Help with 2 new Sulcatas

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BekahBear

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i just picked up 2 sulcatas today from someone that "couldnt care for them anymore" and they dont seem to be in perfect health. i was told they will be 1 year old on 7-17-12. they seem small for 1 year old to me...but i dont have any previous experience with sulcatas so i dont know.

here is what i know about them: they were living in a rubbermaid tub. the bedding was dirty hay that smells moldy/yucky. she was feeding them only romaine lettuce from what she told me and the lettuce that was in there was old, mostly dried out, and smelled kinda rancid. i asked her if she had any basking light for them and she said "no, they were near a window". i looked them both over and they have runny poop stuck all over them…one is worse than the other. she said she soaked them in shallow water for about 10 min once every week to 2 weeks. i didnt see a water dish so i asked and she told me "they get all their water from the lettuce" (rolls eyes)

i got them home and soaked them in some luke warm water then tried to wash as much of the poop off as i could. i made them a new temporary enclosure. i want to build a "tortoise table" eventually but i wont have the time for that project for at least a few weeks. i currently have them in a 20gal long tank with a mix of coconut husk, wood grindings, and some sand as bedding. i bought a 100wat UV basking bulb for them. and i put some chopped up bermuda hay (i made my horses share with them) and i gave them some Zoo Med grassland tortoise food soaked in water to soften it.

I have been trying to research proper sulcata care and learn as much as I can about them. I have other reptiles (mostly snakes) but These are the first tortoises that I have had and I want to learn as much as I can about them so I can get them healthy so they can have a nice long happy life with me.

Any and all help, ideas, suggestions, etc. are extremely welcome
Thanks

Hopefully the pics work. If they do the pics are: their old enclosure, their old food dish and some of their “food”, pics of their bellies, a side pic of one of them, their new temporary enclosure, and me holding one for a size reference (sorry for the pics quality/color they were taken with my phone)
 

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cljohnson

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I would say they don't look too bad all things considered.
Nice save on your part.
They do look a little small for that age but their shells look pretty good.
I would start by reading Toms thread "How To Raise Sulcata Hatchlings and Babies."
It's at the top of the Sulcata sub forum in the stickies.
He will probably be along soon and you can ask him questions directly.
 

Arizona Sulcata

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Agreed, I'm surprised they don't look worse. I encountered a similar situation today where the owner was selling them (5 months old), similar living conditions and he said he guaranteed one was male and one female and he was charging $300 for the pair. I sent a message with one of my care sheets and asked how he knew one was male and one was female... Needless to say I received some hate mail back. It's sad to see situations like this and unfortunately its all too common. Good save!
 

Tom

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I agree with Chris here. Given their care, they really don't look too bad. If you click the links in my signature, you'll find all sorts of useful info and ideas. Here are some key points for you.
1. Soak them every day in warm shallow water for 20-30 minutes for the next three weeks or so. After that you can taper it off to 3-4 times a week for the next few months.
2. That tank is much too small. Get a 50 gallon plastic storage bin from the local hardware store and set that up for them. These bins are usually only around $15. While you are there, pick up some plastic shoe boxes to make humid hides out of too.
3. Separate these two. Pairs are problematic usually. There is a whole thread on this in the "Helpful Threads" thread. So get two tubs, more light fixtures and your terra cotta plant saucers for water too. They will recover much faster and do much better without competition.
4. Build them each their own outdoor sunning pens too. Several ideas for this in the threads. They need direct sunshine, and the grazing and exercising will be HUGELY beneficial for them too. Start them on a good diet right away.
5. Those clamps on your fixtures always fail eventually. Find a way to hang the light fixtures directly overhead. This will make it much easier to raise or lower them to get your temps right.
6. When it's time to build a new bigger enclosure consider a closed chamber instead of an open topped table. Much easier to maintain the right conditions and much cheaper to heat too. There is another whole thread on this in the threads below too.

Welcome. Good luck, and keep us posted.
 

Yvonne G

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Hi BekahBear:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

The strange-looking poop is due to only having romaine lettuce to eat. Once they start eating better, food with more fiber, the feces will firm up and quit sticking to them. The best thing for them to eat is weeds and grasses from outside. For babies, I start out with a base of Spring Mix (purchased in the packaged lettuces section of the produce department), and to that I'll add weeds that I pick from outside...fillaree, mallow, grass, clover, grape leaves, mulberry leaves, rose-of-sharon leaves...whatever you can find this time of year outside. I'll chop it all up and mix it together with a pinch of calcium powder. Once they are eating well, and cleaning up their plate, I'll stop chopping it up so small.

Right now, the most important thing for them is to be hydrated. Provide them with a moist, not wet, substrate and soak them every day, even though they have a waterer in the habitat. It will take a while to get them hydrated.

What would you like us to call you?

...and may we know appx. where in the world you are?
 

wellington

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Hello and WELCOME:D. I agree, they don't look as bad as I thought they would. Good save. Follow the advice already given and you should be raising some happy, healthy torts in no time. Good luck
 

BekahBear

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Thanks for all of the suggestions. i have been soaking them daily and they really seem to enjoy it. its cute how they spread out their legs and lay out in the water. I got a terracotta saucer for their water and one of them will even get in there and soak on his own. As for their enclosure...i plan on getting them into something bigger as soon as i can. i figure that after where they came from, they will be okay where they are temporarily until i can get them into a better setup. i finally found the screen top to the tank so i have their light sitting on that instead of using the clip (i hate those clips. i was only using it until i could find the lid) i also got a night time heat light for them and placed it on the other side of the tank. i covered the screen lid with plastic wrap to hold moisture better and cut out 2 holes where the lights go.

I have been trying to offer them different foods to see what they like. They don’t love it but they will eat the bermuda hay if I soak it first. I bought some timothy hay and have been soaking that for them too they will eat a couple pieces of that here and there. I bought some wheat grass from the pet store for them since we have no grass at all at our house for them to graze on and they seem to like that. I trim off some of it and put it in their food dish for them. we have a small grape vine outside and I picked a couple leaves for them. the smaller one really likes those. So far their favorite food though is the prickly pear cactus pads I harvested from outside. I burned off the stickers and cut it up for them. they love it! I ordered some sulcata seed mix and will also start growing that for them when it arrives.

after reading up more on them im thinking of converting one of my old Burmese python enclosures(the Burm outgrew it a couple years ago) for them until they are big enough to live outside instead of making a tortoise table. let me know what you think of this idea. its made from sealed wood and is 30" deep x 18" high x 6' long. it has a radiant heat panel on one side that is wired up to a thermostat. i would just have to wire it up for a UV light and set it up for them.

when it comes to letting them outside for a while during the day I am a bit nervous about that. I live near Tucson AZ and our temps have been well over 100 during the day time. Plus I live out past the middle of nowhere and we have tons of predators here. Im sure I could come up with something that would be predator proof but my biggest worry is the temperature. I work so I cant let them out in the morning since im not home. I would let them out in the evening but it doesn’t even start to cool off until after dark. Do you have any thoughts or ideas on that?
 

cljohnson

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My Sullies absolutely love weeds.
I'm not sure what you can find by the way of weeds in Arizona this time year. It's probably getting pretty dry.
If you can find Dandelions Sow's Thistles Fillery or Mallow these are some of my tortoises favorites.
I also make a big salad once a week using collard greens turnip greens and dandelion greens.
That's what I feed my dragons and I give it to my tortoises occasionally as well.
I am surprised that they're showing interest in hay at that size. Mine will barely nibble at it and their much larger than yours.
If you can get them interested in it it's going to be great for you in the future but for now you're not going to put very much weight on them eating hey.
Here's a web link that lists lots of good foods and bad foods with pictures.
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plants_19.asp

As far as going outside.
You really need to build some kind of secure outdoor sun enclosure.
For me the only day time predators I have our birds so a chicken wire top suffices for me
If you get home from work while the sun is still up. I would put them outside then. Even at your temps they'll be fine for an hour or so the time but, make sure you provide some shade over part of the enclosure If you can do this consistently at least three days a week. Indoor UV bulbs are not actually necessary. Although I would still provide them as a supplement.
 

Tom

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The trick to housing them outdoors in a place like Tuscon is to simulate what they do in the wild to escape the deadly heat: Make them and underground shelter. My friend Tyler does this in Vegas with buried sprinkler boxes. I do it in the CA high desert with wooden boxes that I bury. In my signature is a link to a thread called Helpful threads. In that thread is a link to a thread called Daisy's new enclosure. It will show you in detail how I built it. When we have our stretches of 110+ weather every summer, it's stays 80 down there. All the time, day and night. 80. I love it and so do they. It's awesome. They come up and bask and eat in the morning and then back underground during the heat of the day. In the late afternoon they come up for some more grazing and the back underground again to their warm humid box for a good nights sleep out of the cool air we get here.
 
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