Hello from Whittier, Cali

[William Garcia]

Hola everyone name is William I’m from Whittier, Cali. I’m the proud owner of 2 baby sulcata tortoises, took my daughter to repticon this past weekend and came home with 2 babies. I’m excited to see these two Lil ones grow up and get some great knowledge from this forum.

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome!

 

[JoesMum]

Hello and welcome to TFO

I will start by giving you some reading to do. The TFO care guides are written by species experts working hard to correct the outdated information widely available on the internet and from pet stores and, sadly, from some breeders and vets too.

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 that have a young Sulcata
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

Your sulcatas will grow very rapidly into 100lb+ bulldozers that will live for 50+ years so getting their care right is essential.

They are territorial animals. They are not social and see other tortoises as rivals for food and space. In the wild they avoid each other’s company apart from mating; they don’t get lonely. Gender and being hatch mates makes no difference.

Pairs don’t do well. There’s always a dominant animal and the subordinate one is given constant mental and/or physical signals to leave. The subordinate tortoise becomes stressed and stressed tortoises get sick. These two need to be kept entirely separately; hopefully they already are

Groups of 3 or more may succeed in a very large outdoor enclosure with plenty of sight barriers, but there are no guarantees and you should only keep as many as you have room for separately.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Hello, William, and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum.

 

[Big Charlie]

Welcome William, from another California sulcata owner. Mine is 18 years old.

 

[RosemaryDW]

Welcome to the forum from another Southern California member!

 

[William Garcia]

Welcome to the forum from another Southern California member!

Hello Rosemary I wanted to see if I can ask you some questions and pick your brain on baby sulcate's since your from the so cal area. I just picked up two baby sulcata's from the replicon last weekend, I have been looking on here for baby enclosures but can't seem to find some info for them. I have them in a glass terrarium with UV lighting (100w) and a night light as well. but I wanted to get your opinion since you live in the so cal area.

 

[RosemaryDW]

Hello Rosemary I wanted to see if I can ask you some questions and pick your brain on baby sulcate's since your from the so cal area. I just picked up two baby sulcata's from the replicon last weekend, I have been looking on here for baby enclosures but can't seem to find some info for them. I have them in a glass terrarium with UV lighting (100w) and a night light as well. but I wanted to get your opinion since you live in the so cal area.

William, when it comes to babies, location is not that important, as they need to be kept inside. Please take a look at the raising babies thread in the sulcata subforum: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/. It has the information you need for temps and humidity. Once you’ve taken a look at it, post any additional questions in that same sulcata forum.

I can tell you pretty quickly that tortoises should not have night lights. If you need night heat, use a ceramic heat emitter (CHE). Other than that, stick to the experts in the sulcata section. @Tom is usually around that forum to give help.

 

[JoesMum]

William, when it comes to babies, location is not that important, as they need to be kept inside. Please take a look at the raising babies thread in the sulcata subforum: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/. It has the information you need for temps and humidity. Once you’ve taken a look at it, post any additional questions in that same sulcata forum.

I can tell you pretty quickly that tortoises should not have night lights. If you need night heat, use a ceramic heat emitter (CHE). Other than that, stick to the experts in the sulcata section. @Tom is usually around that forum to give help.

Agreed with all the above.

William, don’t forget that Sulcatas grow very quickly into 100lb+ bulldozers that cannot hibernate and will need very large insulated and heated accommodation in winter if you live somewhere with a colder climate

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome William.

Your going to need to house them separately ASAP. Groups of babies are usually okay, but pairs are not.

Everything you need to know is in those threads that Joe's Mum linked for you. Most of the care info for this species out there in the world is all wrong, so please give those a read. After that, I hope you have lots of questions for us.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hi William