Any sulcata owners in the UK?

[rachelp001]

Awww 4 days... i thought u said 4 years... i must of read wrong. Where did you get your prepacked grasses from.. ive not seen that.

Hi Damo... i got mine from preloved... but you can try gumtree or googling sulcata breeders then put your area. Hope that helps.

Got them from a local reptile place but I have seen it on amazon too

 

[Lisa1978]

Ooh.. i will have a look for that. Ive just ordered all the stuff to grow my own foods for them... so i will be all green fingered soon!

 

[RussianRoulette]

For substrate I use the equivalent of coco coir but it goes by a different name I've got some spare bricks around here somewhere and I'll write the exact brand when I find them.
Lighting, I use the arcadia heat +UVB/A + D3 all in one bulb. It's great for heating I have basking temps of 95 and the cooler end is 75.
I let the whole thing cool to 75 at night time and I've found humidity highest at the cooler temps. I also spray the enclosure twice a day morning/evening.
I feed mine mostly grass and leaves from the garden, he always has hay too but mainly for bedding, occasionally kale, dried flower mixes and moistened pellets and always has a cuttlebone although rarely uses it.

 

[Lisa1978]

Hi....
Ive just changed from readigrass to coco coir... i was already using that for my horsfield tort. But read that sulcatas prefered dry cond so opted for that first! Dohhhhh!
My one problem that im finding is that my sulcatas wont eat the grass and dandilion. So any suggestions....?

 

[tony2sheds]

hello ,everyone im also from uk west yorkshire ,i have a year old sulcata tortoise who weighed 106g in march this year who now weighs 490g as of today seems to be just an eating an pooping machine but they have the best comical face of any tortoise in my opinion ,

 

[Lisa1978]

Aww hi tony... post a photo of ur sully. Thats some increase in size.. whats the secret?

 

[tony2sheds]

hi will post a picture when i work out how to do it ,pretty new to this tecnology lark ,no secrets that i know just plenty of sunshine whenever its nice enough ,he eats grass,dandelions ,clovers ,plantain ,a hibicus plant i bought in the pound shop a 160w bulb when he inside ,plenty of soakings and of course his calcium block which he nibbles on from time to time.

 

[Lisa1978]

You press reply then press the same bit again and add pic that way.
Ive not even weighed mine yet.

 

[laney]

Hey bit late but I'm in (not from tho lol) Essex and just got my sully hatchling

 

[Lisa1978]

Hi laney.... welcome... well ive not long joined too... so im still getting to grips with all the sully info

 

[rachelp001]

Yey there's more of us now i think our numbers have doubled lol

 

[Lisa1978]

Yeah... abit strange how this is an american tortoise forum and we are from the uk.
Are there any uk ones that anyone has found or use?

 

[laney]

There's shelled warriors but they don't have an app which is a pain!
I've been around here for a while with my 4russians but new to the little giants lol

 

[tony2sheds]

hi guys ,how are every ones tortoises doing ,i noticed most people have babies from the uk ,mine is good and still growing fast .

 

[laney]

hi guys ,how are every ones tortoises doing ,i noticed most people have babies from the uk ,mine is good and still growing fast .

My lil guy is doing good I think. Gaining weight and growing, but I'm a bit worried about his pee. I'm sure I'm over worrying as we do lol

 

[tony2sheds]

Terry the eating,pooing ,walking through his water dish ,perimeter patroling for hours on end tortoise ,has now reached the half kilo mark at around 15 months old .woo hooo ::::

 

[Nibs]

Just in case this thread is still active, I'm a sully owner in the uk - I have two who are coming up for 3 years old in July

 

[Lyn W]

Just in case this thread is still active, I'm a sully owner in the uk - I have two who are coming up for 3 years old in July

Hi Nibs and welcome.
I have a leopard and there is a great caresheet for sullies and leopards under species specific which will tell you all about diet temps humidity and substrate etc, . There is a lot of out of date advice on the internet, from pet shops and see some of the previous posters have even been given bad advice from breeders etc but this is the most up to date info you will find from very experienced keepers who have taken part in research and thankfully share their tried and tested methods with us, so you won't go far wrong if you follow the advice given here.
From the pics it looks like one of the posters is using a coiled bulb but these and the long thin loop type of cfl are not recommended as they can cause serious eye damage to torts. There are exceptions but why take the risk with your torts health. I use a mercury vapour bulb (MVB) which gives heat light and uvb in one bulb I have a Ceramic heat emitter CHE on a thermostat for night; there is also a radiator on 24/7 to keep the temps up.
Even though you may have had your torts for a while the Beginners Mistakes thread is also good for avoiding problems encountered by others (link below) and the Enclosures thread has lots of good ideas, although at 11 inches my 4 year old tort now has his own adapted room as he is too big for an table or viv. How have you got yours set up? Your sullies could be twice as big as my leopard so hope you have plenty of space for them as they grow!!

 

[Nibs]

Lovely, thank Lyn.

This forum has been brilliant - I only joined in December and found that a lot of the information I had been given on how to keep them was definitely not best practice, I have had to make a lot of changes to their diet and housing following the beginner's advice bits. Having kept mine dry for two years and fed on pellets at the advice of the breeder, I have some pyramiding that I need to rectify as much as I can but otherwise they seem to be happy and healthy and are eating like horses!! Thankfully I had been advised right on the lights to use, and also have the CHE heat emitter and a radiator heating the room - though I had to up the temperatures a lot having religiously kept them to the level I had been advised, only to find out that that was all 5 degrees too cold....

Mine are 6" and 7" currently and have now outgrown their indoor enclosures this winter - I'm working on the outdoor one currently in my new house so they can go out for the spring/summer and make the most of the sunlight, and the summer task will then be to build them a new winter enclosure in my garage (already converted to be a study area by the previous occupant) so I hope that will last them for a while.....