- Joined
- Jan 2, 2012
- Messages
- 25
Good morning everyone! So, I am a brand new Sulcata owner, as of two hours ago. 
) My son has been wanting one for a few years, and after doing quite a bit of research (or so I thought) and purchasing all the supplies (the wrong ones) I purchased "Rodney" from (dare I say) Turtleshack.com. I was planning on buying from Tortoise Supply, but being new I got the names mixed up. BAD mistake, I know. In the days waiting for Rodney to arrive I came across this site and started reading. At first I was confused and concerned about people leaving water bowls IN with their Sulcata, and keeping the humidity UP I was in shock. The more I read, the more I learned and suddenly I was running to the store to fix his habitat and replace EVERYTHING I had already purchased before the little one arrived.
Our original set up was a 20 gallon tank, a coil UVB bulb, a red heat light, aspen bedding, half a log for him to hide in, stick on temp gauges, no water bowl, and a shallow tub to soak him in every other day.
After becoming informed on this site I changed out the bedding to coconut husk, (moistened greatly), made a humid hide out of a plastic shoe box, got a slate tile for basking under the heat lamp, got a spray bottle for misting "his" shell, threw out the coil uvb light and replaced it with a mercury vapor uvb light, put in a terra cotta shallow water dish, and ordered a ceramic heat emitting "bulb", and a remote weather gauge, and a temp gun. Shew, that was close! Did all that yesterday and he came this morning.
Now, living in Florida it is generally fairly warm, (it was 81 three days ago), but the night Rodney was shipped the temp dropped to 20 degrees. I was so nervous when I found out they shipped him on the coldest night in almost a year. When he arrived we took him out of the box and he was SO COLD. I immediately placed him under the heat light and he didn't move for the first ten minutes. It took another ten-fifteen before he poked his head out of his shell. After an hour of warming up he is scampering around his home checking out everything, and seems fine and healthy, (thank goodness!!!) except for some slight beginnings of pyramiding. Hopefully with the high heat and humidity we can stop that. Oh, we happen to have a hibiscus plant in our yard with a few flowers on it. Picked a couple leaves off of that, two petals, some grass, and a couple dandelion leaves and put on his food plate. He hasn't touched them yet, but Im betting he is just getting used to us and his new home.
I think we might just start on our yard conversion over for him sooner than later, even though he has a couple years before he will be in it all the time.)
Well,that's our story of being new Sully parents. I will keep everyone updated on his progress and growth. Oh, and I'll post a few pics as well. Feel free to let me know what you think. Especially if I need to change something.)
) My son has been wanting one for a few years, and after doing quite a bit of research (or so I thought) and purchasing all the supplies (the wrong ones) I purchased "Rodney" from (dare I say) Turtleshack.com. I was planning on buying from Tortoise Supply, but being new I got the names mixed up. BAD mistake, I know. In the days waiting for Rodney to arrive I came across this site and started reading. At first I was confused and concerned about people leaving water bowls IN with their Sulcata, and keeping the humidity UP I was in shock. The more I read, the more I learned and suddenly I was running to the store to fix his habitat and replace EVERYTHING I had already purchased before the little one arrived.Our original set up was a 20 gallon tank, a coil UVB bulb, a red heat light, aspen bedding, half a log for him to hide in, stick on temp gauges, no water bowl, and a shallow tub to soak him in every other day.
After becoming informed on this site I changed out the bedding to coconut husk, (moistened greatly), made a humid hide out of a plastic shoe box, got a slate tile for basking under the heat lamp, got a spray bottle for misting "his" shell, threw out the coil uvb light and replaced it with a mercury vapor uvb light, put in a terra cotta shallow water dish, and ordered a ceramic heat emitting "bulb", and a remote weather gauge, and a temp gun. Shew, that was close! Did all that yesterday and he came this morning.
Now, living in Florida it is generally fairly warm, (it was 81 three days ago), but the night Rodney was shipped the temp dropped to 20 degrees. I was so nervous when I found out they shipped him on the coldest night in almost a year. When he arrived we took him out of the box and he was SO COLD. I immediately placed him under the heat light and he didn't move for the first ten minutes. It took another ten-fifteen before he poked his head out of his shell. After an hour of warming up he is scampering around his home checking out everything, and seems fine and healthy, (thank goodness!!!) except for some slight beginnings of pyramiding. Hopefully with the high heat and humidity we can stop that. Oh, we happen to have a hibiscus plant in our yard with a few flowers on it. Picked a couple leaves off of that, two petals, some grass, and a couple dandelion leaves and put on his food plate. He hasn't touched them yet, but Im betting he is just getting used to us and his new home.
I think we might just start on our yard conversion over for him sooner than later, even though he has a couple years before he will be in it all the time.
)Well,that's our story of being new Sully parents. I will keep everyone updated on his progress and growth. Oh, and I'll post a few pics as well. Feel free to let me know what you think. Especially if I need to change something.
)
I'm sure your humidity will get his tiny bit of pyramiding under control 
