losing sleep because of it!! I recently became a new tortoise owner after this cute little dude kind of just fell into my lap and I've been loving every second of it. Well, almost every second. See, I wasn't exactly planning on becoming an owner of a sulcata but a family member of mine took them in and the responsibility kind of just became mine. Not that I'm complaining, I just want to make sure I'm giving this Dude as much as he needs and doing it properly. I've done endless research, bought hundreds worth of tortoise things/necessities, he has essentially become my full time job.
So my problem is that I'm worried about how this little guy is sleeping and if I'm doing the right things. I've read that tortoises tend to have the most oddest sleeping positions, but I've yet to see an image of one like mine. What he does is he'll sleep with his head propped up onto the wall, like it'll look like he's choking due to the way his head is resting between the wall and his shell! To me, it just looks super uncomfortable and downright dangerous. But every time I try to move him, he always ends up just scooting back to the same position. It's incredibly frustrating because I can't sleep thinking I'll wake up to a very heartbreaking situation. So about every 30 min to an hour, I'll wake up and check on him to see if he's still breathing. Sometimes he'll sleep normally with his little head and arms sprawled out but this seems to be a position he loves to go to.
I'm worried that it might be his enclosure. The family member of mine had kept him in a small plastic tub and he was constantly trying to climb out. My natural assumption was that he needed more space so I had ordered this 39.4x24 wooden tortoise house off amazon and just recently moved him in yesterday evening. He's still trying to climb up the walls though. This morning for the first time, my mom found him upside down, which I could only assume was from climbing the walls again and that he had made himself upright when climbing and fell back. Thankfully his substrate is very soft and a little deep so his shell was unscathed. It still scared me really bad as he was also under his heat lamp. Luckily, my dad had seen him about 20 minutes prior and said he was right side up so it couldn't have been more than 25 minutes but still, I watched him like a hawk all day for any changes in his behavior/appetite. Right after though, he was still the same little dude but I'm still going to keep an eye on that. I feel like he was maybe trying to get back to this sleeping position again, I'm not sure. But I also feel like he may be stressed out by the space if he's still trying to climb the walls.
I take him out as much as I can during the day, but I also have a uvb light bulb and heat bulb for him since he is indoors with me. I've been giving him soaks every other day, he's not a hatchling but he's definitely not an adult, he's about 6-8 inches. I'm trying to figure out his diet and he seems to be picky but he's still eating and I give him fresh water every day or if it gets dirty. He has a calcium block but he doesn't really touch it so I've been sneaking some calcium powder on his romaine, his favorite. His poops and urates look normal. He loves head rubs/massages. I got him a pretty good sized hide while still keeping his little makeshift one that he seemed to like and I just switched him to a fine coconut substrate that has been able to hold more humidity than his last one. Although, I don't have a heating pad for his hide. I wasn't sure if I should get it since he might want an area to cool down from the heat lamp. I still need to get more things that I feel like might help with this situation, like little wooden bridges, a small tortoise ball thing he can eat some greens out of, and I was thinking maybe some pebbles to surround his water dish or slate. As well as this realistic desert wallpaper to cover the boring walls, small garden beds to grow his own grass or microgreens, and maybe some fake plants to liven it up a bit more. (fake plants, I'm still very much on the fence about that though, I'm worried he might try to eat it) But all this for visual and mental stimulation. I'm really trying to give this guy the best life as possible but I'm worried that he's stressed out and that this sleeping position may be a sign of that. My dad and I are planning on fixing up our backyard and building him another enclosure out there to give him more space, but it's going to take awhile. I also live in Arizona and we're approaching that 110 degree weather soon, so I'm still going to keep this wooden one to bring him in on days it's too hot. Please help me, I'm very open to hearing any thoughts/opinions and would love to receive feedback on what I may be doing wrong or what I should continue to do. As well as tips/suggestions. I'm also trying to find him a veterinarian for a check up and to get some advice from too. If you read this whole entire thing, thank you so much. I really appreciate you hanging in there, hearing my worries and I hope to hear back from any of you. God bless you tortoise friends!!