Corn fed

[Dogg]

i am new to this site, so howdy ya all. My reason for even finding this site was a concern of my sons spurred tortoise shell appears to be splitting. I searched and found an old topic from 2015. Her tortoise had the same problem but she indicated her tortoise wouldn’t eat a lot of stuff just romaine lettuce so the solution was the tortoises diet. Well I question that theory with my sons tortoise (Rocky). He eats everything grandma puts out for him, cabbage, romaine, coliflower, watermelon rines, cantaloupe rines, brocoly, but his absolute favorite is corn. So she feeds him one maybe two a day along with greens and let’s him run through the water while she waters her plants pretty much every day. Yes, Rocky is spoiled and he loves being around us when we are in the yard. I keep telling grandma she is feeding him too much but she doesn’t listen cause he eats everything which is a head of lettuce plus 1/2 cabbage and up to 2 corn cobs a day. He is about 80lbs. Any thoughts on how he is cared for? We absolutely love this guy even when he gets mad and rearranges everything on the patio so it would suck if are causing his shell to split. Thanks for reading this

 

[T Smart]

Wish I knew the answer! Anyways, welcome to the forum. Lovely setup you got.

 

[TechnoCheese]

Everything she is feeding should almost never be fed, and if not that, only very occasionally as part of a varied diet.
Here’s a diet sheet-
For Those Who Have a Young Sulcata... https://tortoiseforum.org/index.php?threads/For-Those-Who-Have-a-Young-Sulcata....76744/
It’s for hatchlings and juveniles, but the same basically applies, except that this tortoise should be eating almost entirely weeds and grasses/Hays.

 

[Ray--Opo]

Welcome and good luck. Looks and sounds like your tort has a wonderful home!

 

[wellington]

Agree with TechnoCheese. Very poor diet. Corn should not be fed at all. Change the diet asap. Also he is very dry, shell and head shows it. Give a nice warm soak and give him a pool or mud hole or a humid hide too sleep in.

 

[Tom]

I agree with previous posters about the foods. None of those things should be fed to a tortoise at all. Small amount of any of that once in a while won't do any harm, but there are soooooo many better rings to be feeding a sulcata.

The shell is not splitting. What you are seeing there is the result of growth in conditions that are too dry. This tortoise needs a warm, temperature controlled, humidified night box to sleep in. If you are more than a few miles inland from the coast, this tortoise should be encouraged/allowed to burrow in the hot summer months.

Read that thread that @TechnoCheese posted for good food recommendations and ideas.

 

[Yvonne G]

I would like to address what you're calling your tortoise. A "spurred tortoise" is usually referring to a Greek tortoise, which is a species that doesn't get nearly as big as yours. What your son has there is a Sulcata tortoise.

I see that you have his hiding place covered with blankets. Does that mean that it gets cold at night? Blankets really do nothing to help a tortoise stay warm, as they are cold blooded and don't generate any heat on their own. He needs some sort of heating element in there to keep him warm.

The spot on the shell that you're worried about is new growth that is dry and chapped, sort of like human hands when they get dry and chapped. You can help lubricate it by dipping a Q-tip into either olive oil or coconut oil and painting that line. Allow it to absorb for about 15 minutes, then wipe off the excess.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Welcome.
You have just found the right place!

 

[William Bjerglund]

Welcome! he is definitely getting too much food look at his shell and compare it to others for example i would start from there and try to lower the diet amount however i hope you can get the help you need from here on out Welcome again!