Progress with my little guy after 1 month

[MoreCowbellAz]

One month ago I unexpectedly became a DT dad (rescued from my neigborhood, long story) and went on a crash course on all things tortoise. I'm so happy he's coming along well, he's eating and drinking, all bodily functions are a go, and is active and alert. The first pic below is from day one, looks very dry and just seemed overall worn out. The other pics are from yesterday, looks so much better. I thought I'd share with all of you, I can't even tell you how happy I feel inside when I see the difference and I know I did the right thing rescuing him.

Day 1:




30 days later (yesterday)

 

[Yvonne G]

What a difference. Ya done good, kiddo!

 

[TammyJ]

He looks great!

 

[Dovey]

Amazing growth in one month! What are you feeding?

I just adopted a juvenile, about 6" long, and am in the process of getting everything set up for him/her. I did read you are not supposed to offer them water every single day, but maybe once or twice a week only. Do you do that? I know our well water is so full of calcium carbonate that flushing out urates could be an issue if my wee one gets in the habit of piddling on a regular basis rather than flooding only occasionly, as they do in nature.

 

[Dovey]

BTW, I'm in New River, neighbor!

 

[MoreCowbellAz]

The other folks on here are far more knowledgeable than I am, so I will defer them so you get the benefit of their expertise. For me, I'm a newbie that's been on a crash course but still very much learning, pretty much everything I've implemented I stole from those guys and gals.

I'll tell you what I do if it helps, and you can check with the experts to see how it squares with what's been proven with their efforts. My guy is less than 2' shell, and I feed him a wide assortment but I've migrated to mainly stuff I find in my yard which is mulberry, dandelion, hibiscus, grape leaves, bermuda grass, and yellow bells, and some prickly pear and aloe when/if I can get him interested. Store bought, I have endive and live wheat grass, and some mustard greens and kale. But I'm using more and more of the yard weeds and grass, it's all fertilizer and pesticide free. Bought some cilantro this weekend just to see how he likes it. For water, I leave a 4" tera cotta saucer about half full with water all the time, and I soak him as often as I can for 20-30 min, prob 4-5 times a week, every day if I can. I know Az Game & Fish says don't leave water available all the time, but I do based on some advice from some knowledgeable folks on this forum. However to be honest I rarely see my little guy touch his water bowl, maybe a couple days a week at most. He does drink when I soak him.

Hope that helps. BTW yep i'm just a bit south of you.

 

[Yvonne G]

I soak my baby desert tortoises daily for at least 15 minutes.

 

[MoreCowbellAz]

I got around to measuring him, and he's .1" bigger than 1 month ago both in shell length and also width. That doesn't sound like much, but it's actually a noticeable change since both length and width. He's now 2.09" by 1.74". Coming along well I think, and I continue to refine his open indoor enclosure. New for today is a CHE and Zilla thermostat, we're actually hitting a cool spell and I want to be sure his night temps don't drop too much. I'll have to mess with that a bit, I'm thinking put the probe on the "cool" side of the habitat (open, indoor) and set the thermostat to 80 and go from there. Does 75-80 seem about right as a minimum target ambient temp? I would think that would work day or night as it warms up during the day since it's warm here, but if anyone thinks that's off I welcome input. So anyway, onward, he's a joy.

Been trying to post a pic of him but for some reason I can't upload any pics.

 

[Dovey]

The other folks on here are far more knowledgeable than I am, so I will defer them so you get the benefit of their expertise. For me, I'm a newbie that's been on a crash course but still very much learning, pretty much everything I've implemented I stole from those guys and gals.

I'll tell you what I do if it helps, and you can check with the experts to see how it squares with what's been proven with their efforts. My guy is less than 2' shell, and I feed him a wide assortment but I've migrated to mainly stuff I find in my yard which is mulberry, dandelion, hibiscus, grape leaves, bermuda grass, and yellow bells, and some prickly pear and aloe when/if I can get him interested. Store bought, I have endive and live wheat grass, and some mustard greens and kale. But I'm using more and more of the yard weeds and grass, it's all fertilizer and pesticide free. Bought some cilantro this weekend just to see how he likes it. For water, I leave a 4" tera cotta saucer about half full with water all the time, and I soak him as often as I can for 20-30 min, prob 4-5 times a week, every day if I can. I know Az Game & Fish says don't leave water available all the time, but I do based on some advice from some knowledgeable folks on this forum. However to be honest I rarely see my little guy touch his water bowl, maybe a couple days a week at most. He does drink when I soak him.

Hope that helps. BTW yep i'm just a bit south of you.

Yep, I'm the same with soaking, though my "little one" is bigger...about 6 inches. We have dandelions coming up in the side yard...I am thrilled!

 

[Blackdog1714]

Damn the laws and save the babies!!!! Way to go!

 

[MoreCowbellAz]

Yep, I'm the same with soaking, though my "little one" is bigger...about 6 inches. We have dandelions coming up in the side yard...I am thrilled!

It's difficult for me to soak him every day because I'm usually at work, but I try. Lately I've been seeing him drink out of his water dish lately which I never used to see, I think he's just getting used to it. Maybe he just did it when I wasn't around, IDK.

Yeah I see some dandelion coming up a little as well. Actually I did some research and I think much of what I always thought was dandelion is actually sow thistle. There are a few weeds that look really similar, but all seem to be good. I've been giving him more Bermuda grass lately, I pull some up from the yard and cut the tender parts up in about 1/2' pieces, toss the stems. Also wheat grass I grow from a container from the grocery store, you should get some of that if you haven't already, it's super easy to keep around because it grows with zero attention and they love it.

Anyway, all those folks above know way more about this than me, I'm a novice, just trying to share my learning curve with my fellow novices. I find that sometimes even the best advice may need to be tweaked here and there depending on your specific enclosure etc, but the way I see it all the good advice here buys me time so I can learn without royally screwing something up in the meantime.

Right now I'm fussing with my CHE and thermostat. I know by enclosure isn't well suited for maintaining heat (low sides), so that takes a little experimenting to get the balance right, but for various other number of reasons this particular enclosure is overall best for the time being (key word "for the time being"). Fortunately I'm only looking for a couple degrees to take the edge off night-time lows in my house, so figure instead of a of 72 I'd like 75 as a low point, not like I'm dealing with a huge temperature problem. Just being cautious. It seems the general wisdom is that DT's are ok with anything north of 65 overnight as long as they have warm day-times, which mine do. I'm just not prepared to have mine quite that cold yet, seems too young plus not knowing his history prior to 1 month ago I'm erring on the side of warmth. And I DO NOT want him thinking it's brumation time, we're not doing that until next year at the earliest.