Bedding Hay vs Bed-A-Beast

[DrSkyentist]

Hey all!
After literally years of research I've finally pulled the trigger and gotten a Sulcata Hatchling. I've dubbed her Jadzia Dax, Dax for short, and can't wait for the years to come! There are a few things that I need clarify, right now it's bedding. The lady at the pet store who's raised Sulcata's herself swears by using hay for her's since they can dig through it and eat it and told em to avoid the bed-a-beast since that can cause impacting if ingested. Yet everyone on here seems to be using the bed-a-beast. I soak her for 15 to 20 minutes each day and have water always available.

I was considering doing a hybrid idea of putting bed a beast on the side of her enclosure with the hide out, and hay on the other 75% of the enclosure particularly where the basking is. What do you think??

Thanks!

 

[wellington]

Forget everything the lady told you and stick to what is tried and tested here. Please read and follow Toms threads for raising a healthy and smooth sulcata. They are below in my post. Hay if very drying, sulcatas need high humidity. Coconut coir, holds moisture really well, won't cause impaction and is my fave.

 

[DrSkyentist]

Thanks for the super quick feedback! Ok I will replace it as soon as I get home. How deep should I make it? How deep should I make it? And what about "Live" Bedding? Ive read about people using moss and live grass on indoor enclosures?

 

[lismar79]

Thanks for the super quick feedback! Ok I will replace it as soon as I get home. How deep should I make it? How deep should I make it? And what about "Live" Bedding? Ive read about people using moss and live grass on indoor enclosures?

I have mine about four inches an then another two inches of fir bark which I like because its neater. Moss is great in the hide, good to snuggle down into. I tried grass and it was too hard to keep from molding in high humidity.

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

Coco coir! (imagine heroic music)
It holds moisture well, is digestible, and smells nice... sort of

 

[Yvonne G]

Anyone can raise sulcatas. They are one of the easiest species of tortoise to breed and have babies. The question should be How smooth are her babies? We have already done the trial and error for you. And what we've found is that sulcata babies hatch out during the monsoon season. This means there are babies on the ground when it is very wet with plenty of green and growing things all around them. Not hay and not alfalfa pellets, but moisture and greenery. Baby sulcatas raised with moisture end up with very smooth (not bumpy) shells. They grow better/faster and are healthier.

 

[taza]

Hi there I have a Dax too, and a Major Kira! I guess you can say we are Trekies.

 

[DrSkyentist]

Lol yea! I'm thinking of getting a Worf for her! On that note do they do better in pairs?

 

[Tom]

PLEASE read the following posts. You need some serious help and quickly. You are being given info that could hurt or kill your tortoise.

1. Hay is a great substrate if you want to raise a stunted, pyramided, dehydrated tortoise.
2. Mixing hay and coir is a good way to encourage mold and fungus. Not good.
3. Coir does not cause impaction. Never seen one case in all my years. Still, I prefer orchid bark for baby sulcatas. 3-4" depth is good.
4. They do NOT do better in pairs. Quite the opposite.

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/pairs.34837/

 

[DrSkyentist]

Thanks those where all insanely helpful! I'm just taking it one day at a time now and making sure that she gets her daily soakings and has all she needs. Can you point out any signs that things are going wrong? Like how can I tell if she's not getting enough or too much calcium?

 

[DrSkyentist]

ok! I've changed her bedding from hay to about 4 inches of eco earth bedding! I'm spraying it down a few times a day to keep humidity up and giving her a soaking every other day. What percentage should I keep the hydrometer at?

 

[Tom]

ok! I've changed her bedding from hay to about 4 inches of eco earth bedding! I'm spraying it down a few times a day to keep humidity up and giving her a soaking every other day. What percentage should I keep the hydrometer at?

I prefer to keep humidity around 80%. As it states in the threads above, don't let your night temps drop below 80.

Good appetite and consistent growth are your best indicators that everything is going well. You can get a kitchen gram scale and do weekly weights on your tortoise.

If you feed a good weedy, grassy diet, give a pinch of calcium on the food a couple of times a week, and leave a cuttle bone in the enclosures, you don't have to worry about calcium. Short of blood work or extreme cases of MBD, there is not really a way to tell if they are getting enough or not. If you do all of the above and daily soaks, you should never have a problem.

 

[DrSkyentist]

I prefer to keep humidity around 80%. As it states in the threads above, don't let your night temps drop below 80.

Good appetite and consistent growth are your best indicators that everything is going well. You can get a kitchen gram scale and do weekly weights on your tortoise.

If you feed a good weedy, grassy diet, give a pinch of calcium on the food a couple of times a week, and leave a cuttle bone in the enclosures, you don't have to worry about calcium. Short of blood work or extreme cases of MBD, there is not really a way to tell if they are getting enough or not. If you do all of the above and daily soaks, you should never have a problem.

Cool, I've started keeping a log of her weight daily. As far as diet goes I have grass and hay always available so she can graze and about 4 days a week she gets some leafy greens, and once a week she'll get a fruit of some sort. Twice a week I put a scoop of calcium powder in a small spray bottle and spray her food with it so that it gets an even distribution of powder. And twice a month I do the same with multivitamin. Sound good?

 

[Tom]

I don't think any of the above is going to be catastrophic to your tortoises health. Everyone has little things that they prefer based on a wide variety on experience and other factors. Here are my preferences and opinions regarding the above:

Grass always available is good.

Most babies aren't going to mess with dry hay. They usually don't start eating hay until around the 12" mark or so. You can introduce it anytime, but I usually start feeding them on a pile of grass hay, instead of a plastic tray, when they are 6"+. By 10-12" they start eating the hay too, in most cases.

I prefer to "feed" babies everyday. I like to mix grass or rehydrated chopped grass hay with all the leafy greens daily. "Leafy greens" to me means weeds, leaves, and only occasionally grocery store type greens. Throw in occasional cactus pads, Mazuri, or soaked ZooMed pellets, and I think you'll have a great diet.

I would skip the fruit entirely. Its not a "good" food, so why take up stomach space and potentially cause problems with all the sugar? They don't need it, and it can do harm in some cases, so I don't feed it at all. Mine will occasionally see a tiny amount of bell pepper, tomato or squash mixed into a five gallon bucket of weeds and grass, but this is about the only "fruit" they ever see.

I don't see any need to mix and spray the calcium, but if you like it that way, I don't see any harm in it. I prefer to use the vitamins once a week for babies, but with a good diet, you probably don't need it at all, so twice a month is probably fine. This one is also done by "feel" for me. If my weed patches are dying off with the onset of winter and the rains have not come yet and brought back all my wild weed patches, and the mulberry leaves have all dropped off, then I sometimes will resort to buying a case or two of endive, escarole and whatever else is available at the store to feed them. I add chopped rehydrated grass hay to the grocery store greens, but during these times I tend to add more calcium and vitamin powder than the times of year when they are free grazing on wild grasses and weeds grown in our high calcium native soil here. If you live in some place with calcium poor native soil, you might want to consider supplementing more often, depending on what your baby is eating at that time of year.

 

[DrSkyentist]

Thanks for the info! Dax loves her hay though she has a bit of a hard time eating the longer pieces. Though she absolutly loves her greens and fresh stuff way more.

 

[DeanS]

If your hatchling is testing the hay as a food source...then you'll need to cut it into 1/2" pieces. Anything larger (and this goes for lawn grass too) can make elimination difficult! I, myself, grind alfalfa and orchard grass down to a powder and mix it in with their greens and their Mazuri...as well as sprinkling the powder on top!