Introduction from a new Sulcata (or 3) owner

[KaraJ]

Good Evening,

We are a family living in Glendale (Phoenix) AZ. We have just acquired 3 new Sulcata tortoises (our first of any type of reptile). They are young, the vet's guess is a clutch from May. And we have become very attached in just the week we have had these new family members. We have, unfortunately, already had one of them have to stay at the hospital.

He? is currently in there still but may be able to come home in the next couple of days (if he makes it through) The vet's guess for survival chance was 15-30% with aggressive treatment of antibiotics. calcium shots/ and tube feeding. It was this treatment or euthanasia. We chose to try and give it all we could to try and save him and he will probably have to come on the feeding tube also.

The other two are doing really well right now and they do not seem to be sick. They are active, eat well, and really enjoy soaking time, and outside time.

I think what amazes me the most is that they have actual distinct personalities!
I have read several hours worth of postings on here, but know very near nothing!!! I am so grateful that this forum exists and I hope to be able to absorb as much as I can to make these little guys lives pretty dang great!

Their names are Flash (our hospitalized one), Daisy, and Cassidy. Since I have noticed that in most intros you all have asked for a pic of current home and the tortoise, I am going to try and see if I can upload these correctly

 

[russian/sulcata/tortoise]

welcome to the forum! if you have any questions about sulcata care just ask! here is the met up to date care sheet you can find! http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
what are the cage temps(cool side and basking spot)? whats the cage humidity? what is there diet? whats the humidity at?

 

[russian/sulcata/tortoise]

also if the clutch is from may them they are extremely tinny for there age. my guess is that they where started off dry. is the vet you have educated about tortoises? a lot of the time vets have no idea what they are doing when they try to help tortoises and they do more harm then good.

 

[KaraJ]

welcome to the forum! if you have any questions about sulcata care just ask! here is the met up to date care sheet you can find! http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
what are the cage temps(cool side and basking spot)? whats the cage humidity? what is there diet? whats the humidity at?

I tried to go as much from the care info I found on here, I think the one I printed off was written by "Tom". We have two thermomaters and so there warm side is about 90-95 and the cool side is about 80-85 depending on day and night. We are still figuring out exact placement of the lamps. We only have two thermometers (placed as close to the bottom as possible to get what the temp is down by the little guys, Thank you to whoever it was on here that pointed that out) but the third was on back order from amazon (and the store we went to was sold out) and will be delivered Tuesday, so that we can get a basking temp also.

For the humidity we have been able to keep it at about 60% by moistening there substrate and yesterday we tried someone's (sorry I can not remember who's) tin foil tip and we have been able to keep it a little higher. We do not have an automatic system for the humidity though so we have been adjusting it manually and also spraying them/their environment periodically throughout the day with a spray bottle.

With their diet we have been chopping up grass, live non-chemically treated wheat grass that we bought in one of those grow your own grass container. I think it was advertised for "cats and other pets". We also did purchase romaine, endive, one other kind but I cannot remember off the top of my head what it was. We did buy a grassland tortoise pellet food also but have not used it yet except for the first day (and I don't think they ate it) when we were still gathering info on what was correct to feed. We have ordered a couple of seeds to plant in order to know exactly where there food is coming from and what has been put on it, but that will take at least a few weeks.
My husband is building their yard run enclosure for outside time tomorrow.

And thank you for the link, I appreciate the help

 

[chaseswife]

They are so cute! But they do seem really small. I have an August baby that is much bigger than yours. (I will add a picture to show the difference and why we are concerned) What symptoms was flash having that he needed such extreme care?

 

[KaraJ]

also if the clutch is from may them they are extremely tinny for there age. my guess is that they where started off dry. is the vet you have educated about tortoises? a lot of the time vets have no idea what they are doing when they try to help tortoises and they do more harm then good.

We found him listed on this site under the list for ones in AZ and then we asked them multiple times if they still did tortoises. He actually asked about his size (he had only seen the sick one) and asked if the others were a similar size, I told him yes and he said he was wondering because he was small but he didn't think he could be from a clutch much later than May (I am pretty sure it was May he said but it was over the phone). I did not ask why he thought May though, I should ask tomorrow when I check on Flash.

 

[KaraJ]

They are so cute! But they do seem really small. I have an August baby that is much bigger than yours. (I will add a picture to show the difference and why we are concerned) What symptoms was flash having that he needed such extreme care?
View attachment 111971

GOOD GRACIOUS!!! Your little guy is huge compared to ours.... I hope I heard him wrong on the May thing then!!!! I will double check tomorrow.... How often do Sulcatas have clutches? I thought he said they only had them a few times a year.
He would not eat for three days (That we are positive) it could have been longer and he became very lethargic, and was acting like he could not even open his mouth, like he would put his head on the food, if we placed him by it and make movement (slightly) like he wanted to eat but never opened his mouth. Then the biggest kicker was that he became very soft in his shell very quickly. It was Christmas Eve night when he started going downhill quickly and everyone was closed. So as soon as they opened on the 26th I called and took him in. We were concerned enough that we warned our son, who named him and knows Flash as "his", that he might not make it long enough to see the Dr but if he made it through Christmas we would try everything we could to save him. When we got him there they said he was very critical and in really rough shape.

As of Saturday they could not even start the tube feeding yet because the Dr said his bones were so soft they couldn't force his jaw open for fear of breaking it, But that they were going to reevaluate and start it ASAP so he could get more nutrition,

The Dr also recommended that we put crushed Tums on the food for the other ones. Has anyone doe this instead of one of the commercial calcium products?

 

[KaraJ]

They are so cute! But they do seem really small. I have an August baby that is much bigger than yours. (I will add a picture to show the difference and why we are concerned) What symptoms was flash having that he needed such extreme care?
View attachment 111971

Your guy also has many more dark rings around him, is this an indication of anything? He is beautiful by the way and I am sorry if this sounds ignorant, but I was not kidding when I said we feel like we know next to nothing.

 

[russian/sulcata/tortoise]

Your guy also has many more dark rings around him, is this an indication of anything? He is beautiful by the way and I am sorry if this sounds ignorant, but I was not kidding when I said we feel like we know next to nothing.

the darkness you see on his shell is new growth between the baby scutes

 

[KaraJ]

the darkness you see on his shell is new growth between the scutes.

That's what I thought by reading, but is it more of a correlation to age or just growth and will it vary between individuals? and am I assuming right that it could be stunted (like any other growth) by poor care/environment/diet?

 

[pam]

Welcome They are soooooooooooooooo cute

 

[sissyofone]

Welcome, And your babies are soo cute. They are tiny for their age. More than likely they were started out dry. I would soak them daily and keep them warm and offer some sprIng mIx you can moIsten the grassland pellets and then take a fork Is what I use and beat them around, to break them apart, Its like wet grass you can then mIx a lIttle wIth their sprIng mIx to gradually introduce them to the grassland pellets you can do this with anything your feeding them. I Keep my Sulcatas using @toms methods also. Your babies will be healthy, and smooth, following his guidelines. Good Luck To You and Your Little Ones.

 

[motero]

Tums are ok, but the coloring flavoring and sweeteners are not needed for your torts. A reptile calcium would be better.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hello Kara welcome to the TFO from AZ ( Phx also ) I notice you haven't said much about where you got the torts from what the breeder feed them , how they raised them , do they belong to the TFO or sagested you join the TFO , all this might help ! But again welcome to the TFO .

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Kara, and welcome to the Forum!

 

[Dizisdalife]

Welcome to TFO, Kara.

 

[tortdad]

Welcome.
You can buy calcium powder (with or without vitamin D3) at any pet store or Walmart for about $7. We very lightly dust their food 2x a week. You could also use a cuttlefish bone and scrape some on their food.

Soft shell is a very bad thing, sounds like flash has MBD, metabolic bone disease. What kind of UVB are you offering?

 

[Jodie]

Welcome to the forum. Hope Flash will be ok. They're very cute. You're in good hands here.

 

[chaseswife]

I have never heard of using tums for torts before. When they make a specific product just for torts to get the calcium they need it is hard to justify modifying a human product with extra stuff in it that is not healthy for torts. Get a container of reptile calcium powder and a cuttlebone.

Where did you get the sulcatas from? I am not an expert on this AT ALL, but given the right conditions and the use of incubators, I am pretty sure that they can produce year round. I am in Arizona too. Long story short, my guy came from a clutch hatched naturally in someone's back yard in August. It is very possible that you have a later hatch date than the vet thinks.

As far as the dark rings of growth: It will vary greatly between tortoises, I have read several times on here that there is no "normal growth rate". Get a digital kitchen scale that measures in grams and track there weight gain each week. As long as they are going up each week- instead of staying the same for a long time or continually dropping- it is considered normal.

I wish we could do more for Flash. I know that people have had a lot of success with doing baby food soaks to get nutrients into sick tortoises.

 

[KaraJ]

Hello Kara welcome to the TFO from AZ ( Phx also ) I notice you haven't said much about where you got the torts from what the breeder feed them , how they raised them , do they belong to the TFO or sagested you join the TFO , all this might help ! But again welcome to the TFO .

We did not go search them out... They came by an accident/surprise really. It was not a purchase from a breeder more an our pet had more babies than we need situation. I really know nothing of their rearing or care up to this point I NOW know how important that was but hindsight is 20/20. But we had discussed getting one, or more, since we bought our house that has a pretty large yard and there was already a circular area built up with bricks etc. that looked like it was for a tortoise specifically.
So we took them, and are, unfortunately, learning as we go. But we do not regret it and will give them the best care and love we can!