Rescued a Sulcata Tortoise, any tips?

teresaf

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I bet it's older. From the amount of pyramiding I wouldn't think he's a baby. He needs humidity but only after you get his setup completed. His overnight temps shouldn't get lower than 80. When you get that straightened out then figure out how to get the humidity up so that future growth is smooth.

Use search bar above and enter "closed chamber" for some nice ideas on how to make an enclosure where heat and humidity is easily maintained.
 

lisa127

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ok here's the first update: so we got the heat lamp thankfully, and the moment we turned it on he started being active again almost instantly. He's looped around his pen several times, and dipped himself in and out of his little pool each time. I don't think he's been this active since we found him! He also seemed like he was trying to eat the leafy greens we put in the pen, but then he turned away and started doing more loops. Hopefully he'll eat soon. He's now just chilling under the light. I think he tuckered himself out. I've read all comments thus far, and I wanted to thank everyone for the advice and support. I'll be sure to take steps and give him the best home we can, and study up on the links I've been given.

As for retaining heat in his pen, we have a very thick blanket to drape over when the lamp is not in use, so hopefully that will keep the heat in for now when we need to turn the lamp off.

I think my only question left for now is how long does it take for tortoises like this one to grow? He's about 6" now, which I've been told is very young. I just want to know when I need to start worrying about building a dog house for the tortoise.
I usually use either clear shower curtains covering enclosure or portable greenhouses to create a more closed environment if that helps at all. I recently rescued a sulcata as well. Here is a picture.
20151030_123400.jpg
 

Gillian M

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A very warm welcome to the forum! :tort:

Have you read the "Beginners Mistake Thread?" And what of the different care sheets available? These are of help for those who have not dealt with torts before. :)

And good luck to you and your tort! :)
 

sibi

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I usually use either clear shower curtains covering enclosure or portable greenhouses to create a more closed environment if that helps at all. I recently rescued a sulcata as well. Here is a picture.
View attachment 157645

Poor, poor baby. It breaks my heart to see such a beautiful creature having so much trouble. They need special care for the rest of their lives. I know cause I have a rescue too, and her backbone is all screwed up, so much so that she can't feed herself! But, the tort you just received can be helped even though the pyramiding is permanent. You can help prevent future ones from developing. Any advise on dealing with health issues, please send a PM to me, or ask an experienced member who has had experience with exceptional torts like this one :)
 
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Yvonne G

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Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

A blanket won't do much in the way of keeping a cold blooded tortoise warm. If your house is cool, you need to provide a heat source, day and night. A large plastic tub is better than your guinea pig cage. Something like this:

christmas tree bin-1.jpg

And this for night time heat:

ceramic heat emitter.jpg
This is called a ceramic heat emitter (CHE) and it provides heat without light.

Then during the day he needs UVB either from the sun or from an expensive UVB light. There are two kinds to consider:

MVB.jpg T-5 fluorescent bulb.jpg

But if you use the tube-type fluorescent as shown in the top picture, then you'll also need some sort of heat fixture too. The bottom picture, the PowerSun, is heat and UVB all in one light.

I know you said money is tight, but for the sake of this tortoise's life, you can't scrimp. He needs what he needs, and if you don't provide it, he'll get sick and die.

Have you exhausted all avenues to try to find this tortoise's owner? You can put up fliers on utility poles in the neighborhood where he was found. You can also place 'found' ads in the paper and on craigslist.com.
 

sibi

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I totally agree. Special needs tortoises are expensive to keep. They likely require special diets, meds (perhaps for life), specialized vet visits, and all the items Yvonne stated. If you think you can't do that, please consider sending the tort to a rescue facility or to a member here that care for these special animals. After all, it's about what's best for the animal. Right now, you're doing a great thing. I mean. you taking him into your home is better than leaving him at some outside lake area in this cold. But, down the road, you may consider how you want to handle this animal :)
 

Gillian M

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I totally agree. Special needs tortoises are expensive to keep. They likely require special diets, meds (perhaps for life), specialized vet visits, and all the items Yvonne stated. If you think you can't do that, please consider sending the tort to a rescue facility or to a member here that care for these special animals. After all, it's about what's best for the animal. Right now, you're doing a great thing. I mean. you taking him into your home is better than leaving him at some outside lake area in this cold. But, down the road, you may consider how you want to handle this animal :)
I agree that torts have special needs, and I personally think that they aren't that easy to deal with. I've had OLI :<3: for almost five years. I did have a lot of difficulty at the beginning. But time helped (as it does with many issues). :)At a later stage I joined the forum and got a lot of help.

Thanks everyone! :D
 

lisa127

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I totally agree. Special needs tortoises are expensive to keep. They likely require special diets, meds (perhaps for life), specialized vet visits, and all the items Yvonne stated. If you think you can't do that, please consider sending the tort to a rescue facility or to a member here that care for these special animals. After all, it's about what's best for the animal. Right now, you're doing a great thing. I mean. you taking him into your home is better than leaving him at some outside lake area in this cold. But, down the road, you may consider how you want to handle this animal :)
Do you have my tortoise mixed up with the OPs tortoise? I ask because though his has pyramiding it does not really look "special needs".
 

ZamTheMan

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Hello all, sorry for the absence. A lot of things came up around December and I just ended up forgetting to check the forum. My Sulcata seems to be doing alright now. Thank you all for the advice! We have a heat bulb, gotten him some tortoise pellets to eat and usually mix them with mustard greens, which he loves, as well as kale. The bulb I think reaches to temps of around 80-100, and he is soaked daily at least once or 2-3 times a day in nice warm water, which he stays in on his own for hours at a time until he gets up and out on his own. He sometimes drinks the water too. Once he got comfortable and used to being around people, I started taking him out of his pen when he got active and took him into my room so he had some room to roam around wherever he pleased. When he settled down into a corner, I would put him back in his pen. So far he hasn't had any issues, aside from one case of him having diarrhea. After that though he has pooped normally. He eats out of a lid maybe a little under half the size of his body, and it's always packed and stacked with greens and a few pellets. He mostly eats every bite, and sometimes has seconds. Only rarely will he leave food on his plate, like this morning. Last night he ate everything on his plate, yet this morning he just doesn't seem to want to eat. From what I can tell, they eat a lot, so not seeing him eat automatically made me go into panic mode. Is it possible he might just not be hungry? Also, the one thing we do not have yet for his shelter is proper humidity. I do not know how I would maintain humidity in his pen, which this I think might be the problem. Everything I find says what the humidity should be, but nothing says what specifically would make it humid for him in the first place. Is there something I need to buy specifically? Do I need a certain substrate? I try to make up for that with regular soaking, which I know isn't going to be enough or make up for the lack of humidity. It is obviously January now, and I live on the east coast in PA, so currently the climate is dry and cold, the worst season to rescue a reptile. As soon as my family can find it, we were going to replace the timothy hay with proper soil and mix it with some sand, as said by this site: http://home.earthlink.net/~rednine/sulcatacare.html Most stores around here aren't going to be selling soil in the dead of winter. I know there are specific care sheets on here too, and I'm doing my best to gather information from as many sources as I can. The problem is is that, I'll just be honest and say we do not have a lot of money to throw around right now, so we're taking his care step by step as best we can. Thank you all for the help in advance!
 

lighthiker2

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No, dear. No dirt/sand. Coco coir (u can buy blocks that expand to a great volume) to hold moisture without molding.
 
M

Maggie Cummings

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No sand, just sterile dirt, fine grade orchid bark, or cypress mulch. Sand causes impaction. At times I use sterile topsoil, but it does nothing for the smell....:(
 

Mortis_thetortoise

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No we only have the one tortoise, I only say "them" because I have no idea how to check if it's a boy or a girl, as silly as that is. We've been trying as best we can to give them the best enclosure we could get at short notice. We had no time to prepare a shelter for it, it's not like we planned on getting an African tortoise. I'll brush up on the links you sent me, thank you by the way.

Below is a picture of the current enclosure. Note that again, this was all on the spot. We've only had it for a few days now. Once we learned what kind of tortoise it was, we threw together what we had at the time. The cage is about 30" in length, the light attached to the cage is all we have right now that might give off the slightest bit of heat until we get a basking lamp. The hay is timothy hay, which we were told by a man at the local zoo would be sufficient for bedding since they are grazers. The Faygo box was my idea, because he kept trying to get into corners, so I thought he might like a place to hide. The pan is filled about halfway up with water for him to soak in, which he has done himself on several occasions. The wood next to it is so he can climb in and out ok without drenching the cage and himself with water, as well as it being rugged enough so that it could climb it, nothing plastic or slippery that they might struggle with. My mother is out looking for heat lamps as I type this, and she also said she might have some appropriate substrate somewhere in the house, and if not, she has to run out tomorrow and might be able to get something more suitable.

View attachment 157634
i have this cage for my hatchling 1/4 size of him. but i wrapped it with clear plastic wrap to hold in heat and humidity. cut holes in top for the lights etc. connected everything with ducttape and its working great til she grows more! imma post pictures and stuff later if you want to check it out!
 

Mortis_thetortoise

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No we only have the one tortoise, I only say "them" because I have no idea how to check if it's a boy or a girl, as silly as that is. We've been trying as best we can to give them the best enclosure we could get at short notice. We had no time to prepare a shelter for it, it's not like we planned on getting an African tortoise. I'll brush up on the links you sent me, thank you by the way.

Below is a picture of the current enclosure. Note that again, this was all on the spot. We've only had it for a few days now. Once we learned what kind of tortoise it was, we threw together what we had at the time. The cage is about 30" in length, the light attached to the cage is all we have right now that might give off the slightest bit of heat until we get a basking lamp. The hay is timothy hay, which we were told by a man at the local zoo would be sufficient for bedding since they are grazers. The Faygo box was my idea, because he kept trying to get into corners, so I thought he might like a place to hide. The pan is filled about halfway up with water for him to soak in, which he has done himself on several occasions. The wood next to it is so he can climb in and out ok without drenching the cage and himself with water, as well as it being rugged enough so that it could climb it, nothing plastic or slippery that they might struggle with. My mother is out looking for heat lamps as I type this, and she also said she might have some appropriate substrate somewhere in the house, and if not, she has to run out tomorrow and might be able to get something more suitable.

View attachment 157634
i have this cage for my hatchling 1/4 size of him. but i wrapped it with clear plastic wrap to hold in heat and humidity. cut holes in top for the lights etc. connected everything with ducttape and its working great til she grows more! imma post pictures and stuff later if you want to check it out!
 

Razan

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You are doing great, not just taking this guy in and saving him from the cold, but looking into taking proper care of him now that he is with you.

This forum does give a lot of great advice. It took me many weeks to gather and soak in the information needed to make a happy home for the mega sized sulcata we adopted from a neighbor. Never had a reptile before. This great forum saved us AND the tortoise :)

Congratulations on your new tortoise. :tort:
 

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