♬Little dude♬ Brendel (Sulcata) California

Brendelwood

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Nov 9, 2015
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56
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Sacramento, CA
I don't think the mattress gets much warmer (haven't tried sleeping on it yet), the 3/4" plywood seems to keep the heat contained. The animal room stays pretty toasty compared to the rest of the house.
 

cmacusa3

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Bixby

Tidgy's Dad

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Mortis_thetortoise

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Oct 2, 2016
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west central Florida
Hi all,

Never sure where to start with these introductions. Well, we adopted this little sulcata hatchling at a Reptile Convention here in Sacramento back on September 26, 2015; pretty much as an impulse buy (I know, strike 1). The girlfriend and I have been looking at dogs for years but could never agree on a breed or anything beyond 'we want a dog'. Needless to say, our wishy-washiness landed us on tortoise. Sticking with the dog theme we came up with the name Brendel as a play on the brindle dog coat color pattern.

Since then, we've really taken to caring for the little dude. I found, and have been lurking in, this forum shortly after setting up a habitat according to the guy we got him from. The info we first received wasn't entirely wrong, but we did get the "these are desert animals" routine.

We started out with the following instructions:
Substrate: Timothy Hay and Paper
Water Dish: none (gets all water from his food)
Soak: Twice a week for 10-20min
Lighting: Mercury Vapor Bulb
Humid Hide: none

After finding this forum we changed the setup quite a bit:
Substrate: Coconut Coir
Water Dish: 6" tupperware lid filled with water (1/4" deep)
Soak: Daily
Lighting: MVB and Ceramic Coil for nighttime heat.
Humid Hide: Currently a chik-fil-a to go container flipped over and covered with dirt and substrate.

Temps:
Under Lamp: 85-90
Cool side: 80
Night heat: 80-85

When it is warm enough Brendel gets to explore the back yard with constant supervision and grazes on clovers and other weeds. Now that it is cold and raining I setup an exercise pen (3'x4' dog kennel with heat lamp) so that he still gets a change of scenery.

Looking closely at the shell it is pretty obvious how the soakings have had a beneficial effect on his growth. It is hard to explain it, but his initial growth rings were having a pyramiding effect creating grooves between the carapace plates. After we changed over to daily soaks the shell growth has come in much thicker and smoother. There is an indentation or moat-like effect (reverse pyramiding) with the shell growth as it has corrected. I'll have to get a close-up of the shell when wet to show the moat-like groove around each carapace plate.

I want to thank you all for collective knowledge and enthusiasm for tortoise care. I aim to keep posting pics of ♬Little dude♬'s development (FYI, the music notes are there because we sing the phrase "little duuuuude" whenever we say it).

First Soak:
View attachment 155093

End of Week 1:
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End of Week 2:
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End of Week 3:
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End of Week 4:
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End of Week 5:
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End of Week 6:
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End of Week 7:
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those chikfila containers are on point.
 

Brendelwood

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5 Year Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2015
Messages
56
Location (City and/or State)
Sacramento, CA
I've yet to put the finishing touches on the indoor enclosure. I did, however, put this together for Spring/Summer. It is 24'x36' and was relatively easy to make, about $200 for the cinderblocks and wood. I seeded the back half of the pen with seed mixes from Tortoise Supply.

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Joined
Apr 11, 2017
Messages
78
Location (City and/or State)
Fresno, CA
We started out with the following instructions:
Substrate: Timothy Hay and Paper
Water Dish: none (gets all water from his food)
Soak: Twice a week for 10-20min
Lighting: Mercury Vapor Bulb
Humid Hide: none
....Looking closely at the shell it is pretty obvious how the soakings have had a beneficial effect on his growth. It is hard to explain it, but his initial growth rings were having a pyramiding effect creating grooves between the carapace plates....
Hi brendelwood!!! I too was given that line "their from the desert".... and all the wrong setup advice!
I too purchased my little Charlie on a whim... his face tho!!! Ugh!!! I couldn't stand it.. he was crawling towards me with those beautiful black eyes saying "save me"!!! I need to go home with you!! Hahaha
Anyway... I know this post was from back in 2015... but my little Charlie's shell is basically pyramiding like you explained.....
I have only had him since Tuesday but I have made sure to give him daily soaks..... so you are saying this helped your little guy? And was there anything extra that you can think of as a tip to help? Or just the daily soaks? And how long did you keep the daily soaks going for?
I do have a saucer in his home he can do a little "pool side soak in" as well :)
Thanks so much!!! And yes!!! This forum is so helpful !!! Love it!!!
 

Brendelwood

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Nov 9, 2015
Messages
56
Location (City and/or State)
Sacramento, CA
When I first got Brendel I spent a lot of time reading all the pinned links related to Sulcatas. Already looks like you're getting some tips from the pros around here. To this day I still try to soak him once a day, there are times I'll miss a day here and there. I've come to learn that the enclosure setup is very important to a newborn's development.

It looks to me like you already have a pretty nice setup going.

For the first year I tried to keep the enclosure 75 and 90 Degrees Fahrenheit at all times. Be sure to give your Charlie a nice dark place to hide from the light so he doesn't bake under a bulb all day. I did my best to seal off the enclosure and kept the substrate damp with a spray bottle. I never measured the humidity of the enclosure, I just used visual cues, condensation and fogging of the glass. Most of the people posting seem to see improvement in the shell development once given the proper atmosphere to thrive.

I wish you and Charlie good luck, it looks like he found a caring home.
 
Joined
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Messages
78
Location (City and/or State)
Fresno, CA
When I first got Brendel I spent a lot of time reading all the pinned links related to Sulcatas. Already looks like you're getting some tips from the pros around here. To this day I still try to soak him once a day....
It looks to me like you already have a pretty nice setup going. .....
I wish you and Charlie good luck, it looks like he found a caring home.
Thank you! and I too will stick to a daily soak... I like to talk to him anyway.... so he gets me to bug him (as he rolls his eyes)... haha... and some nice poops going when I stick him in to soak too.. haha.... which in turn leads to a clean off and a little additional soak in clean water :)
Charlie is so small ...I am going to say he is about 1 (even though the store said they "thought he was maybe 1.5-2"... uh nope) he only like 3".
I ended up adding an additional CHE at the 'Cool" end, as I didn't like the nighttime temps.... so it is on a thermostat to keep it around 80deg all times.
the Warm side has another CHE on a thermostat and the Bask lamp.... temps around 90 +/- and humidity in tank is 80%. Substrate misted... Charlie misted... all that good stuff.... I hope that helps now with his growth, heath and pyramiding.
I have a tub for a moist "cool" hide... but he doesn't seem interested...... likes to sleep in the corner next to a piece of flagstone.... burrowed a bit in the dirt...... not sure if maybe he doesn't like the hide I gave him :)
 

Brendelwood

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Sacramento, CA
Thank you! and I too will stick to a daily soak... I like to talk to him anyway.... so he gets me to bug him (as he rolls his eyes)... haha... and some nice poops going when I stick him in to soak too.. haha.... which in turn leads to a clean off and a little additional soak in clean water :)
Charlie is so small ...I am going to say he is about 1 (even though the store said they "thought he was maybe 1.5-2"... uh nope) he only like 3".
I ended up adding an additional CHE at the 'Cool" end, as I didn't like the nighttime temps.... so it is on a thermostat to keep it around 80deg all times.
the Warm side has another CHE on a thermostat and the Bask lamp.... temps around 90 +/- and humidity in tank is 80%. Substrate misted... Charlie misted... all that good stuff.... I hope that helps now with his growth, heath and pyramiding.
I have a tub for a moist "cool" hide... but he doesn't seem interested...... likes to sleep in the corner next to a piece of flagstone.... burrowed a bit in the dirt...... not sure if maybe he doesn't like the hide I gave him :)
Yes, I usually end up changing the water two to three times per bath for the same reason. It's great that you're able to modify your enclosure to suit Charlie's needs. From what I've seen; when the pyramiding starts to correct, it won't fix the scutes current shape, the new growth will come in flat instead of a stacking effect that you're getting now.
I wouldn't worry too much about what the hide looks like. Once mine started to grow, he outgrew his hides very quickly, I resorted to using plastic take-out containers. I'm currently using an overturned planter.
 

Brendelwood

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Nov 9, 2015
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Location (City and/or State)
Sacramento, CA
Hey all,

It sure has been a long while. Little Brendel is doing well. I caught him flashing about a month ago, so now I have confirmation Brendel is male for sure.

It’s finally starting to warm up around here for him to be outside for longer than an hour. His patch of crimson clover from tortoise supply is working out very well. He maintains the patch so well it looks like a putting green. [emoji38]

We even dug a pond/bathing hole for him. I’m still surprised at how fast he’s growing. For 2 1/2 years old he’s already 15 1/2” x 10 1/2”. I’ll have to weigh him next time I bring him inside. If I had to guess I’d say he’s approaching 15 pounds. Again, I’ll have to confirm.

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Brendelwood

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Messages
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Location (City and/or State)
Sacramento, CA
Hey all,

Well little dude has hit 50 lbs. I made some terrain changes to his pen to encourage him to explore more of his area. Originally he would just march along the borders of his pen. Now he’s all over the place. He seems pretty happy to be outside close to 18 hrs a day now. I will have to start building a permanent outdoor enclosure soon and reclaim the animal room for myself.

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