General stuff

[J H]

I adopted roxy 2 weeks ago. She was supposed to be 7 months or so. I just weighed her and she is 185 grams and fairly pyramided. Eats and poop a lot. She peed urates a lot for the first few soaks now none that I see. She does pee a lot when soaked still. She has the 4 temps right on and is at 80+ humidity everywhere but right In the basking spot. She is very active and curious with no fear of us. She eats a little grass / loves spring mix and won't touch tort food. Mazuri or grassland tort food. I wet the food to make it soft crush it up and put little bits on the spring mix. She will find leaves without and on it and eat those but avoid the others with mazuri on them. She also eats dirt. She's on organic soil as a substrate. Everything seem fairly normal for a young sulcata?

 

[JoesMum]

Hi if you post some pictures of Roxy and her enclosure and lighting we will be better able to advise you.

Please give the following a good read as they will help you get things just perfect for Roxy
Beginner Mistakes http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
How to raise a healthy Sulcata http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
For those who have a young Sulcata http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

 

[J H]

I will take pics as soon as I can. I have read the links before. She is in a 90 gallon for now (until I get time to build a larger closed chamber) it has a glass top on most of it foil on the rest. Light and Che hung inside just removed the mvb this week since its warm enough for her to go outside a few hours most days of the week in a secure pen. This allows 80+ humidity constantly. She has hides and tile to eat off and another under the basking light. She has a water bowl at all times and is soaked every day. She was kept by prev owner in a 10 gallon with totally dry coco coir and a water bowl for lizards to tall for her to get in and a coil uvb.

 

[Speedy-1]

Sounds like you are on the right track , actually eating the soil is probably not for the best . If you had a coarser type of substrata that could help . I would keep offering soaked Mazuri pellets every 3rd day or so . They are a really well balanced nutritious part of their diet , a lot better than spring mix !

 

[J H]

I plan to keep offering it but so far she will smell it and then walk away from it. I give it to my adult redfoot 1 time a week and he loves it!

 

[Yvonne G]

Soak only two pieces of Mazuri then mash it up with a fork so it's only crumbs. Wet the spring mix and thoroughly mix in the crumbled Mazuri. Feed it this way every time for weeks. Once the tortoise has taken to eating all the food including the Mazuri crumbs, start mixing in three or four pieces all mashed up into crumbs. Take your time. This may take a year, but eventually you will de-sensitize the tortoise to the smell of the pellets and it will start eating them.

Buy this product:



This contains minerals that the tortoise is looking for by eating dirt. Sprinkle only a tiny bit over the food two or three times a week.

 

[dmmj]

except for the dirt eating everything sounds pretty normal. What type of light are you using?