My frustrated rant. This is a picture of two very different types of care when it comes to tortoises. (Tuck our tort is on the left) In no way do I want to be disresepectful to the previous owners, they seemed very nice and only seemed to be following care guidelines given to them from a backyard breeder. Sulcatas CANNOT live in Romaine lettuce and strawberries! This poor little guy has pretty severe MBD. His entire shell is soft and flat. He cannot pull into his shell for protection because it has not grown properly. He was housed in a 10 gallon tank with 60 watt UV heat bulbs. Not UVB light or natural sunlight that is needed so his body was never able to break down and use the Calcium that they were providing for him. His shell fells like soft rubber and it makes me feel ill. For stuff like this I blame ignorant and or greedy breeders. I have seen Sulcatas posted as "teacup tortoises" that won't get much bigger than that. They get up to 200 lbs and require an outside environment to live properly! Luckily I think we got him in time, lots of summer heat and TLC and we should see some results over the next couple of months. There are some fantastic backyard breeders and very responsible store fronts. When we bought our first torts the breeder we purchased them from had a website with care sheets, with enclosure ideas, showed us around his yard and helped us pick what would work best for us. He was so passionate about them he even kissed the two goodbye. But to many people see easy dollar signs.