Shedon's mom
New Member
Hello All, thanks for having this forum, I read it often as we are new to this. We inherited a grown Sulcata tortoise from a grand-nephew who lost interest. We have a home in Colorado with cold winters, not ideal for the tortoise. The good thing is that our place has a good fenced yard with a couple of acres for roaming.
We adopted Sheldon in the fall; he is pyramided and was about 21 pounds at 6 (?) years of age. We were worried about trying to hibernate him over the winter due to concerns about his health, so we kept him awake. He wintered in our laundry room with a heating pad, UVB light overhead and heat lamps (even our laundry room can get cool in winter). We kept his temperature about 85 F and fed him a mix of fine hays (commercial mixes for rabbits and guinea pigs) mixed with cactus and fresh greens, trying to avoid those which are not good for them which we learned from this forum. Occasionally we sprinkle on reptile mineral supplement. He weighs nearly 25 pounds now and stayed awake and active through the winter. On warm sunny days > 55 F outside we would put him out to take his laps in the yard, and on days that were too cold to go outside, he could walk in the house for a bit. We soak him in a shallow bath once a week. He has stayed really vigorous and active through the winter.
Anyway, spring has sprung here and he has been able to go outdoors every day for at least the last two weeks due to the temperatures being high enough. After the long winter, our yard contained the old half dead grass and some weeds which he was eating. We have had several days of spring rain, though, and the grass has grown like crazy. Yesterday I noticed he was having a great time really trucking around the yard and was feeding a lot on the fresh grass and weeds.
Overnight and this morning he has now had multiple areas of diarrhea around his fibrous stools from the sudden diet change to too much rich grass. This morning he refused to go outside which is unlike him (he usually walks from the laundry to the back door on his own to go out). He is in the laundry room hiding on his warm mat and I am wondering how quickly he might get dehydrated ....and also, how do we keep him from overfeeding in the future?
Also - one other diet question - grazing all day on lawn grass and occasional weed seems like a really low nutrition diet to me, how is this any better than only feeding a tortoise romaine lettuce?? But when he grazes all day it seems crazy to supplement him with other food...
Interested in any thoughts....
We adopted Sheldon in the fall; he is pyramided and was about 21 pounds at 6 (?) years of age. We were worried about trying to hibernate him over the winter due to concerns about his health, so we kept him awake. He wintered in our laundry room with a heating pad, UVB light overhead and heat lamps (even our laundry room can get cool in winter). We kept his temperature about 85 F and fed him a mix of fine hays (commercial mixes for rabbits and guinea pigs) mixed with cactus and fresh greens, trying to avoid those which are not good for them which we learned from this forum. Occasionally we sprinkle on reptile mineral supplement. He weighs nearly 25 pounds now and stayed awake and active through the winter. On warm sunny days > 55 F outside we would put him out to take his laps in the yard, and on days that were too cold to go outside, he could walk in the house for a bit. We soak him in a shallow bath once a week. He has stayed really vigorous and active through the winter.
Anyway, spring has sprung here and he has been able to go outdoors every day for at least the last two weeks due to the temperatures being high enough. After the long winter, our yard contained the old half dead grass and some weeds which he was eating. We have had several days of spring rain, though, and the grass has grown like crazy. Yesterday I noticed he was having a great time really trucking around the yard and was feeding a lot on the fresh grass and weeds.
Overnight and this morning he has now had multiple areas of diarrhea around his fibrous stools from the sudden diet change to too much rich grass. This morning he refused to go outside which is unlike him (he usually walks from the laundry to the back door on his own to go out). He is in the laundry room hiding on his warm mat and I am wondering how quickly he might get dehydrated ....and also, how do we keep him from overfeeding in the future?
Also - one other diet question - grazing all day on lawn grass and occasional weed seems like a really low nutrition diet to me, how is this any better than only feeding a tortoise romaine lettuce?? But when he grazes all day it seems crazy to supplement him with other food...
Interested in any thoughts....