Me and my Sulcatas

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Kristina

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I have always wanted a Sulcata, but I have so far resisted purchasing a hatchling simply because I didn't want to support the pet industry selling tiny little hatchlings in a climate so unsuited to keeping a Sulcata, with little or no information given to prospective owners.

I came across a Petfinder classified posting for two Sulcatas. 5-10 years old. Knowing that I was not going to like the info I was going to get, I emailed the owner asking about them.

I got a few photos and a response. I was quite horrified with what the photos showed - a tort mowwing away on the butt end of a head of iceburg lettuce with sand all over it's face.

The enclosure... needs work but actually was not as bad as I expected.

The adoption fee was quite high, so I emailed back and told her that I couldn't afford it at this time, but that if she wanted, I could help her with diet and nutrition, and husbandry. I told her I didn't want to force it on her and to ask if she would like to know more.

She emailed back, plainly pleased. She said that after getting them, they realized they did not know enough about them and that is why they are rehoming them (I just wish that she would have thought of that BEFORE buying a GIANT tortoise species!)

So, I emailed back, told her to get rid of the pure sand immediately, and outlined a diet plan that I knew would be much better for the torts but something easy to handle for the time being... Also told her that they needed to be provided with a water dish.

Well, in the end, she is spoke to her husband about giving them to me, and waiving the adoption fee entirely. She read him my emails, and they wanted them go to a home that is knowledgable, and while I don't know everything about Sulcatas, I do know quite a bit. He immediately agreed!

So, I went to meet them. It was about a seven hour car ride all together. I was pretty shocked when I got there. Both were showing signs of severe dehydration, and the EIGHT INCH LONG SIX YEAR OLD hardly weighed a thing. The TWELVE INCH TWELVE YEAR OLD was in a little better shape, with at least some solidity to her and her pyramiding is less severe.

I got them home, and went into emergency room mode. They were each soaked for twenty minutes in warm pedialyte. I prepared their first meal in their lives of chopped timothy hay, soaking it in more warm pedialyte and adding my own specially prepared dried greens and veggies to it, along with some poly-vi-sol infant drops.

The bigger girl, now known as Ella, actually tore right into the food. I really didn't expect her to go for the entirely new food item right after a several hour car ride. It took three days for the smaller girl, now known as Gwen, to eat. There was some nibbling, but nothing significant for three days.

The smaller girl had eliminated in the tote on the way home, and the urates were gritty and very solid, almost hard. More signs of dehydration. Eyes were watery, and skin very dry.

Anyway, the following morning I discovered that one of the torts (I think it was Gwen) had eliminated in the water dish... and it had dissolved into almost pure sand. Later Ella also eliminated, and it was all sand, at least 95%. I utilized a little pureed pumpkin (not a food I would normally feed in quantity) on the advice of some others and it took about five days to clean all the sand out of them.

I also gave them a hide box, made out of a Sterilite tote with the side cut out. I placed a damp towel in the bottom, as I did not have any sphagnum moss and I am having a hard time finding some.

I added another heat lamp to the enclosure, a red one since I have not yet gotten a ceramic heat emitter and they had previously lived with no area to get out of the light, nothing to bury themselves in and 24/7 light.

They have a Repti GLO 10.0 UV placed 20 inches from the floor of the enclosure.

The substrate has been changed to pure, good quality grass mix hay with no alfalfa, which I have readily available considering I have six horses :)

I am keeping base daytime temps at 80 degrees with a basking area of 90 and a basking area of 95. Night time temps range from 72-85.

In the last four days both torts have turned into active little eating MACHINES. I have not had an opportunity to weigh either, but I handed Gwen to my husband today and even he could feel the significant difference in her mass. Both are running about their enclosure and climbing all over the log I placed inside.

Their diet consists mostly of finely chopped grass hay, supplemented with leafy greens that contain low protein and oxalic acid content, and a minimum Ca: P ratio of 2:1. The ONLY fruits that I ever feed a tortoise are cactus pear, papaya, and orange, because most other fruits have a significantly poor Ca: P ratio. Fruits are not given often at all. I also offer plaintain, dandelion, rose petals, nasturtium, and several types of bunch grasses.

Any way, now that I have talked your "eyes" off, meet the kids :)

These first couple of pictures are the ones I recieved when I inquired about them.

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These are current pictures.

Ella and Gwen, left to right.

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Ella

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Gwen

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Kristina
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Kristina: It sounds to me as if you really have your act together! You did a good thing. Actually, for the treatment and husbandry, the two tortoises don't look too bad. But its all downhill from here. Keep us posted and thanks for sharing the pictures.

Yvonne
 
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Maggie Cummings

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you and they are SO lucky they aren't pyramided. They actually look pretty good. You do realize they are too young to sex and they most probably will be male? It's very rare to find a female Sulcata. They are very lucky you found them.
 

DAC8671

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In your current pictures, the first one....Ella seems to be smiling. I like it!!!!

How lucky they are to have you find them!
 

Kristina

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Thank you for the nice comments! Yes, I know that it is difficult to sex Sulcatas of this size, but I am reasonably sure that both are female. If it turns out that both are male and that I have to seperate them in the future, I will cross that bridge when I come to it!

Ella has a heck of a personality, always has to be doing SOMETHING, lol. She likes to bury herself in a big pile of hay with just her head sticking out, lol.

Kristina
 

Jacqui

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Well Hi! Was rather surprised to see you in here after just starting to get to know you on another forum. Nice to get to see them. Nice sulcatas!
 

Kristina

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Jacqui said:
Well Hi! Was rather surprised to see you in here after just starting to get to know you on another forum. Nice to get to see them. Nice sulcatas!

I have a forum addiction, lol. Someone posted a link to this group from one of the other forums, either TT or ATP, so I thought I would check it out! I like that this forum has species specific areas.

Thanks!
Kristina
 

Laura

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Very lucky torts and they look amazingly well.
can you incubate for male or female with sulcatas?
If so, for those who breed.. they need to do so!
males are much harder to keep.. When I first started my Sulcata Adventure,, my want was a small group of females so they could be housed together over time.. i now have 3 males and one unkn. I have the room,, but thats not the point!
 

jobeanator

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i love your enclosure you have for your sulcatas!! does it lose alot of heat since it isnt too high for them? and its inside right?
 
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Maggie Cummings

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Laura said:
Very lucky torts and they look amazingly well.
can you incubate for male or female with sulcatas?
If so, for those who breed.. they need to do so!
males are much harder to keep.. When I first started my Sulcata Adventure,, my want was a small group of females so they could be housed together over time.. i now have 3 males and one unkn. I have the room,, but thats not the point!

I love having Bob, he was mean to Tony and that did cause a hardship for me, (and Tony) but I find that Bob is outgoing and has much more personality than the females I've talked to. Bob is kinda like Dennis the Menace, he's always in trouble and he has me laughing a whole lot...
 

Yvonne G

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maggie3fan said:
I love having Bob, he was mean to Tony and that did cause a hardship for me, (and Tony) but I find that Bob is outgoing and has much more personality than the females I've talked to. Bob is kinda like Dennis the Menace, he's always in trouble and he has me laughing a whole lot...

I think what Laura meant was its hard to keep more than one male Sulcata together, (as you found out with Bob and Tony) and it would be good if there were more females in the market instead of so many males.

Yvonne
 

Kristina

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On the flip side, more females would potentially mean more babies, and I am not so sure I would like that!

Thanks, everyone for the welcomes and the nice comments, greatly appreciated! I think that these two are very lucky they are not in worse shape, and it has been great getting to see them "come out of their shells!"

Kristina

jobeanator said:
i love your enclosure you have for your sulcatas!! does it lose alot of heat since it isnt too high for them? and its inside right?

So far I have not had a heat problem... But, it is located in a very small bedroom and the air temp in the room is kept at no lower than 80 degrees farenheit. I intend on adding a few more lamps around the perimeter, and building a rack over the top to suspend a regular old shop light to provide more light over all.

Eventually I also want to make the walls twice as high, and add a second level. It will have high walls both on the level and the ramp. That way I can almost double their space without taking up more floor space. Two story tort townhouse :) It will be tall enough to install lights underneath the top story. I promise there will be no danger of a tort falling, I have it all planned in my head and it will be very safe.

Kristina
 

jobeanator

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thats a great idea let me tell you. i love the enclosure you have for your sullys. i have something like a 3 ft rubbermaid container that there out growing. i plan on exactly did what you did.!
 
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