sulcata owners?
- Thread starter Trundy
- Start date
What kind of problems?? I have sulcatas and I might be able to point you in the right direction if I have an idea of what's going on.
Trundy
New Member
Thanks.... I'm having her sign in here so she can better explain... but from what I gather.. she adopted this guy a while.back and may have gotten some bad info .. so she's basically having a few issues and trying to get her husbandry right .... looking on the web for proper care has lead to some confusion... I appreciate your help , and I'm sure she will as well... I'm curious about bedding , and Suplementations....... as well as diet ...
fluxlizard
Avid Member
Hi,
I keep sulcata too. I've got a 10 year old male that I've had for about 5 years and a female about 6 or 7 that I raised from a newly hatched baby and another that is somewhat younger that I just got a few months ago- age unknown and was badly cared for by the previous owner so small and some development problems. I'm not an expert but I'll share with you a little of what works for me and maybe others with more knowledge will chime in again (lizards are my thing, but I do love my sulcata and so far so good with my husbandry after several years).
Bedding this time of year should really consist of a pen in the yard where the tortoise can graze on grasses and weeds all day in real sunlight and fresh air if at all possible and night temps above 50. Diet should consist mostly of the grasses and weeds with perhaps a little extra leafy veggies 1x per week with some calcium/multivitamin on them. These give a little variety, but more importantly are a way to deliver the supplementation. Long fiber in the grasses is very important and feeding mostly grocery style veggies is not good for the tortoises. Sometimes I feed a little commercial tortoise food rather than the leafy veggies which sort of serves the same purpose- I use it more as a supplement to the diet, not as the diet itself. Just something for a little variety 1 x every few weeks. Mostly the diet should be grasses and weeds. My outdoor pasture is about 30'x42' and every couple of years I casually toss loads of seeds in there that are sold for seeding horse pasture or other animal pasture. By casual I mean I take a 50 lb bag of seed and cover all the spots of bare dirt I can find in the pen with seeds sometime in fall or early spring. I don't actually till the soil but that might be a great idea. I just pour a thin layer of seed on the earth until I can't see the patch of earth below the seeds. Indoors during the winter when no fresh grasses are available I use lots of hay as the main part of the diet- I even use hay as the bedding in their indoor pen. A humid shelter is a great idea indoors as studies conducted in the last several years found that with high humidity, shell growth will always be smooth no matter the composition of the diet. But constant humidity throughout the enclosure invites health problems, so I just keep a humid shelter the torts can go in and out of at will. Kind of makes sense- in nature they burrow and it is more humid in the earth. A shallow box filled with slightly damp earth with a dog-house style cover over it works fine.
These are wonderful animals, mine follow me around when I enter the pen to see what I'm up to, but not a tortoise to be taken on casually. They are grazers- they graze much of the day, and like other grazing animals such as cows or sheep or goats, what goes in comes out and they poop all day too. Big poops (like the size of my fist). Not something for the living room in the winter- I've got an outbuilding for my reptiles and can have a very large indoor tortoise pen (16'x8') so smell and space isn't as much of a problem for me.
They also sometimes dig burrows- last year my male decided to do this near the end of the summer when nights were getting cooler outside. He dug a burrow large enough for a child to wiggle inside, perhaps 2' deep and 10' long. It was angled perfectly so the sun from late afternoon to late evening shined all the way to the end to warm it... To keep the torts from burrowing out of the pen, I made my pen of hog fencing and buried it into the ground a couple of feet. Above ground, from just below ground level up, I fastened currigated pvc roofing panels to the fencing so the tortoises cannot see through the fencing. This prevents them from spending all day trying to walk through the fence and has worked very effectively for this.
So, like I say, this has been working well for me so far, but I know just like there are real chameleon experts out there, there are real tortoise experts out there as well and I am more casual about it than that, and I know some are here on the forums, so hopefully one can give you more info than I soon, but that should be enough to give you a pretty safe start on information...
I keep sulcata too. I've got a 10 year old male that I've had for about 5 years and a female about 6 or 7 that I raised from a newly hatched baby and another that is somewhat younger that I just got a few months ago- age unknown and was badly cared for by the previous owner so small and some development problems. I'm not an expert but I'll share with you a little of what works for me and maybe others with more knowledge will chime in again (lizards are my thing, but I do love my sulcata and so far so good with my husbandry after several years).
Bedding this time of year should really consist of a pen in the yard where the tortoise can graze on grasses and weeds all day in real sunlight and fresh air if at all possible and night temps above 50. Diet should consist mostly of the grasses and weeds with perhaps a little extra leafy veggies 1x per week with some calcium/multivitamin on them. These give a little variety, but more importantly are a way to deliver the supplementation. Long fiber in the grasses is very important and feeding mostly grocery style veggies is not good for the tortoises. Sometimes I feed a little commercial tortoise food rather than the leafy veggies which sort of serves the same purpose- I use it more as a supplement to the diet, not as the diet itself. Just something for a little variety 1 x every few weeks. Mostly the diet should be grasses and weeds. My outdoor pasture is about 30'x42' and every couple of years I casually toss loads of seeds in there that are sold for seeding horse pasture or other animal pasture. By casual I mean I take a 50 lb bag of seed and cover all the spots of bare dirt I can find in the pen with seeds sometime in fall or early spring. I don't actually till the soil but that might be a great idea. I just pour a thin layer of seed on the earth until I can't see the patch of earth below the seeds. Indoors during the winter when no fresh grasses are available I use lots of hay as the main part of the diet- I even use hay as the bedding in their indoor pen. A humid shelter is a great idea indoors as studies conducted in the last several years found that with high humidity, shell growth will always be smooth no matter the composition of the diet. But constant humidity throughout the enclosure invites health problems, so I just keep a humid shelter the torts can go in and out of at will. Kind of makes sense- in nature they burrow and it is more humid in the earth. A shallow box filled with slightly damp earth with a dog-house style cover over it works fine.
These are wonderful animals, mine follow me around when I enter the pen to see what I'm up to, but not a tortoise to be taken on casually. They are grazers- they graze much of the day, and like other grazing animals such as cows or sheep or goats, what goes in comes out and they poop all day too. Big poops (like the size of my fist). Not something for the living room in the winter- I've got an outbuilding for my reptiles and can have a very large indoor tortoise pen (16'x8') so smell and space isn't as much of a problem for me.
They also sometimes dig burrows- last year my male decided to do this near the end of the summer when nights were getting cooler outside. He dug a burrow large enough for a child to wiggle inside, perhaps 2' deep and 10' long. It was angled perfectly so the sun from late afternoon to late evening shined all the way to the end to warm it... To keep the torts from burrowing out of the pen, I made my pen of hog fencing and buried it into the ground a couple of feet. Above ground, from just below ground level up, I fastened currigated pvc roofing panels to the fencing so the tortoises cannot see through the fencing. This prevents them from spending all day trying to walk through the fence and has worked very effectively for this.
So, like I say, this has been working well for me so far, but I know just like there are real chameleon experts out there, there are real tortoise experts out there as well and I am more casual about it than that, and I know some are here on the forums, so hopefully one can give you more info than I soon, but that should be enough to give you a pretty safe start on information...
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My sulcata, Marley is sick 
hi!
i would be that family member with a sick sulcata
weve had her for 2 years.bought her from a woman on CL.who handed her to me in a boot/shoe box with a lamp & said "i know nothing, she lives in this"
sooo, i scoured the internet...I had her in an "area" a baby type gate set up, with a daytime lamp in one corner, a red heat lamp in the other, caves, some rag type things shed hide in, etc.but for the most part, she wanders the house. i take her outside everyday, to hang in the yard, sit in the sun. she moves around the house according to where the sun is, will sit in the front door when the suns blazing, but at night knows to go to the heat area.since its been warm here, she hasnt used the lighted area, just moves around the house. her diet has been the same since we got her.daily kale or collared greens, green beans, an occasional carrot, banana once in a while, plenty of grass, clover & dandelion from the yard. about a week ago, she just.stopped eating.became slow & sluggish.wasnt moving around the house at all..my husband thinks she may have gotten into the cat dish & ate some of the cats food? or maybe ate some hairball of some sort off the floor..brought her to a vet yesterday & he didnt really know much..injected her with 3 shots of fluid for the dehydration, said wait a week & if still not eating take her to the vet hospital for an xray. a few other sites ive been on suggest mineral oil, if she is bound.were soaking her for about 20 minutes every hour, under the heat lamp, keeping the temp at 85 degrees.
i dont claim to know alot about my Marley. but what i lack in intelligence i make up for with love. this tort is my Bestest Friend & im completely distraught that i could have caused this somehow. were doing over her area today, going to buy better lighting & adding some space.
I welcome all suggestions.Have a Great day!
niki
hi!
i would be that family member with a sick sulcata
weve had her for 2 years.bought her from a woman on CL.who handed her to me in a boot/shoe box with a lamp & said "i know nothing, she lives in this"
sooo, i scoured the internet...I had her in an "area" a baby type gate set up, with a daytime lamp in one corner, a red heat lamp in the other, caves, some rag type things shed hide in, etc.but for the most part, she wanders the house. i take her outside everyday, to hang in the yard, sit in the sun. she moves around the house according to where the sun is, will sit in the front door when the suns blazing, but at night knows to go to the heat area.since its been warm here, she hasnt used the lighted area, just moves around the house. her diet has been the same since we got her.daily kale or collared greens, green beans, an occasional carrot, banana once in a while, plenty of grass, clover & dandelion from the yard. about a week ago, she just.stopped eating.became slow & sluggish.wasnt moving around the house at all..my husband thinks she may have gotten into the cat dish & ate some of the cats food? or maybe ate some hairball of some sort off the floor..brought her to a vet yesterday & he didnt really know much..injected her with 3 shots of fluid for the dehydration, said wait a week & if still not eating take her to the vet hospital for an xray. a few other sites ive been on suggest mineral oil, if she is bound.were soaking her for about 20 minutes every hour, under the heat lamp, keeping the temp at 85 degrees.
i dont claim to know alot about my Marley. but what i lack in intelligence i make up for with love. this tort is my Bestest Friend & im completely distraught that i could have caused this somehow. were doing over her area today, going to buy better lighting & adding some space.
I welcome all suggestions.Have a Great day!
niki
Hi there!
She shouldn't be eggbound - she's too young for that (if it's a she, they're nearly impossible to sex until they're adults). I have no doubt that you love her dearly but she should really not be kept indoors. If you have a yard that should really be her domain, with safe fencing for her size. I'm not sure how long you're able to take her outside for but she needs as much sunlight as possible, especially considering she probably had a really rough start with her first owner. They are desert tortoises and as long as they have shade to sit in during the hottest part of the day then summer weather is actually most like their natural habitat. Their ambient temperatures should be in mid to high 80's at least right now, and that would make your life much more uncomfortable if you kept your house that warm. I suspect the reason she moves to the parts of the house that are sunny because she's constantly trying to bask and the windows block most of the UVB rays that are critical to her health and growth. Normal house temps are not warm enough for these desert dwellers and she knows she needs to be in the sun a lot. They do need to drink often, which is not always a well known fact and you didn't mention anyplace for her to drink normally. My torts love crawling around when the sprinklers are on (since it never rains) and they drink the whole time.
Chronic dehydration and inadequate temperatures in these guys is a common problem and can lead to kidney damage. If you think she got into cat food that is not good because with potential stress on her kidneys that much protein can easily build up as crystals in the joints and kidneys in a condition known as gout. These are things that take time to occur, but with your little one's origin I suspect she was already primed for this kind of thing. Her diet sounds good.
My suggestions are to move her whole area outdoors completely for the rest of the summer. Provide her with shaded areas (mine have a house and lots of bushes) and make sure that she is able to get to them if she isn't moving around too much. Overheating can happen. When it starts getting cold you can move it back inside, but make sure she has a UVB bulb in her area. Do not give mineral oil because there's no indication for that yet and if she accidentally inhales it (it is really hard to force feed a tortoise successfully) it could potentially kill her if enough gets into her lungs. Definitely continue the soakings and try to keep her eating as many leafy greens/grasses as possible. If you don't start to see an improvement in about a week I would suggest bloodwork +/- xrays with a vet experienced with reptiles. Bloodwork will give you an idea of how her kidneys are doing and may indicate gout if it's forming. Exotics hide signs of illness for as long as possible because they're prey animals so by the time they start showing signs of illness it usually means it's been there a while and she's not strong enough to hide it anymore.
Let us know if you have any other questions and keep us updated on how she's doing!
She shouldn't be eggbound - she's too young for that (if it's a she, they're nearly impossible to sex until they're adults). I have no doubt that you love her dearly but she should really not be kept indoors. If you have a yard that should really be her domain, with safe fencing for her size. I'm not sure how long you're able to take her outside for but she needs as much sunlight as possible, especially considering she probably had a really rough start with her first owner. They are desert tortoises and as long as they have shade to sit in during the hottest part of the day then summer weather is actually most like their natural habitat. Their ambient temperatures should be in mid to high 80's at least right now, and that would make your life much more uncomfortable if you kept your house that warm. I suspect the reason she moves to the parts of the house that are sunny because she's constantly trying to bask and the windows block most of the UVB rays that are critical to her health and growth. Normal house temps are not warm enough for these desert dwellers and she knows she needs to be in the sun a lot. They do need to drink often, which is not always a well known fact and you didn't mention anyplace for her to drink normally. My torts love crawling around when the sprinklers are on (since it never rains) and they drink the whole time.
Chronic dehydration and inadequate temperatures in these guys is a common problem and can lead to kidney damage. If you think she got into cat food that is not good because with potential stress on her kidneys that much protein can easily build up as crystals in the joints and kidneys in a condition known as gout. These are things that take time to occur, but with your little one's origin I suspect she was already primed for this kind of thing. Her diet sounds good.
My suggestions are to move her whole area outdoors completely for the rest of the summer. Provide her with shaded areas (mine have a house and lots of bushes) and make sure that she is able to get to them if she isn't moving around too much. Overheating can happen. When it starts getting cold you can move it back inside, but make sure she has a UVB bulb in her area. Do not give mineral oil because there's no indication for that yet and if she accidentally inhales it (it is really hard to force feed a tortoise successfully) it could potentially kill her if enough gets into her lungs. Definitely continue the soakings and try to keep her eating as many leafy greens/grasses as possible. If you don't start to see an improvement in about a week I would suggest bloodwork +/- xrays with a vet experienced with reptiles. Bloodwork will give you an idea of how her kidneys are doing and may indicate gout if it's forming. Exotics hide signs of illness for as long as possible because they're prey animals so by the time they start showing signs of illness it usually means it's been there a while and she's not strong enough to hide it anymore.
Let us know if you have any other questions and keep us updated on how she's doing!
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