ReikiMasterKate

New Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2018
Messages
18
Location (City and/or State)
Scottsdale, Arizona
20B36954-54A3-4025-9C77-86A1305B3E26.jpeg CF3EED8E-168B-4EFE-B5A0-EFE43E9F7E78.jpeg 519E9C2F-0054-45FF-B03E-55B31866AFBB.jpeg 34A403B1-5862-4801-9118-BB5C1FFEA9CB.jpeg Greetings Everyone,

Last Weds, my husband & I adopted a fantastically large older brother for our 5 & nearly 3-year-old sons. We are fortunate enough to live in North Scottsdale Arizona (warm desert climate) on an acre and Turbo has the full access to all of our fenced back yard. He is shown here on the travertine patio, but he has 2 areas full of grass and plenty of sandy and gravely areas as well.

We adopted him from the Phoenix Herpetological Society, and we chose one of the largest tortoises because we know they are often more difficult to place as many people simply do not have the outdoor space to accommodate them.

I have found past threads explaining why many members are of the opinion that one a sulfate has reached adulthood, age should really not matter, and I understand these point. However, understandably so, the do to the curious nature of young children, my boys still desperately would like to know approximately how old their big brother is. Herp curator would not even give me a range or venture a guess.

Anyone care to take a stand at it? He is approx 80 lbs per curator though we have not weighed him ourselves. I cannot pick him up by myself (takes 2). :)

Would like to know if he is middle-aged or geriatric? So grateful for this forum. Hoping to meet some new friends and knowledgeable tort enthusiasts.

In Light,

Kate
 

Attachments

  • AC20F125-9E9F-4095-9382-14232D3FD5B0.jpeg
    AC20F125-9E9F-4095-9382-14232D3FD5B0.jpeg
    2.9 MB · Views: 88
Last edited:

ReikiMasterKate

New Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2018
Messages
18
Location (City and/or State)
Scottsdale, Arizona
Best photo of him appears as thumbnail at bottom of post. Oops. Don’t know how that happened. Turbo is pictured with my 5-year-old (who weighs 30-40lbs less than Turbo. :)
 

Maro2Bear

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
May 29, 2014
Messages
14,712
Location (City and/or State)
Glenn Dale, Maryland, USA
Greetings and welcome to the Forum. The “best photo” you left as a thumb nail, vice full pix when you uploaded. Age vs weight is hard to do. Our little Sully will be 4 years old in May 2018 and is about 65 pounds as of two weeks ago. A lot depends on availability of good food, right conditions, Genetic composition, how they were started, and what University they attended :)

Nice rescue! Keep on posting.
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,405
Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
Hi Kate, and welcome to the Forum!

Your new tortoise is young, and, with good care, will be around for a long time. My sulcata reached 80lbs at about 15years. You've got a pretty nice-looking animal there. Congratulations!
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,265
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
Hello and welcome. I have lots to tell you!

Age: Sulcatas weren't widely available in this country until about 1990, so that puts the upper limit of his age at less than thirty. In the right conditions, they can reach 80 pounds in 7-8 years, so that means he could be as young as 7 years old.

The yard: Large sulcatas are backyard destroyers. They will eat, trample or dig up any and all plants. You must make sure that none of the landscaping plants in your yard are toxic, and that all the non-toxic plant species have been grown without chemicals. If you have some store bought decorative flowers around the yard, they were grown with systemic pesticides to keep them looking pretty for market. No one will buy bug eaten plants, right? These systemic pesticides can remain at toxic levels in the plants tissues for up to a year. Same with the grass. Most gardeners, and all sod is also grown with "weed n' feed" to kill any non-grass plants (weeds) and pesticides to kill any grubs or bugs that would otherwise infest the grass. Not safe for your tortoise to eat.

Sand: This is a huge impaction risk. Be sure that you don't feed him near the sandy section of your yard, and ensure that food isn't dragged over to that area and eaten.

Heat: Most people have to wrong idea about care for this species. They are not "desert" animals and the temperature extremes and dryness of the desert can be fatal to them. You tortoise will need to burrow in summer when above ground temps are over 100 every day, but here in North America, our winters are much too cold for them, so we need to provide a heated shelter. Not sure if the "rescue" told you about all these things. Summertime also calls for the right size and type of water dish, and a large tub for soaking a couple of times a week. Sprinklers, misters and lots of shade will also help in summertime. Here are two examples of the heated night boxes I talked about:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/another-night-box-thread.88966/#post-828952
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/my-best-night-box-design-yet.66867/
Your tortoise should have a box like this right now. Be careful what heating elements you use. Light bulbs and ceramic heating elements will not warm a tortoise of this size all the way through, and they tend to burn the top of the carapace as the tortoise tries in vain to get warm enough.

Food: These guy are grass eaters. The main part of their diet should be grass or grass hay. You can buy hay by the bale or in cubes made for horses that have no additives. I usually soak the cubes and them mix them with other stuff. I prefer orchard grass hay or bermuda grass hay. I find timothy to be too stemmy, although a large sulcata can handle it with little problem. Add in weeds of the correct species, leaves, flowers, nopales (spineless opuntia cactus pads), and grocery store greens for fun. Here is a feeding sheet:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

Hope these things help. Please come back with all your questions. Ask for more explanation. If you got conflicting advice from the rescue people or from other sites, lets talk about it.
 

ReikiMasterKate

New Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2018
Messages
18
Location (City and/or State)
Scottsdale, Arizona
This is all wonderful information! Thank you so much. We do not have any flowers. We just left the landscaping natural desert for the most part other than the grass, but Raphael (landscaper) doesn’t use any built in weed killer as we always do get weeds. Hopefully Turbo can help with that. Haha! ;-)

We purchased Turbo this “extra large” house on Amazon (pic is Amazon’s - not of our home)
to use as a night box for $279, and the Herpetological Society provided this heating element recommending we consider hanging in the corner so he can decide how much or little heat he’d like. Do you think this will suffice?

Would you mind explaining the dangers of impaction? They did not mention this. The kids do have a play sand area too on the far north side of the backyard with 500 lbs of sand they just play in w/ their pails & shovels. (Of course I have been careful not to leave any toys out after they are finished playing & to carefully supervise. Could this play sand potentially pose a danger to him?)
 

Attachments

  • EFCEF1B3-8A89-4616-8F79-F69E58DC7323.jpeg
    EFCEF1B3-8A89-4616-8F79-F69E58DC7323.jpeg
    1.5 MB · Views: 68
  • 5A38E48B-E2F8-4350-B16C-9457A012D6D3.jpeg
    5A38E48B-E2F8-4350-B16C-9457A012D6D3.jpeg
    2.3 MB · Views: 63
  • A286E7CF-0DBF-4D7E-98E4-B694174F7274.jpeg
    A286E7CF-0DBF-4D7E-98E4-B694174F7274.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 56

ReikiMasterKate

New Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2018
Messages
18
Location (City and/or State)
Scottsdale, Arizona
Greetings and welcome to the Forum. The “best photo” you left as a thumb nail, vice full pix when you uploaded. Age vs weight is hard to do. Our little Sully will be 4 years old in May 2018 and is about 65 pounds as of two weeks ago. A lot depends on availability of good food, right conditions, Genetic composition, how they were started, and what University they attended :)

Nice rescue! Keep on posting.

Haha! Thank you ✨. I appreciate response. Is sounds as though you have done a beautiful job with Sully. He sounds fantastic! What is his personality like?
 

ReikiMasterKate

New Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2018
Messages
18
Location (City and/or State)
Scottsdale, Arizona
Hi Kate, and welcome to the Forum!

Your new tortoise is young, and, with good care, will be around for a long time. My sulcata reached 80lbs at about 15years. You've got a pretty nice-looking animal there. Congratulations!
Wow! Thank you. We had no idea he could possibly be so young & StiLL be so large. Incredible. This shows our level of inexperience. Again - so grateful you are willing to share your knowledge, wisdom, guidance, skills, & abilities with us via this channel. Thank you so very much.
 

Big Charlie

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
2,801
Location (City and/or State)
California
My tortoise is over 100 pounds and 18 years old, so it likely yours is also a teenager. He has a smooth shell so it looks like he was taken care of properly.

That heat lamp isn't good for your tortoise as it will only heat a small area of his shell, so he might get burnt in one area while still being too cold in others.
The house isn't the best choice either, but if you've already gotten it, maybe you can make it work. That house was designed for dogs, not tortoises. How wide is the door opening? Tortoises are much wider and flatter than dogs. You'll need door flaps that close to keep the heat in. I use the kind they put on freezers. This is where I got mine: https://www.ebay.com/itm/8-Plastic-...817275?hash=item4b0f64e37b:g:eyMAAOSwj0NUbmnx

You might have to create a drop ceiling in there since it is too tall and all the heat will stay in the top. In the ceiling I use a radiant heat panel. This spreads the heat out over a larger area and won't burn your tortoise even if he gets very close. http://www.reptilebasics.com/rbi-radiant-heat-panels I have the 80 watt. On the floor I have a Kane mat. https://kanemfg.com/products/livestock/hogs/heat-mats-thermostats/ I have the double 48.

Additionally, tortoises aren't potty trained. The house will become full of waste that will have to be swept or washed out. Can that house take that kind of abuse?

About the sand, you don't want him to eat it. You'll have to block off access to the sand box.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,265
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
This is all wonderful information! Thank you so much. We do not have any flowers. We just left the landscaping natural desert for the most part other than the grass, but Raphael (landscaper) doesn’t use any built in weed killer as we always do get weeds. Hopefully Turbo can help with that. Haha! ;-)

We purchased Turbo this “extra large” house on Amazon (pic is Amazon’s - not of our home)
to use as a night box for $279, and the Herpetological Society provided this heating element recommending we consider hanging in the corner so he can decide how much or little heat he’d like. Do you think this will suffice?

Would you mind explaining the dangers of impaction? They did not mention this. The kids do have a play sand area too on the far north side of the backyard with 500 lbs of sand they just play in w/ their pails & shovels. (Of course I have been careful not to leave any toys out after they are finished playing & to carefully supervise. Could this play sand potentially pose a danger to him?)

You'll need to ID all the weeds to make sure they are edible and not toxic. Sulcatas will eat anything and you'll need to be careful. You have to ID and verify the safety of every plant he has access to. This is why it is usually recommended that they have their own dedicated enclosure, instead of free roaming a back yard that is normally used by a family. There are many potential hazards.

Impaction is when a tortoise, or any animal, eats things they shouldn't and it blocks their intestinal tract. It can be fatal, or require an expensive and very painful surgery to save them. Sand is a common cause of impaction. If they accidentally eat a little bit stuck to the food over weeks and months, the sand can collect in their gut and eventually causes a blockage. Most of them won't eat sand on purpose, but accidental ingestion over time can be a killer. Sand can also be a skin and eye irritant. Best to steer clear of it around the tortoise and its enclosure.

Doghouses make terrible houses for tortoises. They are designed for dogs and cannot meet the needs of a tortoise with out a major overhaul. It is easier and cheaper to buy or build one from scratch than to try to modify a dog house. They are too tall inside, the door is too tall and too big and it lets the heat out, they are not insulated and won't keep the temperature where it needs to be. I've tried all sorts of plastic and wooden sheds, igloos, dog houses, deck boxes, and I've watched dozens of other sulcata keepers try all sorts of things, and none of it works. This led me to designing and building my own boxes to fix all the short comings and problems created by trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole. Each time I built a box, I made mistakes and discovered design flaws that were then corrected and improved on the next build. I've built 17 so far, and getting ready to start 18 ASAP. The two designs I linked for you are the result of decades of trial and error. Lucky for you, you can learn from all my mistakes and just get it right the first time. If building is not your thing, then a handyman can be hired to build it for you. They or you are welcome to call me and I can explain some of the details. There is nothing ready-to-buy that is suitable for a tortoise.

That heating element is called a ceramic heating element. It is one of the ones I warned against. Those work fine in indoor enclosures for babies to heat a relatively large (Large area in relation to the size of the tiny baby tortoise.) area and keep it a little warmer than the ambient room temp. For a large tortoise in colder temperatures outside, they are not adequate to heat the whole house. What happens is the tortoise is breathing cold air and its belly is on the cold uninsulated floor, and it cannot get its core warm. So they sit under the only heat source they can feel. This heat source concentrates way too much heat into too small of an area and the tortoise doesn't understand this so its sits there while the top of the carapace slow-burns and the carapace tissue dies, but the rest of the tortoise is still too cold. You need something that will spread the heat out over a greater area, keep the air temps up, and also keep the belly warm if the bottom of the box is not insulated. There are two different examples of how to accomplish this in the threads I linked.
 

ReikiMasterKate

New Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2018
Messages
18
Location (City and/or State)
Scottsdale, Arizona
I love your night boxes. I showed them to my husband, and he would like to know whether there is any chance you would be interested in making one for us? We have a vacation rental home in Green Valley (Angeles National Forest ) and another in San Diego. I noticed you are in Southern California. We would be happy to pay whatever you ask and pick it up to bring it home to AZ. Thanks again for all of this spectacular information. SO EXTREMELY HELPFUL. We canceled the doghouse order on Amazon as they had not yet shipped it.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,265
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
I love your night boxes. I showed them to my husband, and he would like to know whether there is any chance you would be interested in making one for us? We have a vacation rental home in Green Valley (Angeles National Forest ) and another in San Diego. I noticed you are in Southern California. We would be happy to pay whatever you ask and pick it up to bring it home to AZ. Thanks again for all of this spectacular information. SO EXTREMELY HELPFUL. We canceled the doghouse order on Amazon as they had not yet shipped it.
I really enjoy building the boxes, but family, job, tortoise care and falconry obligations take away any free time I would have to build one for someone else. They take about 24-30 hours for me to build because I am overly meticulous. I know two people that just built boxes for a friend who lost everything in the recent fires. Let me see if they would be interested in building one for you.

I'm just south of Green Valley in Santa Clarita. Just down San Francisquito or Bouquet.
 

ReikiMasterKate

New Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2018
Messages
18
Location (City and/or State)
Scottsdale, Arizona
UNBELIEVABLY SMALL WORLD!!! WoW! Remarkable!! Thank you for asking your friends. We would be so grateful. That would be incredible! Sorry to hear you know tort owners who were impacted by the fires. We are just finishing up remodeling the Green Valley home w/new contractor so either my husband (or I) has been out nearly every weekend as of late finishing things up. <3 :)
 
Last edited:

anita keyes

New Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2016
Messages
8
View attachment 232801 View attachment 232802 View attachment 232803 View attachment 232804 Greetings Everyone,

Last Weds, my husband & I adopted a fantastically large older brother for our 5 & nearly 3-year-old sons. We are fortunate enough to live in North Scottsdale Arizona (warm desert climate) on an acre and Turbo has the full access to all of our fenced back yard. He is shown here on the travertine patio, but he has 2 areas full of grass and plenty of sandy and gravely areas as well.

We adopted him from the Phoenix Herpetological Society, and we chose one of the largest tortoises because we know they are often more difficult to place as many people simply do not have the outdoor space to accommodate them.

I have found past threads explaining why many members are of the opinion that one a sulfate has reached adulthood, age should really not matter, and I understand these point. However, understandably so, the do to the curious nature of young children, my boys still desperately would like to know approximately how old their big brother is. Herp curator would not even give me a range or venture a guess.

Anyone care to take a stand at it? He is approx 80 lbs per curator though we have not weighed him ourselves. I cannot pick him up by myself (takes 2). :)

Would like to know if he is middle-aged or geriatric? So grateful for this forum. Hoping to meet some new friends and knowledgeable tort enthusiasts.

In Light,

Kate
He is amazing! Thank you for adopting him. I have a Sully who is only 4. (I am 60). So I am hoping that my grandchildren will be in a situation to love him/her well or failing that someone like your family.
I wouldn't dare guess age but definitely someone should. This is a great forum!
Make sure you pick a birth (hatch) date so that your sons can celebrate each year with him!
 

anita keyes

New Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2016
Messages
8
I love your night boxes. I showed them to my husband, and he would like to know whether there is any chance you would be interested in making one for us? We have a vacation rental home in Green Valley (Angeles National Forest ) and another in San Diego. I noticed you are in Southern California. We would be happy to pay whatever you ask and pick it up to bring it home to AZ. Thanks again for all of this spectacular information. SO EXTREMELY HELPFUL. We canceled the doghouse order on Amazon as they had not yet shipped it.
This could become a full time occupation. I think I would love one as well!
 

Kadels

Member
5 Year Member
Joined
May 3, 2015
Messages
94
Light bulbs and ceramic heating elements will not warm a tortoise of this size all the way through, and they tend to burn the top of the carapace as the tortoise tries in vain to get warm enough.

It would be helpful to know what heat sources you do recommend for larger sulcatas. Thanks!
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,265
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California

Kadels

Member
5 Year Member
Joined
May 3, 2015
Messages
94

New Posts

Top