Brand New Baby Hatchling!! Need tons of advice!!!

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BrinnANDTorts

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I am new to this forum but I joined because I just got a brand new Sulcata baby tortoise for 50 bucks and I love him. I named him Gupta off of Outsourced and I was just looking for any advice that anyone with lots of experience could give me.

I feed him Zoo Med Grassland formula once a day with calcium powder sprinkled over it every now and then.
And I give him Zoo Med Reptivite with Vitamin D3 every week or twice a week.
Having recently read all of the threads on how important humidity is I have changed his substrate to moss and one part of his cage is a little bit less "wet" with mulch.
I also spray him and his cage with a huge water bottle everyday to keep it moist.
He has a plastic humidity house. I was wondering what you do to make sure that it stays warm enough in his humidity box? I have a Zoo Med ReptiCare Ceramic Infrared Heat Emitter 100 Watts that I plan to keep his humidity box warm with.
and Gupta has a Zoo Med PowerSun UV Mercury Vapor Lamp 160 Watts so that he gets enough UBV and UVA sunlight since its still too cold to house him outdoors and he is still too small.
Along with that I have a Zoo Med ReptiSun 10.0 Compact Fluorescent Lamp that I read was really, really good light and healthy for your tortoises as long as you put them far enough away from the cage, like a foot and a half or a foot at the least.
And to make sure that his cage stays hot enough and with the right levels of humidity I bought Reptology Reptile Hygrometer Humidity & Temperature Sensor Combo Pack.

Any thoughts or questions or much needed advice to make sure he doesn't pyramid would be much appreciated.

Small Gupta.jpg
 
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Tom

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Hello and welcome.
Its all in the care sheets. I would recommend NOT using the coil bulb. They can damage their eyes and you don't need it with your other bulb. How big is your enclosure? That's an awful lot of electricity for a baby sulcata. Your thermometer will tell you if its too much or not.

Here are some threads:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread...ive-or-Beginner-Tortoise-Owners#axzz1bARcvNVw

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-How-To-Raise-Sulcata-Hatchlings-and-Babies#axzz1bARcvNVw

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Leopard-Tortoise-Care-Sheet#axzz1bARcvNVw

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread...ut-Safe-Outdoor-Baby-Enclosures#axzz1bARcvNVw

Come back after you've read those and fire away with all your questions.
 

tyler0912

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Follow Tom's Links that all i can say! :p :p
Congrats on your lil' fella....
Welcome to the forum....
Enjoy your stay....
Stick around.....
 

Yvonne G

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Hi BrinnANDGupta:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

Is your name Brinn? May we know where you are?

I echo Tom's thoughts on the spiral compact fluorescent bulb.
 

BrinnANDTorts

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5 Year Member
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Messages
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Tom said:
Hello and welcome.
Its all in the care sheets. I would recommend NOT using the coil bulb. They can damage their eyes and you don't need it with your other bulb. How big is your enclosure? That's an awful lot of electricity for a baby sulcata. Your thermometer will tell you if its too much or not.

Here are some threads:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread...ive-or-Beginner-Tortoise-Owners#axzz1bARcvNVw

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-How-To-Raise-Sulcata-Hatchlings-and-Babies#axzz1bARcvNVw

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Leopard-Tortoise-Care-Sheet#axzz1bARcvNVw

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread...ut-Safe-Outdoor-Baby-Enclosures#axzz1bARcvNVw

Come back after you've read those and fire away with all your questions.

I can send the coil bulb back , what bulb would u recommend ?
 

BrinnANDTorts

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BrinnANDGupta said:
I am new to this forum but I joined because I just got a brand new Sulcata baby tortoise for 50 bucks and I love him. I named him Gupta off of Outsourced and I was just looking for any advice that anyone with lots of experience could give me.

I feed him Zoo Med Grassland formula once a day with calcium powder sprinkled over it every now and then.
And I give him Zoo Med Reptivite with Vitamin D3 every week or twice a week.
Having recently read all of the threads on how important humidity is I have changed his substrate to moss and one part of his cage is a little bit less "wet" with mulch.
I also spray him and his cage with a huge water bottle everyday to keep it moist.
He has a plastic humidity house. I was wondering what you do to make sure that it stays warm enough in his humidity box? I have a Zoo Med ReptiCare Ceramic Infrared Heat Emitter 100 Watts that I plan to keep his humidity box warm with.
and Gupta has a Zoo Med PowerSun UV Mercury Vapor Lamp 160 Watts so that he gets enough UBV and UVA sunlight since its still too cold to house him outdoors and he is still too small.
Along with that I have a Zoo Med ReptiSun 10.0 Compact Fluorescent Lamp that I read was really, really good light and healthy for your tortoises as long as you put them far enough away from the cage, like a foot and a half or a foot at the least.
And to make sure that his cage stays hot enough and with the right levels of humidity I bought Reptology Reptile Hygrometer Humidity & Temperature Sensor Combo Pack.

Any thoughts or questions or much needed advice to make sure he doesn't pyramid would be much appreciated.

I am totally going to send the coil bulb back to amazon then. I attached picture of Gupta and his new enclosure, its just a temporary one until I get a bigger one built. Its not very big but he is still very small. The substrate is very wet and inside his humidity box is too. I wont know for sure how wet until the gauges get here then I can adjust.
Photo on 2011-10-18 at 17.06.jpg
O and I havent set up his lights just yet, I like just got done with that new enclosure that why. I am doing that as soon as finish this post. Glad I didn't put the coil one in there.
I couldn't get the best picture of Gupta but I was wondering from these if you could tell me whether or not he looks like he is pyramiding?
Photo on 2011-10-18 at 17.06 #2.jpg
Photo on 2011-10-18 at 17.06 #3.jpg
Photo on 2011-10-18 at 17.06 #4.jpg
 
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BrinnANDTorts

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emysemys said:
Hi BrinnANDGupta:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

Is your name Brinn? May we know where you are?

I echo Tom's thoughts on the spiral compact fluorescent bulb.

My name isn't Brinn its Rebecca, Brinn is my dog
IMAG0051-1.jpg
We all reside in Texas near Dallas
 
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jbean7916

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BrinnANDGupta said:
BrinnANDGupta said:
I am new to this forum but I joined because I just got a brand new Sulcata baby tortoise for 50 bucks and I love him. I named him Gupta off of Outsourced and I was just looking for any advice that anyone with lots of experience could give me.

I feed him Zoo Med Grassland formula once a day with calcium powder sprinkled over it every now and then.
And I give him Zoo Med Reptivite with Vitamin D3 every week or twice a week.
Having recently read all of the threads on how important humidity is I have changed his substrate to moss and one part of his cage is a little bit less "wet" with mulch.
I also spray him and his cage with a huge water bottle everyday to keep it moist.
He has a plastic humidity house. I was wondering what you do to make sure that it stays warm enough in his humidity box? I have a Zoo Med ReptiCare Ceramic Infrared Heat Emitter 100 Watts that I plan to keep his humidity box warm with.
and Gupta has a Zoo Med PowerSun UV Mercury Vapor Lamp 160 Watts so that he gets enough UBV and UVA sunlight since its still too cold to house him outdoors and he is still too small.
Along with that I have a Zoo Med ReptiSun 10.0 Compact Fluorescent Lamp that I read was really, really good light and healthy for your tortoises as long as you put them far enough away from the cage, like a foot and a half or a foot at the least.
And to make sure that his cage stays hot enough and with the right levels of humidity I bought Reptology Reptile Hygrometer Humidity & Temperature Sensor Combo Pack.

Any thoughts or questions or much needed advice to make sure he doesn't pyramid would be much appreciated.

I am totally going to send the coil bulb back to amazon then. I attached picture of Gupta and his new enclosure, its just a temporary one until I get a bigger one built. Its not very big but he is still very small. The substrate is very wet and inside his humidity box is too. I wont know for sure how wet until the gauges get here then I can adjust.

O and I havent set up his lights just yet, I like just got done with that new enclosure that why. I am doing that as soon as finish this post. Glad I didn't put the coil one in there.
I couldn't get the best picture of Gupta but I was wondering from these if you could tell me whether or not he looks like he is pyramiding?

He doesn't look to be pyramiding to me but that's hard to see with hatchlings. He does look quite swollen though
 

jbean7916

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BrinnANDGupta said:
Why would he be swollen?

I'm not sure. There was another poster that had the same issue this week. I'm thinking it's diet related but I'm no expert
 

BrinnANDTorts

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Gupta appreciates his very very warm welcome and awesome advice!!
img42131dragged2.png
 
M

Maggie Cummings

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I wish you would feed him a more natural diet with greens and grass and weeds and get rid of that grassland stuff. He'd be better off with the greens and Mazuri as a supplement, but living on that grassland stuff is not good. I'm betting that's why he looks so swollen...

welcome, do a search on Bob and you will get all the Sulcata pictures you can stand to look at...
 

BrinnANDTorts

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maggie3fan said:
I wish you would feed him a more natural diet with greens and grass and weeds and get rid of that grassland stuff. He'd be better off with the greens and Mazuri as a supplement, but living on that grassland stuff is not good. I'm betting that's why he looks so swollen...

welcome, do a search on Bob and you will get all the Sulcata pictures you can stand to look at...

I feed him turnip greens, collard greens, mustard greens, some pumpkin , and be grazes on the grass I planted in his cage and I put grass clippings in his cage from outside . And he grazes outside when he is suning. That grass is a seed mix I got from sulcatafood.com that someone recommended to me on this forum. And ur gets a calcium and vitamin with D3 supplements . And I try to feed him hay . Ever since I planted that grass in his cage he hasn't been interested in much else, how can I fix that
 
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