juvenile sleep time

[Livingstone]

How much time does your 1 year old or younger spend sleeping during the day??? Please post the amount of time and the approximate age.

The reason I am asking is that my tort is about 7 months old and he wakes up about 6am when his MVB comes on, hangs out and warms up for 3-4 hours then at 11am gets his bath, then gets his food. After he eats he normally just spends the next couple hours under the heat lamp until 2pm then heads to his burrow and sleeps normally through the night.

 

[paperjamila]

well sometimes out baby tort sleeps in till 11..even if the power sun is on. i try coaxing it out by using the heat lamp as bait...doesnt work all the time. then it stays up until a soak or food. sits under the lamp and goes inside whenever it wants. sleeps a lot though/rests inside his home. i hope thats normal.

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and i hope that helps?

 

[Tom]

It has always varied with mine. It varies seasonally, and it varies with what, when and how much food it put in. Scooter always ran around a lot at all hours of the day. Always the first one up and the last one down. During the summer, he's often running around at dusk, looking for anything remotely edible, like dead leaves, that might have blown into the pen. Bert was always considerably, less active, and still is. Deloris was pretty close to Bert, but just slightly less social. Daisy my current two year old( I went back and checked the date ) has always been a bit shy. She stays under her half log or in her hide box a lot. She usually retires for the evening around 3 or 4.

I have found the females to be GENERALLY less active and outgoing. They tend to hide more and seem to prefer to be left alone. I'm sure, however, there are exceptions.

I realize mine are now out of the age group you are asking about, but I remember when they were that age and their schedules and personalities have not changed much.

Do you know the sex of yours yet? Show us a pic of the anal scutes and we can give you an "educated guess".

 

[mom03]

I was wondering this same thing. I have a baby... notsure how old it is, but it is about 2 inches from front of shell to back, but it sleeps all the time, yesterday I turned on the lights about 8am and kept checking on it till about 11 when i finallly took him out from under the hidaway and put him under the heat lamp. I put in some food and fresh water and he roamed for maybe an hour and ate some lettuce.. then when right back under the hideaway to sleep for the rest of the day. I know that babies usually sleep alot... but how much is too much??

 

[Livingstone]

Mom03, I have read your posts and am slightly concerned with your husbandry practice, you should not be regulating the sleep cycle, there are much better ways and less invasive to make sure the animal is getting the right amount of day light.

For instance I use two timers, one for the mercury vapor bulb, and the other for the ceramic heater emitter. The mercury vapor bulb is the daylight bulb and the ceramic heat emitter is the night time bulb. The timers are set to the appropriate sunrise and sunset times for the sahel region where sulcatas come from.

Once you have the timers ser up you should pay attention to the humidity, get a cheap hygrometer and set it on top of the substrate. You want the humidity at around 70%. In order to achieve this you must mix in water weekly to the substrate. Once you have these basic needs accomodated feed your tortoise regularly at the same time each day, it builds routine. Feed wise you should use spring mix, not romaine lettuce. There is no nutritional content in romaine(it cannot support a growing animal).

Mom03, please check out this link to good foods for torts. The foods in bold are the ones you want to base your diet on.
http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/nutrientanalysis.htm

Please feel free to PM me at any time if you have a question. We are here to help you and make sure your tort is growing and healthy.

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Do you know the sex of yours yet? Show us a pic of the anal scutes and we can give you an "educated guess".

I will do that, unfortunately, no digital camera at the moment.