New Sulcata Foster Parent, Would Appreciate Advice!

[madbad]

Mine went from 67g to 77g in a week and then the next week reached 90g.
That was 23g in 2weeks.

If my guy grows that fast he'll need a new home yesterday LOL!

 

[madbad]

This is why you should weigh at the same time of day and only after a soak and I nice size #2. My tort let 10g of #2 out once.

This is what I have been doing, when I saw the weight I stared laughing hysterically, 10 grams is amazing!

 

[Destben]

This is what I have been doing, when I saw the weight I stared laughing hysterically, 10 grams is amazing!

It’s probably a pretty accurate reading then lol sulcatas are a larger species then my tort so I can’t say I’m surprised. Good news is the grow in phases so sometimes it’s slow and sometimes it’s fast.

 

[madbad]

Alright! Mazuri feed and a Hygrometer both showed up this evening, WAY faster than I thought they would arrive. Unsurprisingly the humidity is too low, im going to have to figure out how to hold the moisture in.

I reckon most of the moisture is running up and out the top of the heat lamp, I'll have to figure that out.

This thing make my house friggen hot.

 

[Via Infinito]

What I do to keep the moisture up is pour a jug of water on the substrate every 3-4 days
Coco coir holds water extremely well.
What you want is dry on top layer, but moist underneath.

If you are struggling with humidity, you can make a humid hide, which can be very simple and inexpensive, like a shoebox and add moist sphagnum moss inside. Once again sphagnum holds water extremely well as well.

You do want a drier corner in the tank though, because I notice that my Sulcata doesn't like to sleep on the humid side, but on the drier side.

When you can get a bigger tank, play with it to get the environment to be dynamic.
For me I have a wet-hot corner, dry-hot corner and a dry-cold corner

A trick that I do is place the basking lamp slightly near the water bowl, so a part of the light heats up the water, this also increase humidity.
and about the weight, it should go up and down and up and down, but there should be an overall increase.
Someday my Sulcata goes up to 480g only for the next day to go down to 465g!

 

[madbad]

I think I still need to get a lower wattage bulb for this enclosure, as soon as I switched over I started getting really high temps on the surface 110-120 and have noticed that Tank spends his time outside the focal point of his lamp. If I raise the lamp it seems like too little heat is getting in.

I'm thinking the solution here is lower wattage and a lower lamp.

Any Ideas?

As an update, Tank is loving dandelion greens but hasn't touched his Mazuri yet.

 

[madbad]

Another awesome update! After today's soak I flipped im over to take a look at his underside and noticed that the area around his anal vent is finally clean!

When he first came here the area was stained black with tort poo

 

[vladimir]

I think it's awesome how enthusiastic you are about Tank [emoji16] it sounds like you're onto the right idea about lowering the wattage to get the temps down.


Edit: can you post some pics of your setup and tortoise? [emoji846][emoji217]

 

[madbad]

I think it's awesome how enthusiastic you are about Tank [emoji16]

I wanted to be a zookeeper when I was little lol!

I'll post some pics tonight.

 

[madbad]

Nice! I just caught him testing some Mazuri

 

[Via Infinito]

Also when you can afford it, make sure to do a health check like a fecal test.
You don't want to pour your heart and soul into this creature knowing how long it can live and be a life long companion, just to find out it might be infected with something.
I learnt first hand that my sulcata was a carrier of Ranavirus and it gave that to my bearded dragon.


and soon you will also find out that by keeping the substrate humid, there will be a bunch of tiny bugs living in there ( they eat the poops and the left over food)
I have to control the population of these springtails ( they are harmless) but kinda annoying to look at lol!

 

[Thury]

Hi, guys just wanted to introduce myself and tell you my story. 2 days ago a cute lil Sulcata Tortoise was kind of dumped in my lap. My sister-in-law is a generally irresponsible person with serious drug problems and while LIVING OUT OF A CAR!!, purchased a Sulcata . Her plan was to keep it until it was too big then take it to the tortoise refuge in Anderson, CA.. My wife and I caught up with her living out of her car and brought her and her tort home.

Currently, I live in apartment with no yard and cant provide a real future for my new lil buddy. Normally I would be trying to re-home this guy (and really now is the time because he is still small and so cute!) but I don't actually own this beautiful beast, and I'm not exactly sure what to do about this.

I don't really think he is getting the best care from it's owner, after spending just a couple hours on these forums I have noticed a litany of problems with it's care (low temperature, poor diet, dehydration, no UVB bulb, low humidity substrate, undersized tank). Luckily, with the help of these forums, all of these problems can be solved (except the fact that it has no future in an apartment).

So far I have: Adjusted the basking lamp to make sure he is getting enough heat (his lamp wasn't pointing directly at his basking spot also i ordered a temp gun off amazon so this wont happen again). Purchased some dark leafy greens (he LOVES kale) and I am going to harvest wild grass today, I also ordered some Mazuri. Started him on a daily soaking regimen (he has peed once and pooped twice since I got him day before yesterday both times while soaking and everything looked as I expected it to). I replaced his dirty Cyprus bark bedding with half and half Cyprus and coconut bedding (hydrated I also have a hygrometer coming). I'm going out today to shop for a UVB bulb and a ceramic heat emitter. He is living in a 20 Gallon aquarium so I am going to do some research and next week on payday im gong to make some sort of enclosure (Rubbermaid tub? any recommendations or links?)

What have i missed?

Healthwise, the tort seems pretty good, regular bowel movements, healthy appetite (once the temp was fixed) and loves to roam his tank (which also happens to be it's name! Tank!) he is 52.3 grams but I have no idea of the age. Ill get you guys a picture soon, I have terribad photographic equipment so it may be rough.

My MAIN CONCERN is for my new pal's future, I'm certain I don't have the resources to care for a growing Sulcata, and I'm almost positive the actual owner won't ever be able to give it the home it needs. She is dead set on keeping it though (she seems to think it will be like 20 years before it gets too big to handle).

Is it legal for me to surrender someone else's animal? I don't really GAF if she gets mad at me (temporary anger vs the life of an animal, amiright?), but I don't really want to break the law here. Anyone else have luck convincing someone to surrender their tort? Would her knowingly putting the tort back in to the bad situation of living out of her car constitute animal abuse or animal cruelty? (maybe I could gain some leverage there...)

The upside to this whole mess is that I have now caught Tortoise Fever! I really want my own lil guy! Are there any Torts that can thrive (not just tolerate) living in an apartment situation?

Thanks for reading my book you guys. I really appreciate the knowledge base you folks have created, it beats the hell out of any other information I found out there in the web.

Until next time

 

[Thury]

I got my new temp gun in the mail today, I've been testing it on everything much to my wife's chagrin.

Carapace temp of Tank the Tort is about 91 right now, sound right? He was sitting in his basking spot when I took the temp.

I constructed the new enclosure today. It looks like it is going to work out well, I'll post a pic when the wife gets home and see if you guys can point out any glaring issues before I make the move.

As for health, I have been a bit busy today so haven't been able to observe any eating, that being said he pissed on me after his soak and I cleaned up a turd this afternoon (small, firm, black, pellet). I have observed much more burrowing behavior today, I see an abandoned excavation in one corner and he is sitting in the bottom of another excavation under his basking lamp with mainly his shell showing.

Here's hoping this all sounds right!

Thank goodness to you for stepping in to help this tortoise! I think it is awful that it is so easy for anyone to purchase a Sulcata. They are so, so cute and tiny but they grow to be very BIG beautiful torts! I inherited a young Sulcata from a school teacher who thought it would be a good idea to have one as a class pet...she had no idea what she had gotten into and gave it to me. He, Shelldon, lived with my husband and I for 11 years and much to our devastation, he passed away two weeks ago from kidney failure. My advice to you is to make sure that you have a very good vet who is familiar with tortoises, an expert if possible. Re: size, Shelldon was 70 lbs at 11 yrs old. There is no way that it would be best for a Sulcta's well being to live in an apartment in the long run. Shelldon had a huge indoor enclosure for night time and cooler temps and he had sunny spots in our yard that he would go to every day when the temp was to his liking!. There is no substitute for natural sunlight. He also liked to cruise around the yard all day! It sounds like, for now, you are his guardian angel! Good luck to you and Tank!!!

 

[dano58]

Not sure how much room you have, check out this YouTube about indoor tortoise and turtles.

 

[madbad]

He makes a strange noise around 0:26, does anyone know what this means?

 

[Kristy1970]

LOL

 

[madbad]

Oh yeah the wife changed it's name to Morla

 

[madbad]

Oh yeah the wife changed it's name to Morla

 

[madbad]

72.5 grams today!

 

[madbad]

whoa! 79.8 grams today

7 grams in 3 days holy hell!!!

currently feeding a slurry of orchard hay that i re hydrate in a blender with mazuri and a sprinkle of reptical mixed up with chopped kale and turnip greens so he will actually eat the hay.