Small tortoise

[Dylanh3030]

Hey, I have a two-year-old Sulcata tortoise who is extremely small compared to all of the growth charts and websites I’ve been reading. She is about half her size that she should be. She had a troubling past, where her past homers kept her in a small fish tank like closure and she got attacked by a squirrel. She came to me with scars on her legs and some scarring on her shell and after visiting the vet multiple times they said that my tortoise is ok as in the cuts and health. But she is still really small. Any ideas why she is this small and how to help?

 

[Tom]

Hey, I have a two-year-old Sulcata tortoise who is extremely small compared to all of the growth charts and websites I’ve been reading. She is about half her size that she should be. She had a troubling past, where her past homers kept her in a small fish tank like closure and she got attacked by a squirrel. She came to me with scars on her legs and some scarring on her shell and after visiting the vet multiple times they said that my tortoise is ok as in the cuts and health. But she is still really small. Any ideas why she is this small and how to help?

Pictures and details of how you are housing will help. What substrate? What temperatures and humidity? Night heat? What is the tortoises approximate age ad weight in grams?

Most of the info you find out in the world and on the web for tortoises is all wrong. YT and FB are abhorrently bad. Pet shops, vets and breeders usually aren't much better. TFO is the only source of correct info that I have found. Now you found it too!

Here is the current and correct sulcatas care info. This will differ tremendously from all the other old wrong info you have found during your "research". Questions are welcome. Feel free to ask why, and how we know the assertions we are making are correct. We will help get your tortoise growing and thriving if you let us.

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Yvonne G]

Setting the animal up in optimum (for the species) conditions will go a long way towards helping it grow and thrive, but bear in mind there are some that never recover from poor care. I took in a male leopard tortoise last year. Mentally he's full grown, and tries to breed everything he sees, but physically he's about the size of a four year old leopard, and he hasn't grown at all since I got him.

 

[Dylanh3030]

Pictures and details of how you are housing will help. What substrate? What temperatures and humidity? Night heat? What is the tortoises approximate age ad weight in grams?

Most of the info you find out in the world and on the web for tortoises is all wrong. YT and FB are abhorrently bad. Pet shops, vets and breeders usually aren't much better. TFO is the only source of correct info that I have found. Now you found it too!

Here is the current and correct sulcatas care info. This will differ tremendously from all the other old wrong info you have found during your "research". Questions are welcome. Feel free to ask why, and how we know the assertions we are making are correct. We will help get your tortoise growing and thriving if you let us.

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Pictures and details of how you are housing will help. What substrate? What temperatures and humidity? Night heat? What is the tortoises approximate age ad weight in grams?

Most of the info you find out in the world and on the web for tortoises is all wrong. YT and FB are abhorrently bad. Pet shops, vets and breeders usually aren't much better. TFO is the only source of correct info that I have found. Now you found it too!

Here is the current and correct sulcatas care info. This will differ tremendously from all the other old wrong info you have found during your "research". Questions are welcome. Feel free to ask why, and how we know the assertions we are making are correct. We will help get your tortoise growing and thriving if you let us.

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Thank you for the quick response. Here are some pictures of her and her enclosure. Right now the size of the enclosure is 4 feet by 8 feet. We live in Southern CA so it is generally warm outside and we also have a heating pad for her when it gets cold at night time. Her weight today was 9.25 ounces. We normally feed her a diet of hay, fresh fruit, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, as well as a variety of flowers (roses, hibiscus, etc).

 

[Tom]

Thank you for the quick response. Here are some pictures of her and her enclosure. Right now the size of the enclosure is 4 feet by 8 feet. We live in Southern CA so it is generally warm outside and we also have a heating pad for her when it gets cold at night time. Her weight today was 9.25 ounces. We normally feed her a diet of hay, fresh fruit, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, as well as a variety of flowers (roses, hibiscus, etc).

She's small because she hasn't been receiving the correct care and conditions. Most of the care info that you will find for this species is backwards and wrong. They aren't desert animals. They hatch during the hot humid monsoon season, and spend the rest of the tie underground in warm humid burrows. Vets, breeders, pet stores, etc... have it all wrong.

Babies should not be outside full time, and a heating pad is not nearly enough for the cold nights we have here in winter. They should live mostly indoors in large humid closed chambers. My general rule of thumb is an hour of sunshine per day per inch of tortoise. Once they reach 5-6 inches, I will leave them out most of the day, weather permitting. I don't move them outside full time until they are around 10 inches and when that time comes, they have an insulated, sealed, temperature controlled night box that I close them up in each night.

Here is the care sheet that will show you how to get this baby thriving and growing again. Questions are welcome:

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Dylanh3030]

She's small because she hasn't been receiving the correct care and conditions. Most of the care info that you will find for this species is backwards and wrong. They aren't desert animals. They hatch during the hot humid monsoon season, and spend the rest of the tie underground in warm humid burrows. Vets, breeders, pet stores, etc... have it all wrong.

Babies should not be outside full time, and a heating pad is not nearly enough for the cold nights we have here in winter. They should live mostly indoors in large humid closed chambers. My general rule of thumb is an hour of sunshine per day per inch of tortoise. Once they reach 5-6 inches, I will leave them out most of the day, weather permitting. I don't move them outside full time until they are around 10 inches and when that time comes, they have an insulated, sealed, temperature controlled night box that I close them up in each night.

Here is the care sheet that will show you how to get this baby thriving and growing again. Questions are welcome:

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Thank you again for the quick reply and all of that info I will start moving her inside when it is dark and cold and I will move her inside when it is sunny and warmer. Thank you so much for all of your help our tortoise will e much happier and healthier now. I just had one question, how to tell the tortoise gender lol?

 

[Tom]

Thank you again for the quick reply and all of that info I will start moving her inside when it is dark and cold and I will move her inside when it is sunny and warmer. Thank you so much for all of your help our tortoise will e much happier and healthier now. I just had one question, how to tell the tortoise gender lol?

When the tortoise is around 12-14 inches in length, males will often "flash" their parts. If this doesn't happen, or you just don't see it happen, you have a male that didn't do it, or you have a female.

Usually by around 16 inches in length, males will begin to show the secondary sexual characteristics that make it easy to ID the sex of adults. Much longer tail, extended gulars, wide V shape to the anal scutes compared to the U shape of a female, and a concave plastron.

It will be a while before you can tell with your tortoise.