Sulcata Soaking

[Terra_Girl]

Hello everyone,
Very soon, Thursday, I will be a new mama to a sulcata baby. I have been reading a lot on the importance of soaking your sulcata.

I am wondering if you guys soak them in water straight from the tap or if you treat (dechlorinate) the water first?

Thanks in Advance for your guys' help.

 

[wellington]

You will probably get both answers on this one. However, I do it right from the tap and I have city water.

 

[coreyc]

Just warm tap water for me

 

[mainey34]

I just use straight tap water. Warm. I don't see any reason to treat it. Other then the expense..

 

[Tom]

Straight city tap for me too. Although I do collect, filter and store rainwater to rinse them of with after soaking, and for my daily shell spraying too. The water here is very hard and alkaline and over time it leaves hard water stains on the carapace. The rain water squirt after soaking prevents this. You could also use distilled or RO water for these rinses too, but for soaking I think the normal mineral content in city water or even bottled "spring" water is good for them.

 

[Terra_Girl]

Thanks for all the responses everyone, I was worried that the tap water would be dangerous as it is for fish.

 

[DeanS]

Straight city tap for me too. Although I do collect, filter and store rainwater to rinse them of with after soaking, and for my daily shell spraying too. The water here is very hard and alkaline and over time it leaves hard water stains on the carapace. The rain water squirt after soaking prevents this. You could also use distilled or RO water for these rinses too, but for soaking I think the normal mineral content in city water or even bottled "spring" water is good for them.

Same with me! Tap while they soak...but all misting and rinsing done with rainwater, distilled or mountain spring water! Pretty much the last year, I've been misting/rinsing with Smart Water!

 

[marcy4hope]

Straight city tap for me too. Although I do collect, filter and store rainwater to rinse them of with after soaking, and for my daily shell spraying too. The water here is very hard and alkaline and over time it leaves hard water stains on the carapace. The rain water squirt after soaking prevents this. You could also use distilled or RO water for these rinses too, but for soaking I think the normal mineral content in city water or even bottled "spring" water is good for them.

glad this was brought up. this is something i'd not even thought about. i use tap water to soak, but only distilled water in my sullie's water bowl. i hadn't thought about needing to rinse the tap water off after a soak. our water here is very hard. i'll have to start rinsing him. thanks for this info.

 

[Tom]

Hi Marcy. I wouldn't use distilled for drinking water. They need the minerals. Also the distillation process can leave behind some bad residues. Its fine for rinsing off I think, but not for drinking.

My main purpose for spraying them off after a soak is to get the poopy water off of them. It also cleans their plastrons of any dirt or detritus. Even Tyler noted the cleanliness of the bottom side of my babies...

And Terra, I just saw your intro thread and that your baby is a year old. You don;t usually need to soak everyday for that size/age, but it won't hurt if you do. You might want to do it daily for a couple of weeks once you get him, just to make sure he's well hydrated after his journey, but then you can start to taper it off a bit to 2 or 3 times a week, and less as he gains size.