Baby Sulcata Found in Garage Please Advise

[tweektweets]

Hi guys!!

About a month or so ago my grandmother found a baby sulcata in her garage. We have no idea where it came from and we’re currently looking for somewhere to rehome it so it can be properly taken care of. In the meantime, I put together a very basic little enclosure for it, but it constantly paces around the perimeter of the container and scratches at the sides like it’s trying to escape. Any tips for a temporary tortoise mother?

 

[Tom]

Hi guys!!

About a month or so ago my grandmother found a baby sulcata in her garage. We have no idea where it came from and we’re currently looking for somewhere to rehome it so it can be properly taken care of. In the meantime, I put together a very basic little enclosure for it, but it constantly paces around the perimeter of the container and scratches at the sides like it’s trying to escape. Any tips for a temporary tortoise mother?

Hello and welcome. You shouldn't have any trouble placing a baby here in CA.

This baby needs to be kept warm day and night. Above 80 all the time, and low 90s is good for day time, but not too hot. They can cook in full sun.

Get rid of the shaving and the hay.The damp coir is good for them.

Best to close in the top to keep humidity up.

Give it a warm water soak every day for 30-40 minutes in a tall sided opaque tub of some sort.

Here is the care info:

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Have you asked around your neighborhood to see who the owner might be? This species CAN ground hatch here in the warmer parts of CA, but not in the spring. They need the long hot days of summer to incubate in the ground here and then hatch in late September through October. If this was walking around a month ago, somebody lost their pet. People commonly, mistakenly, let their tortoises free roam, and this is the usual result. Thank goodness you found it and not a dog or a car tire or a raccoon, rat, raven, ants, etc...

A baby like this is not likely to be more than a few houses away from where it was lost.

 

[DoubleD1996!]

Hi guys!!

About a month or so ago my grandmother found a baby sulcata in her garage. We have no idea where it came from and we’re currently looking for somewhere to rehome it so it can be properly taken care of. In the meantime, I put together a very basic little enclosure for it, but it constantly paces around the perimeter of the container and scratches at the sides like it’s trying to escape. Any tips for a temporary tortoise mother?

Someone's sulcata probably laid eggs in the ground and babies are now walking about.

It's normal for any turtle or tortoise to pace in a a new environment, or if they can see a way out. There's plenty of information on the forum of how to raise up baby sulcata, but here's a great video reference in general:

 

[Tom]

Someone's sulcata probably laid eggs in the ground and babies are now walking about.

This is not likely at this time of year. The only time this would happen is in the fall, after a long hot summer, and a baby like this that hatched last fall would not have survived the cold and rain over winter here outdoors. There is no plausible scenario where eggs laid in the ground here in CA would hatch and a baby walking around mid July. The very earliest that could happen would be September. Its even less likely this year because we had a very cold and overcast spring. My grapevines and mulberry trees came back to life two months later than usual. There is no physically possible way these egg could have incubated here in the ground in the last three months, even on open ground in full sun with no shade.

Sulcatas lay here from January though May. I had an odd late December clutch every now and then, but that is not the norm. I never had a clutch later than May, and never over the summer. Nests that are laid over winter and missed can hatch if they are in an open area in full sun and we have a normal hot summer with temps around 100 every day, but they have to incubate in the ground all summer long. I've had winter nests dug up by another laying female in May, and there is zero embryo development.

This is someone's escaped pet. Its also too clean looking to have been ground hatched or been living outside.

 

[wellington]

Someone's sulcata probably laid eggs in the ground and babies are now walking about.

It's normal for any turtle or tortoise to pace in a a new environment, or if they can see a way out. There's plenty of information on the forum of how to raise up baby sulcata, but here's a great video reference in general:

Sadly that video has a few things that should not be done and I only watched a small portion of it. Personally I think sticking to the forums caresheet is the better way to go!

 

[Tom]

Someone's sulcata probably laid eggs in the ground and babies are now walking about.

It's normal for any turtle or tortoise to pace in a a new environment, or if they can see a way out. There's plenty of information on the forum of how to raise up baby sulcata, but here's a great video reference in general:

Some of this is good info, but you and everyone reading should be aware of the problems with this info.

1. No mention of the critical brooder box stage where they absorb their yolk sac and the umbilical scar closes up BEFORE they go Ito a regular enclosure with substrate.
2. Sand. Chris is a good guy and mostly gives good info, but he doesn't recognize the danger of using sand because as far as he knows, it hasn't caused him any problems. But it does cause problems. Lots of problems. Reptile vets see many cases annually in their practices. It is a skin and eye irritant, and it can cause impactions, even as a small part of mixed substrate. He reasons that they encounter sand in the natural environment. I counter that with two points: 1. Our little totes and tiny enclosures are NOT the wild, and there is no possible way to understand or simulate all that happens in the wild. In captive condition they get sometimes sand impacted. How do you avoid sand impaction and skin and eye irritation? Don't use sand. Plain and simple. They don't need it. It serves no useful purpose. They grow up fine and dandy without it. Point number 2. There are lots of things in the wild that they are exposed to that are not good for them. Predators, drought, famine, disease, weather extremes, etc... We can all see why it would not be a good idea to inflict these things upon them in a captive setting. I don't understand why Chris doesn't recognize that its not a good idea to expose them to something that kills lots of them every year all over the globe, just because they might encounter it in the wild.
3. Calcium once a month? I don't think that is enough for larger species that are growing rapidly. And I would not add calcium to Mazuri. Mazuri is balanced nutrition. Adding calcium upsets that balance. I recommend adding calcium supplementation on greens days with no Mazuri. And twice a week seems much more reasonable to me, but this does depend on the diet, size, species, age, and sex. I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all answer to this, and there is a wide margin of error for whatever someone chooses to do. With a decent diet that includes Mazuri, I don't think once a month calcium will hurt anything.
4. Somebody tell Chris (9:36), pyramiding doesn't lead to liver and kidney failure. I think he knows this, and what he was trying to say was that the chronic dehydration that causes pyramiding when they are little can lead to kidney failure, but the way he phrased it would be confusing to someone who doesn't know how this all works.
5. He's still recommending cfl bulbs. Not good. Just like sand. They don't need it, and there are better alternatives that won't burn their eyes.
6. Still recommending a spot bulb. Not good. Causes the the very pyramiding he aims to prevent.
7. No mention of soaking. Did I miss that?

The rest of the info about hides and cover, humidity, closed chambers is excellent. He didn't go much into diet, so I hope people don't watch this and think they should feed Mazuri mixed with greens every day.

It should be obvious to everyone that there is more than one way to do things. I don't care if people just choose to do things in a different way than I do things, AS LONG AS, those different ways are not causing harm. Some of the above mentioned differences in how to care for babies can and will do harm to tortoises, and that is my sole point for taking the time to type up this post.

 

[tweektweets]

Hello and welcome. You shouldn't have any trouble placing a baby here in CA.

This baby needs to be kept warm day and night. Above 80 all the time, and low 90s is good for day time, but not too hot. They can cook in full sun.

Get rid of the shaving and the hay.The damp coir is good for them.

Best to close in the top to keep humidity up.

Give it a warm water soak every day for 30-40 minutes in a tall sided opaque tub of some sort.

Here is the care info:

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Have you asked around your neighborhood to see who the owner might be? This species CAN ground hatch here in the warmer parts of CA, but not in the spring. They need the long hot days of summer to incubate in the ground here and then hatch in late September through October. If this was walking around a month ago, somebody lost their pet. People commonly, mistakenly, let their tortoises free roam, and this is the usual result. Thank goodness you found it and not a dog or a car tire or a raccoon, rat, raven, ants, etc...

A baby like this is not likely to be more than a few houses away from where it was lost.

Oh wow, never even considered it could be somebody’s pet!! I’ll be sure to ask around to see if I can where they came from. I’m surprised, I thought the humidity would be bad for them since they’re a desert tortoise! Poor little guy, I must’ve been drying him out. Looks like another run to the store for more dirt is in order!

Thank you for the advice! I’ll be reading through that care sheet today and giving this fella a better time.

 

[Tom]

Oh wow, never even considered it could be somebody’s pet!! I’ll be sure to ask around to see if I can where they came from. I’m surprised, I thought the humidity would be bad for them since they’re a desert tortoise! Poor little guy, I must’ve been drying him out. Looks like another run to the store for more dirt is in order!

Thank you for the advice! I’ll be reading through that care sheet today and giving this fella a better time.

They are NOT a desert species. That is the old incorrect info that I mentioned in the thread I left for you. In the wild, that hatch at the start of the rainy monsoon season and there are puddles, marshes, and very high humidity all around.