Sulcata questions

Shutterbug859

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How can you tell if you have a boy or a girl? I was told by the person who sold me Lulu she was a girl but I'm sure the lady didn't know squat about it. She is about 3 months old and quite the fussy little eater. Will she eat the right foods before she starves to death? I pick and cut fresh grass, weeds and clover for her and I chop up timothy hay and orchard grass. She will eat the clover and leave the rest. I also read a list of edible plants that said she could eat aloe and honeysuckle. But after I gave her both I read a poisonous food list that said the honeysuckle was not edible. Can she eat it or not? She liked them both a lot. Her top shell is hard but her bottom shell isn't. It isn't squishy soft but seems to be softer than her hard top. Is this normal?
 

wellington

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At three months you can't. You have a couple years or more before you will know and then maybe not for sure then either.
 

sibi

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What you need to do is supplement her diet with small sprinkles of powered calcium. The calcium she consumes will convert it to vitamin D3 only if she gets UVb rays either by the sun or by a uvb bulb. Now that winter is approaching, she may need a uvb bulb like a mercury vapor bulb (100w). This, along with exercise, proper diet, heat and humidity, her plastron (the under shell) will harden soon enough.

Btw, did you read Tom's threads yet? He gives great advice on lighting for sulcatas.
 

Tom

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You are trying to feed her like a properly started adult. This usually won't work very well. It is not likely that the breeder you bought from ever used any of those foods. Most of them don't, but correct me if I'm wrong. Call the breeder and find out what this tortoise was started on. Then use that and gradually introduce more and more of the new good stuff over time. Finely chop it all up together and it will work great. Hay is for older larger tortoises, not babies. Most likely it was romaine and or spring mix.

Next you need to make sure all your parameters are good. Warm night temps, humid hide, etc. Here is a care sheet. See how close you are to all of this: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-79895.html
If they are too cool, too dry or too dehydrated, appetite goes way down.

Eggs can be incubated at the warmer end of the range for females, and at the cooler end of the range for males. This is not 100%. There are too many variables in practice. Just today I discovered that one of my "incubated for female" babies is a male. So you can't know for sure, but if done correctly, MOST of the babies incubated at certain temps should turn out one way or the other. Can you ask the breeder what temp he/she incubated at?
 

Shutterbug859

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sibi said:
What you need to do is supplement her diet with small sprinkles of powered calcium. The calcium she consumes will convert it to vitamin D3 only if she gets UVb rays either by the sun or by a uvb bulb. Now that winter is approaching, she may need a uvb bulb like a mercury vapor bulb (100w). This, along with exercise, proper diet, heat and humidity, her plastron (the under shell) will harden soon enough.

Btw, did you read Tom's threads yet? He gives great advice on lighting for sulcatas.

I did read the threads. Very informative. I am using rep cal calcium and vitamins. She has her water and seems to spend enough time in it. She sleeps at night and is very active during the day. I live in Florida so I am able to take her outside for a few hours a day for the natural sunlight and grazing. I am using a 150w neodymium basking bulb and keeping her warm area at 85 to 90. I will have to work on the humidity today. I read that they needed warm and dry but that will be an easy fix. Thank you for your help.
 

Shutterbug859

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wellington said:
At three months you can't. You have a couple years or more before you will know and then maybe not for sure then either.

tanknks. I guess she will be Lulu for a few years lol
 

Sulcata_Sandy

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That's perfect! Then if you have a male, just switch to "Lu". [GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]

I got my 9-11-13 hatching from Tom, and mine was what I call a "yard baby"...not incubated, hatched out of the ground....so it'll be like waiting to open a Christmas present for a few years before I learn the sex. For now, he's a he. Had to go with something. "It" just sounds to rude. [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]
I went with Franklin....may be Frankie someday.
 

Shutterbug859

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Tom said:
You are trying to feed her like a properly started adult. This usually won't work very well. It is not likely that the breeder you bought from ever used any of those foods. Most of them don't, but correct me if I'm wrong. Call the breeder and find out what this tortoise was started on. Then use that and gradually introduce more and more of the new good stuff over time. Finely chop it all up together and it will work great. Hay is for older larger tortoises, not babies. Most likely it was romaine and or spring mix.

Next you need to make sure all your parameters are good. Warm night temps, humid hide, etc. Here is a care sheet. See how close you are to all of this: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-79895.html
If they are too cool, too dry or too dehydrated, appetite goes way down.

Eggs can be incubated at the warmer end of the range for females, and at the cooler end of the range for males. This is not 100%. There are too many variables in practice. Just today I discovered that one of my "incubated for female" babies is a male. So you can't know for sure, but if done correctly, MOST of the babies incubated at certain temps should turn out one way or the other. Can you ask the breeder what temp he/she incubated at?


I bought her from a CL ad. The person kept her in with an Iguana. I think this was something her kid wanted but found out they are not play with me pets so .... CL ... re-home. I pick and cut fresh grass and weeds every morning for her as well as taking her outside to roam and graze. Today she did eat more while out roaming. I do have to get the humidity in her tank right though. I have a hide log but she likes to hide under her food dish.

I have a half acre of weeds and grass. Will she eat anything that is poisonous to her?

Thank you for your help. I am trying to provide her with the best so she can be healthy and happy but the more research I do the more confusing it seems to be.
 

Tom

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Can you ask the people what they were feeding this tortoise? Use that and gradually use more and more of the new good stuff.

The answer to your question about eating poisonous stuff is: Sometimes. Usually (not always) if there are lots of other things to eat and they aren't super hungry, they won't eat plants that they shouldn't. The safe bet is to do your best to pull out the plants that you aren't sure of.

Half logs are fine, but you still need a proper humid hide, in addition to the half log.

The reason that you are confused about your research is because everybody has a different opinion about how to do this. For the last 20+ all the books, vets, experts and breeders have promoted this species as a desert species and recommended dry desiccating conditions for them. This is back wards and unnatural. Sulcatas hatch during the rainy season over there. It is hot, humid, rainy, marshy and there is food growing everywhere. Yes it is dry for 8 or nine months of the year and they are all underground in warm, damp, humid burrows. Wild sulcatas spend around 95-98% of their lives underground. Basing care requirement on the above ground temps from that area of the world makes no sense. How do you think an earthworm from the Sahel would do in one of the set ups encouraged by some of these books and experts?

When choosing advice to follow, I suggest asking to see the results that are achieved by the given method. The results of the method that I promote can be seen all over this forum. Here is an example:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-15137.html
 

Beebrannon

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I have a question. I can't figure out how to make my own thing but my Sulcata has yellow like crusty stuff on the back outside of his mouth I was wondering if anyone knows what it is?
 
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