We’re picking him up tomorrow!

Tom

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Wrong terminology my bad!

yeah the house is...cute I guess? But I most certainly agree temps and humidity are not gonna work in it. My fiancé is happy to build them something superior but the grow tents look very appealing from what I’ve seen. Wed also be able to get a growtent set up more quickly.

Theyre currently munching on a large pile of torn up spring mix, is dried food fine to offer in addition? The old owner did a shredded Timothy hay on top of their food but I feel like the shredded weeds and grass offers more nutritional verity.

I will take beak photos momentarily, watching them eat it seems like their beak really doesnt cut like it should.

Ive got 65w floods on hand and an appropriate uvb on the way! I also have an uth and thermosta I could use to attempt to warm the covered section of the house until we get something better.
Best to buy a large closed chamber made of expanded PVC. Contact @Markw84 for one, or look to Reptile Basic or Animal Plastics. I don't have any experience with grow tents, but that would be better than nothing.

Hay is for older larger tortoises. Not babies. You can wet the greens and mix in a small amount of the crumbled up dry stuff. Better to just feed fresh weeds and leaves.

I still don't see what the issue is with the beak.

UTH heaters should never be used with tortoises. It is not safe. You definitely need night heat. Use a CHE or a radiant heat panel. All of that is explained in the care sheet, but here is more on that:
There are four elements to heating and lighting:
  1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb.
  2. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT.
  3. Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in bulb types are both fine.
  4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html
 

Guts

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Best to buy a large closed chamber made of expanded PVC. Contact @Markw84 for one, or look to Reptile Basic or Animal Plastics. I don't have any experience with grow tents, but that would be better than nothing.

Hay is for older larger tortoises. Not babies. You can wet the greens and mix in a small amount of the crumbled up dry stuff. Better to just feed fresh weeds and leaves.

I still don't see what the issue is with the beak.

UTH heaters should never be used with tortoises. It is not safe. You definitely need night heat. Use a CHE or a radiant heat panel. All of that is explained in the care sheet, but here is more on that:
There are four elements to heating and lighting:
  1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb.
  2. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT.
  3. Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in bulb types are both fine.
  4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html

Thank you so much for the quick reply!
I’ve turned off the uth and will have a che, appropriate basking bulb, and uv set up asap.

Ill look into the animal plastics and pvc vivs now, the appeal of the grow tent was mainly that I could have it set up before Saturday evening.

I appreciate this sub so much, thank you all for helping my fiancé and I ensure that our little sully is going to do well!
 

JKR11

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Thanks y’all!!

Picked him up this afternoon! I have a few concerns I’d love y’all opinions on.

- he is much smaller then I expected at 70g, which seems quite small for nearly six months old, I’m unsure if this is do to his viv and diet.

- his beak is slightly misshapen, the old owner was a vet tech and said the vet at her work said it was just odd keratin growth but the color seems off to me (gonna take pictures in a bit when I soak him.

- he seems very dry, I attribute this to the viv he’s in Having a partial screen top, I’ve cover the majority with foil and a towel for now but I know keeping humidity in this is going to be a struggle.

- due to his beak he seems to have trouble breaking down his food, it just doesn’t really slice like it should. His appetite is great however, so far I’ve given him grass and weeds I’d picked the other day and dried, and the chopped finely so he wouldn’t have trouble. (Mixed some water in so it would stay in a nice non dusty pile)

- occasionally he makes a slight pop sound but I can’t tell if it’s his beak or his breathing, he doesn’t have any other visible RI symptoms

- she included a coil uvb and a hit spot bulb, the heat gets the basking spot to 100 but doesn’t do much for the ambient temp, the uvb is being replaced as soon as the bulb and fixture I ordered arrive.

ive heavily moistened the viv, added cuttlebone and a large shallow water dish near the hotspot to help with the humidity. I would like to try and get this viv to work but if I can’t I can build or buy something better. I also thought to add an itch on a thermostat to the section off side of the viv for nighttime heat

i can take him the to vet to examine him, I have an amazing exotic only veteranar who I trust completely
Wow he is tiny ? best of everything to all of you, I feel he’s in really good hands. Btw, I’m wondering does anyone s give their sully a carrot soak or is that mainly for turtles? Thanks in advance.
 

Big Charlie

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Wow he is tiny ? best of everything to all of you, I feel he’s in really good hands. Btw, I’m wondering does anyone s give their sully a carrot soak or is that mainly for turtles? Thanks in advance.
I've heard of people doing it when the tortoise is sick or not eating.
 

Guts

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Wow he is tiny ? best of everything to all of you, I feel he’s in really good hands. Btw, I’m wondering does anyone s give their sully a carrot soak or is that mainly for turtles? Thanks in advance.

Thank you! Unfortunately I don’t know enough about carrot soaks to suggest anything.

All the lighting and grow tent should be here by Monday! Until then I’ll be attempting to keep humidity up in the wooden viv and doing longer daily soaks.

They seems to have trouble cutting food with their beak, is this common for babies or? Right now I’m just chopping the greens so they can eat without to much trouble. Again thank you all for the input!
 

Big Charlie

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Thank you! Unfortunately I don’t know enough about carrot soaks to suggest anything.

All the lighting and grow tent should be here by Monday! Until then I’ll be attempting to keep humidity up in the wooden viv and doing longer daily soaks.

They seems to have trouble cutting food with their beak, is this common for babies or? Right now I’m just chopping the greens so they can eat without to much trouble. Again thank you all for the input!
I think that could be normal. When your guy gets older, he will be better able to tear up his food.
 

AgataP

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Congrats on your new tortoise!
there is a lot of things to think about and to adjust, but don’t panic. It can be very overwhelming at times.
My only concern is that he is 6 months and 70 grams ? Looking at his shell he looks much younger but maybe because he didn’t get the proper care ?
My tortoise (hatchling maybe a baby now) is now 91 grams at 3 moths.

You have a great group of people here that will do anything to help out.

I would definitely start with nice long soaks.
Good luck!! Enjoy your little dude or dudet ?❤️
 

Guts

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Congrats on your new tortoise!
there is a lot of things to think about and to adjust, but don’t panic. It can be very overwhelming at times.
My only concern is that he is 6 months and 70 grams ? Looking at his shell he looks much younger but maybe because he didn’t get the proper care ?
My tortoise (hatchling maybe a baby now) is now 91 grams at 3 moths.

You have a great group of people here that will do anything to help out.

I would definitely start with nice long soaks.
Good luck!! Enjoy your little dude or dudet ?❤

Thank you!
My best guess at his age is 4-6 months because the old owner hasn’t given me a definite age.

They’re set up with a Che on a thermo now and we’re just waiting on the grow tent from amazon. Been misting like mad all day to keep the humidity up lol.
 

Guts

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Old owner replied! His hatch date was June 10th so he is only 4 months old! That makes me much less concerned about his size.
 

zovick

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Thank you!
My best guess at his age is 4-6 months because the old owner hasn’t given me a definite age.

They’re set up with a Che on a thermo now and we’re just waiting on the grow tent from amazon. Been misting like mad all day to keep the humidity up lol.
In a couple of posts, you have said "they" when referring to your new tortoise, eating difficulties, and the set up, etc. How many tortoises do you have including the new one? The way the posts are worded in the plural, it sounds as though the new tortoise is going to be kept with another one or more which you also have. Is that correct or not?

There are many posts on the forum about not keeping two baby tortoises together. Have you seen those posts? Or are you just talking about one tortoise and using the plural pronoun "they" for some reason?
 

Guts

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In a couple of posts, you have said "they" when referring to your new tortoise, eating difficulties, and the set up, etc. How many tortoises do you have including the new one? The way the posts are worded in the plural, it sounds as though the new tortoise is going to be kept with another one or more which you also have. Is that correct or not?

There are many posts on the forum about not keeping two baby tortoises together. Have you seen those posts? Or are you just talking about one tortoise and using the plural pronoun "they" for some reason?

Im using they as a neutral pronoun ^^;
It’s not exclusively plural, and I don’t know the sex of the tortoise so...yeah

you made an assumption and came off kinda hostile my dude, only one unsexed sully named Chomp here
 

zovick

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Im using they as a neutral pronoun ^^;
It’s not exclusively plural, and I don’t know the sex of the tortoise so...yeah

you made an assumption and came off kinda hostile my dude, only one unsexed sully named Chomp here
Not trying to be hostile, just trying to clarify what you meant by "they" since I had never heard that word (they) used to describe a singular animal. If I don't know the sex of a single specimen, I use "it" to describe it, that's all. It was simply confusing to me.

Good luck with it.
 

zovick

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Im using they as a neutral pronoun ^^;
It’s not exclusively plural, and I don’t know the sex of the tortoise so...yeah

you made an assumption and came off kinda hostile my dude, only one unsexed sully named Chomp here
If you reread my post, I did NOT make any assumption. I asked two different times in that post if you were talking about one tortoise or more than one tortoise because the word "they" made it unclear to me.

Anyway, in case you had more than one tortoise, I was simply attempting to help you avoid one of the situations which is encountered by many persons new to this hobby and this forum (keeping two tortoises together).

If it came across otherwise, I believe you misinterpreted my post and its intent.
 

Guts

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Not trying to be hostile, just trying to clarify what you meant by "they" since I had never heard that word (they) used to describe a singular animal. If I don't know the sex of a single specimen, I use "it" to describe it, that's all. It was simply confusing to me.

Good luck with it.

No problem, I realize I use he and it interchangeably so I can see how that was a bit confusing! I
 

Guts

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Everything we need to get em set up and out of this wooden thing is on its way, as well as some cactus pads ofc hooray for prime two day shipping.

until Monday temps are all spot on and I’m misting about a dozen times a day to keep them comfortable (and soaking ofc).
 

Guts

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Closed chamber house is good to go! Set them up in them grow tent house this afternoon and they’re eating and exploring. So far temps are looking great humidity is perfect!
 
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