Looking for advice on sulcatas

[djb61]

Hello all,
I really want to pick some expert brains here to keep my torts as healthy as can be. We came acrossed two sulcata tortoises from a not so great breeder. We have a male and female both from the same hatch who are roughly 2 years old now. We live in the midwest and as long as the temp is above 70 they stay outside in a 20'x 20' enclosure and in the winter they come inside to a table. We soak them daily per our vets recommendations, give them continuous access to fresh water and Timothy hay. They also have free roam to eat out of our 3 acre lawn during the day. We give them a salad made up of romain, dandelion greens, squash, and calcium powder roughly 4 times a week. Again per our vets recommendations. When we got them they already had mild pyramiding, as they get older the hope is that it will level out. The worries we have are that they don't seem to be putting on enough size in the amount of time we've had them. I'm worried we are doing somthing to prevent growth but at the same note I'm concerned with over feeding. I see everyone else as 10lb torts roughly the same age. Can someone please tell me what I'm not doing or what I'm doing wrong? I want them to live very long healthy lives!

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

@Tom and @wellington might be able to help you.

 

[wellington]

Are you housing them together? Tortoise, specially sulcatas should not be housed in pairs. It's a lot of stress on them and one for sure will be bullied by the other, both of which will prevent them from gaining weight
Also orchard grass hay is much better than Timothy as Timothy is very woody.
Separate them and add some soaked mazuri tortoise food to their diet. The mazuri original is loved by most tortoises, the mazuri LS is the better one but most don't like it.

 

[djb61]

Are you housing them together? Tortoise, specially sulcatas should not be housed in pairs. It's a lot of stress on them and one for sure will be bullied by the other, both of which will prevent them from gaining weight
Also orchard grass hay is much better than Timothy as Timothy is very woody.
Separate them and add some soaked mazuri tortoise food to their diet. The mazuri original is loved by most tortoises, the mazuri LS is the better one but most don't like it.

Yes, they are housed together. They appear to get along great as they are always "cuddling" eachother. I will separate them. Thank you I will add that to there diet.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Cuddling is actually considered bullying in the tortoise world. So is eating together or following each other around.

 

[djb61]

Cuddling is actually considered bullying in the tortoise world. So is eating together or following each other around.

Well that's upsetting. I will correct this immediately. Thank you!

 

[Tom]

Hello all,
I really want to pick some expert brains here to keep my torts as healthy as can be. We came acrossed two sulcata tortoises from a not so great breeder. We have a male and female both from the same hatch who are roughly 2 years old now. We live in the midwest and as long as the temp is above 70 they stay outside in a 20'x 20' enclosure and in the winter they come inside to a table. We soak them daily per our vets recommendations, give them continuous access to fresh water and Timothy hay. They also have free roam to eat out of our 3 acre lawn during the day. We give them a salad made up of romain, dandelion greens, squash, and calcium powder roughly 4 times a week. Again per our vets recommendations. When we got them they already had mild pyramiding, as they get older the hope is that it will level out. The worries we have are that they don't seem to be putting on enough size in the amount of time we've had them. I'm worried we are doing somthing to prevent growth but at the same note I'm concerned with over feeding. I see everyone else as 10lb torts roughly the same age. Can someone please tell me what I'm not doing or what I'm doing wrong? I want them to live very long healthy lives!

What size are they? At 24 months, if all is well, most of them should be nearing the 20 pound mark. 10 pounds isn't terrible, but that would be a slower grower indicating either cool temps, lack of food, or dehydration, which are all common issues for this species. The pair thing is also a terrible stressor, and that also hampers growth. If your are smaller than that, there are issues that need immediate attention. The size of your tortoises will dictate the best advice.

Your vet sounds pretty good, which is a pleasant surprise, as most vets don't know tortoise care very well and make the same wrong recommendations that you see from every other source, because they also learned from those same other wrong sources.

Hay is for larger tortoises. I don't introduce it until they are around 12 inches or more. Prior to that size, grass, weeds, leaves, cactus pads, amended grocery store greens, and a variety of other available good stuff is the way to go.

A key element with this species is heat. At no time should they be below 80 degrees. In the wild, they primarily live underground and the temps there are always 80-85, with day time highs at the surface near 100 degrees almost everyday. Hotter in some areas of their range. 70 degrees outside is fine, as long as there is sunshine for them to warm up in.

Tortoise tables are to suitable for this species. They need high heat and humidity, and there is no way to deliver and maintain that in an open topped table. Tables are for adults of temperate species where dryness and room temps are within the range of what is acceptable for them.

Here are a couple of threads that will catch you up to speed. I'm glad you are here, and questions are welcome.

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

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The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

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