Greetings from a new Sulcata mom!

Sam-I-Am

New Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2018
Messages
1
Location (City and/or State)
Dallas
Hey all!

I am a former zookeeper, so I have taken care of Leopard, Galapagos, and South-American Red-footed before, but this is my first tortoise baby of my very own! I've attached pictures of his enclosure in case anyone sees anything drastically terrible. The heat source is a ceramic coil. The food he has is a spring mix from the grocery store with some grass clippings from my yard and a couple crushed up ZooMed Grassland Tortoise pellets mixed in. I'm trying to get him to eat the yard grass, but he seems completely disinterested :(

What's the best way to keep the humidity up? I tried soaking his log hideout, but that didn't seem to do much. Any help would be greatly appreciated. So happy to be joining a community with so many helpful, experienced people :)

IMG_20181020_200547.jpg IMG_20181020_200556.jpg IMG_20181020_200604.jpg IMG_20181020_200608.jpg
 

KarenSoCal

Well-Known Member
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
5,749
Location (City and/or State)
Low desert 50 mi SE of Palm Springs CA
Hi yourself! [emoji2]
Welcome to TFO! You've come to the very best place to get correct info on how to care for your new baby!

I don't have a sully...I have a DT, but these threads are where we start every new sully mama out.

Please read these carefully, and come back for answers to questions or clarification. The author of these threads is a very active member, and he will be happy to explain anything to you.

Cut the grass clippings very tiny and keep mixing them in with the spring mix.

https://tortoiseforum.org/index.php?posts/716928

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/

You might want to print this list out...

You may need to rely on grocery store foods for now. Good foods for tortoises are "chicories," types of lettuce that are likely to be on the far side of the more common floppy green heads of lettuce most people buy. Anything labeled as simply "chicory" is good, as are radiccio, frisee, escarole, and endive; you might even find something labeled as dandelions. You may find a bag of "Spring" or "Spicy" mix that is good, just check the label to be sure it has some of the chicories I just mentioned. The leaves (just the leaves) of turnips and radishes are also good, as are carrot tops. Collards, mustard greens, bok choy, and other dark, leafy greens are okay as well. If you have any kind of Mexican/hispanic market near you, they will sell cactus, labeled "nopales." Cactus is a great food to rotate in the diet, as it is high in calcium.

You don't need to feed all of these at one time, just make sure your tortoise is getting access to different types of food. As you get more experienced, you can find the better types of food listed on the care sheets.

Here are a whole bunch of non-grocery store suggestions.

Mulberry leaves
Grape vine leaves
Hibiscus leaves
African hibiscus leaves
Blue hibiscus leaves
Rose of Sharon leaves
Rose leaves
Geraniums
Gazanias
Nasturtium
Lavatera
Pansies
Petunias
Hostas
Honeysuckle
Cape honeysuckle
Leaves and blooms from any squash plant, like pumpkin, cucumber, summer squash, etc...
Young spineless opuntia cactus pads

Weeds:

There are soooooooo many...
Dandelion
Mallow
Filaree
Smooth Sow thistle
Prickly Sow thistle
Milk thistle
Goat head weed
Cats ear
Nettles
Trefoil
Wild onion
Wild mustard
Wild Garlic
Clovers
Broadleaf plantain
Narrow leaf plantain
Chick weed
Hawksbit
Hensbit
Hawksbeard

Other good stuff:

"Testudo Seed Mix" from http://www.tortoisesupply.com/SeedMixes

Pasture mixes or other seeds from http://www.groworganic.com/seeds.html

Homegrown alfalfa

Mazuri Tortoise Chow

ZooMed Grassland Tortoise Food

Ones that you can buy in every store:
Arugula
Lambs lettuce
Chicory
Kale
Mustard greens
Organic kohlrabi leafs
Organic carrot leafs
Organic radish leafs
Dandelions
Radiccio
 

wellington

Well-Known Member
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Tortoise Club
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
49,655
Location (City and/or State)
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Welcome. Looks like you got a load of info already too read thru. Closed chamber really damp substrate, temps not lower then 80 and timers and thermostats to run heat sources and a temp gun are all needed to keep a healthy tortoise and things easier on you.
 

Arzu78

Active Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2018
Messages
109
Location (City and/or State)
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Hi, gorgeous baby tort [emoji8][emoji8][emoji8] I use the grassland pellets, since they are huge I cut them on 3, moist them and just leave them in the plate, Lizzy nibbles on them when she wants to. I clean whatever is left every 24 hours. Will be switching to Mazuri when I recover $$$
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,405
Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
Hi and welcome!

Zoos don't always have the best information about tortoise-keeping, so I suggest you toss everything in your mind out and read our information with an open mind - your new baby will thank you for it!
 

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