Danylle
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2016
- Messages
- 15
I am so grateful to be able to post in this forum! My husband, David, and myself, Danylle, adopted a baby sulcata on June 20th of last year after much research and looking for the perfect little baby! We live in southwest Michigan and had quite a time finding what we considered a good breeder! After finally finding one, we questioned the breeder about the clutch and were told they were almost 3 weeks old, were raised in a "humid" environment (I didn't think to get the percentages at that time), and both the parents were very large and healthy (pictures were posted at the table). We picked out the most active, colorful and responsive baby in the clutch and promptly brought him/her home to settle in!
Everything was amazing for the first several months and then one day in November he/she decided not to eat. No big deal for 1 day, and the next day was just fine again. But slowly and gradually he/she has drastically stopped eating and being active.
I'm just stumped! I feel like we have done everything MOSTLY right and we aren't seeing any results. Our baby has not gained much weight and has not grown much at all either. We started at 28 grams and are now at 48 grams, 20 grams in 7 months?! I've seen some on here gain that in just a couple weeks! I cannot get ahold of the breeder anymore as he has moved out of Michigan and I just don't know what to do anymore! Do we just have a dwarf tortoise?!?!
Here is the setup:
We have him/her in a 48"x18"x24" glass closed-system enclosure.
We have a CHE on the hot end that runs day and night. We also have a full spectrum tube light and a HPS that run 12 hours a day (mostly for our birds and iguanas, but he/she gets lots of light from it, too).
The temps are as follows: 105* basking, 99-101* humid hide, 80-85* daytime cool side and 78-80* night temps. The humidity on the hot side is always 90% or higher and on the cool side we keep it at 77-80%. Our little one gets misted no less than twice a day and also gets two soaks a day in carrot baby food for 30-40 minutes at a time.
The substrate is coconut coir mixed with untreated top soil. The hide is a halved hollow log covered with soil and has moss on the floor.
We have planted some organic grass, hibiscus, and have some weed mix on the way. Our baby gets spring mix, dandelions, collards, cut up grass, hibiscus leaves and weeds from our lawn (only when snow is not on the ground) every day and sometimes twice a day. If it gets soggy, I change it out. We also supplement with calcium with D3 in it since we cannot take our baby outside at this time. Right at this point we are offering iceberg, romaine and collards along with sweet potato and carrots just to try to get him/her to eat ANYTHING.
There is ALWAYS fresh water available. It bothers me so much when people don't provide fresh water to ANY animal!
So, my questions:
#1- Any ideas to get this little one eating? We found a supplement called Jump-Start caloric supplement and appetite stimulant by Zilla, but haven't used it and I'm not sure about it. Anybody use this?
#2- Is our enclosure adequate? I know as he/she grows we will have to upgrade but we haven't seen any real growth yet!
#3- Where is the best place to order the Mazuri tortoise diet and how much should we use?
#4- Is this okay to use?
# 5- How about sprouts? What types are okay? I use sprouts for my birds and would love to use them for my tortoise also.
#6- My husband uses red worms in his gardens and wonders if we can use them in the enclosure to enrich the soil and help keep the enclosure cleaner?
I really appreciate all the help we can get! I am so inspired by the research and dedication I have seen here and can't wait for a response! We just want to do the best for our baby!
Everything was amazing for the first several months and then one day in November he/she decided not to eat. No big deal for 1 day, and the next day was just fine again. But slowly and gradually he/she has drastically stopped eating and being active.
I'm just stumped! I feel like we have done everything MOSTLY right and we aren't seeing any results. Our baby has not gained much weight and has not grown much at all either. We started at 28 grams and are now at 48 grams, 20 grams in 7 months?! I've seen some on here gain that in just a couple weeks! I cannot get ahold of the breeder anymore as he has moved out of Michigan and I just don't know what to do anymore! Do we just have a dwarf tortoise?!?!
Here is the setup:
We have him/her in a 48"x18"x24" glass closed-system enclosure.
We have a CHE on the hot end that runs day and night. We also have a full spectrum tube light and a HPS that run 12 hours a day (mostly for our birds and iguanas, but he/she gets lots of light from it, too).
The temps are as follows: 105* basking, 99-101* humid hide, 80-85* daytime cool side and 78-80* night temps. The humidity on the hot side is always 90% or higher and on the cool side we keep it at 77-80%. Our little one gets misted no less than twice a day and also gets two soaks a day in carrot baby food for 30-40 minutes at a time.
The substrate is coconut coir mixed with untreated top soil. The hide is a halved hollow log covered with soil and has moss on the floor.
We have planted some organic grass, hibiscus, and have some weed mix on the way. Our baby gets spring mix, dandelions, collards, cut up grass, hibiscus leaves and weeds from our lawn (only when snow is not on the ground) every day and sometimes twice a day. If it gets soggy, I change it out. We also supplement with calcium with D3 in it since we cannot take our baby outside at this time. Right at this point we are offering iceberg, romaine and collards along with sweet potato and carrots just to try to get him/her to eat ANYTHING.
There is ALWAYS fresh water available. It bothers me so much when people don't provide fresh water to ANY animal!
So, my questions:
#1- Any ideas to get this little one eating? We found a supplement called Jump-Start caloric supplement and appetite stimulant by Zilla, but haven't used it and I'm not sure about it. Anybody use this?
#2- Is our enclosure adequate? I know as he/she grows we will have to upgrade but we haven't seen any real growth yet!
#3- Where is the best place to order the Mazuri tortoise diet and how much should we use?
#4- Is this okay to use?
# 5- How about sprouts? What types are okay? I use sprouts for my birds and would love to use them for my tortoise also.
#6- My husband uses red worms in his gardens and wonders if we can use them in the enclosure to enrich the soil and help keep the enclosure cleaner?
I really appreciate all the help we can get! I am so inspired by the research and dedication I have seen here and can't wait for a response! We just want to do the best for our baby!
I am so sorry. Please do consider adoption. Nothing to you breeders out there. Wonderful people here.
