Hello All,
Let me start off by saying hello and introducing myself. My name is Juliette, I am 24 years old and my husband and I live in Sonoma County, CA. We have 2 pets, a 4 year old epileptic foxtail-red labrador, Murphy, who is a "working dog" trained for waterfowl hunting and Biff a 7 year old sulcata tortoise with a long medical history (explained below).
So, to introduce my tortoise; Biff. In the past few months we are beginning to suspect Biff is a girl, but since she has been a part of our family since she was just a few days old, we had a 50/50 shot and guessed male... So, if I slip back into old habits, please forgive me. I have just 1 tortoise, who will be 7 years old this January. Since we never intend to own any more than 1, we decided gender really wasn't a huge factor for us, so: Biff will forever remain Biff, even if someday we find eggs.
As I said before, Biff is almost 7 years old. When I first purchased her (a newborn) I was give very BAD advice on care instructions, and I'm afraid Biff suffered as a result. When I purchased Biff, my best friend & roommate purchased one of her siblings and named her Tortuga. We were told to feed them lettuce, soak them in warm water once a week, and we also sold 10 gal. aquariums with florescent strip bulbs and a block of compressed coconut coir. The "expert" at the shop said water dishes weren't necessary since they're desert animals, and they got all the water they needed from the lettuce. When we first brought them home all seemed happy, they flipped themselves over a few times in the corner, but the first month or 6 months all seemed well. Until Tortuga died... After Tortuga's death, we tried to figure out why it was happening, but there didn't seem to be any definitive cause (that we saw then) so we just assumed nature took its course, and not all hatchlings survive. We learned some time later that our landlord had been having some electrical problems (we lived in the country) and we had sparatic electrical supply throughout the day... As a result, the heating lamp was going off and on. We assumed this was what killed Tortuga, who had always been a little smaller than Biff, so I decided to move Biff back into my parents house around 9/06. My parents were happy to take her, and we felt it was a better home given my living situation at the time. At that point, my dad started doing some research, and took over Biff's primary care-- starting with purchasing a water dish and offering a more varied diet. Unfortunately I can't be more specific because my dad died in 11/06 and 2 months later my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. As you can imagine, this changed all of our lives drastically, and I'm sorry to say, but Biff's care slipped back into old routines at this point, because my mom was even less informed than I was. Shortly after my dad died, I moved to attend college 4 hours away from my family, so I was no longer a part of Biff's daily life and care.
Around 6/09 (when Biff was about 2 1/2 yrs old). My mom told me she thought Biff was sick because she wasn't eating or moving much... I hate to admit this now that I know better, but Biff was still living in a glass terrarium with the same old lamp from the beginning. Her only food source was wheat grass. She only weighed about 400g at her first vet visit. Anyway, my mom asked me to take her to the vet, since I was home for the summer break. I found a wonderful herp-vet in my area and made an appointment; she felt like a sponge when I picked her up, her shell was so soft, and there was a permanent sag on the mid-back of her shell. The vet did x-rays and told me that it was possibly the worse case of metabolic bone disease she'd ever seen.
She gave me some (good) reading material and helped me learn how to properly take care of Biff. After that, she was on liquid calcium every day plus anti-biotics and a dewormer. After 9 months her shell stregnth was about 80% and we were able to confirm there was no spinal damage, although the shell sag is permanent. She weighs 4 lbs 5.3 oz as of today.
Biff now lives in a 4x6' tortoise table with a 100w ceramic heat bulb 24/7 and a 100w Mercury Vapor PowerSun 10 hrs per day. She also has a terra cotta water dish that's about 1.5" deep, and constant access to orchard & timothy hay. About once a month I purchase 2 heads of romaine, 1 radicchio, 2 belgien endive, 1 collard greens, 1 mustard greens, 1 cactus pad, 1 dandelion greens, and 1 shredded carrot. This comes out to about 4 gal of food. I feed this in large handfuls throughout the month about once per week. I dust the greens with Carolina Pet Supply's TNT Vitamin Powder (which was recommended way back when by another tortoise site). When the weather is nice (over 70F) Biff also gets to spend a few hours per day outside in the grass.
So, my question is, what can I do better? Also, opinions on gender? (Based on the photo of Biff's underside)
Thanks!
--
Juliette & Biff
Let me start off by saying hello and introducing myself. My name is Juliette, I am 24 years old and my husband and I live in Sonoma County, CA. We have 2 pets, a 4 year old epileptic foxtail-red labrador, Murphy, who is a "working dog" trained for waterfowl hunting and Biff a 7 year old sulcata tortoise with a long medical history (explained below).
So, to introduce my tortoise; Biff. In the past few months we are beginning to suspect Biff is a girl, but since she has been a part of our family since she was just a few days old, we had a 50/50 shot and guessed male... So, if I slip back into old habits, please forgive me. I have just 1 tortoise, who will be 7 years old this January. Since we never intend to own any more than 1, we decided gender really wasn't a huge factor for us, so: Biff will forever remain Biff, even if someday we find eggs.
As I said before, Biff is almost 7 years old. When I first purchased her (a newborn) I was give very BAD advice on care instructions, and I'm afraid Biff suffered as a result. When I purchased Biff, my best friend & roommate purchased one of her siblings and named her Tortuga. We were told to feed them lettuce, soak them in warm water once a week, and we also sold 10 gal. aquariums with florescent strip bulbs and a block of compressed coconut coir. The "expert" at the shop said water dishes weren't necessary since they're desert animals, and they got all the water they needed from the lettuce. When we first brought them home all seemed happy, they flipped themselves over a few times in the corner, but the first month or 6 months all seemed well. Until Tortuga died... After Tortuga's death, we tried to figure out why it was happening, but there didn't seem to be any definitive cause (that we saw then) so we just assumed nature took its course, and not all hatchlings survive. We learned some time later that our landlord had been having some electrical problems (we lived in the country) and we had sparatic electrical supply throughout the day... As a result, the heating lamp was going off and on. We assumed this was what killed Tortuga, who had always been a little smaller than Biff, so I decided to move Biff back into my parents house around 9/06. My parents were happy to take her, and we felt it was a better home given my living situation at the time. At that point, my dad started doing some research, and took over Biff's primary care-- starting with purchasing a water dish and offering a more varied diet. Unfortunately I can't be more specific because my dad died in 11/06 and 2 months later my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. As you can imagine, this changed all of our lives drastically, and I'm sorry to say, but Biff's care slipped back into old routines at this point, because my mom was even less informed than I was. Shortly after my dad died, I moved to attend college 4 hours away from my family, so I was no longer a part of Biff's daily life and care.
Around 6/09 (when Biff was about 2 1/2 yrs old). My mom told me she thought Biff was sick because she wasn't eating or moving much... I hate to admit this now that I know better, but Biff was still living in a glass terrarium with the same old lamp from the beginning. Her only food source was wheat grass. She only weighed about 400g at her first vet visit. Anyway, my mom asked me to take her to the vet, since I was home for the summer break. I found a wonderful herp-vet in my area and made an appointment; she felt like a sponge when I picked her up, her shell was so soft, and there was a permanent sag on the mid-back of her shell. The vet did x-rays and told me that it was possibly the worse case of metabolic bone disease she'd ever seen.
She gave me some (good) reading material and helped me learn how to properly take care of Biff. After that, she was on liquid calcium every day plus anti-biotics and a dewormer. After 9 months her shell stregnth was about 80% and we were able to confirm there was no spinal damage, although the shell sag is permanent. She weighs 4 lbs 5.3 oz as of today.
Biff now lives in a 4x6' tortoise table with a 100w ceramic heat bulb 24/7 and a 100w Mercury Vapor PowerSun 10 hrs per day. She also has a terra cotta water dish that's about 1.5" deep, and constant access to orchard & timothy hay. About once a month I purchase 2 heads of romaine, 1 radicchio, 2 belgien endive, 1 collard greens, 1 mustard greens, 1 cactus pad, 1 dandelion greens, and 1 shredded carrot. This comes out to about 4 gal of food. I feed this in large handfuls throughout the month about once per week. I dust the greens with Carolina Pet Supply's TNT Vitamin Powder (which was recommended way back when by another tortoise site). When the weather is nice (over 70F) Biff also gets to spend a few hours per day outside in the grass.
So, my question is, what can I do better? Also, opinions on gender? (Based on the photo of Biff's underside)
Thanks!
--
Juliette & Biff
as mentioned already. Feed every day. Fresh water every day. Warm water soaks at least twice a week if not 3-4 times. Mazuri tortoise diet would also be great for her. Calcium twice a week and if you haven't, add a cuttle bone to her enclosure. Be sure to change the mvb after a year, as the uv is not really that good after that. When she is outside in the warmer weather a lot, you don't really need the UVB for inside.
