New 6 month old sulcata

J H

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Well my other rescue Dave passed. Did my best with his mbd and ri. All 4 temps were good humidity was good had mvb ect. He ate a little after ri was treated but then suddenly the soft flesh areas seemed to swell up and then he quickly passed. Well there is another sulcata on Craigslist. The people have had it 3-4 months they believe it's 6-7 months old. He lives in a 10 gal aquarium now. Raised dry I am sure. They bought him at pet expo (store) in Mankato mn. image.jpegimage.jpeg image.jpegimage.jpeg image.jpeg These are pics from the current owner. See any problems? He claims he eats well and appears healthy. I believe he is pyramiding a little. Does he look ok to adopt?
 

SarahChelonoidis

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He is very pyramided and that's about all that can be said from photos, but he looks like he's past the most fragile hatchling stage size wise so I see no obvious issues with adopting it.
 

Yvonne G

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It's pretty pyramided, but if you bring "her" (because of the extra scute) home and set her up correctly, in a humid environment, it will probably be ok.

Just to let YOU know, they have put too much calcium over that food.
 

J H

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Ok I hope he/she is past the fragile stage. I don't want to loose another. But aside of pyramiding looks ok? From what you can see anyhow. I just hate to see it in a 10 gal
 

Tom

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This one should survive for you.

Just about everything in their set up is wrong, but I'm guessing you already know that.
 

J H

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image.jpeg image.jpeg Yep. That's why I want him. I have an adult redfoot in a large closed chamber. I know they are different species but...and no they won't be living together. Above is Bob in his house. I got him as an adult. He has an outdoor enclosure also He destroyed all plants but the palm FYI The new guy will get something similar though he will outgrow it ( I hope)
 

Pearly

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Keep and eye on her, feed good diet, go easy on calcium powder. Too much of it is as bad as not enough. I suspect she's been fed nothing but romaine, this seems to be a common practice in people who don'tbother to research the species of their pet. I'm raising 2 RF babies one of whim was not eating at the beginning and once started taking interest in food he'd detect calcium in his food every time and then go on hunger strike! I decided to focus on developing his love for food rather than have the power struggle over the supplement and been feeding both babies good varied diet without supplement. This has been going on for over 6 months. It's only been now that I'm reintroducing calcium powder to their diet. At the recent vet well check visit our tort vet felt like their shells had tiny little "give" at the tail area. I'm having to apply quite a bit of pressure, really more than I'm comfortable doing do feel any "give", but sm amts of supplement won't hurt, so I'm doing it but comparing to that picture of calcium powder on the lettuce leaf and I give 1/10th of that or even less. I have to mix mine with very sm amt if my babies' favorite food (cooked shrimp, or mango). And don't worry about pyramiding, once you give this baby good living conditions and good food her growth will be nice from now on and that little pyramiding won't mess up her looks
 

J H

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The looks really don't matter to me just want a good life for the tort.
 

J H

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Does the age seem right? How old are they usually when they would get shipped to a retailer? If they have had it for 3-4 months does 6-7 months old sound right?
 

Tom

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We can only guess here...

Mine are larger than that at 6-7 months, but that is under ideal conditions from day one, and ideal food. This tortoise has had neither, so its seems to me like it might be a little older than what they are saying, but anything is possible.

Breeders and dealers can ship them at any age they want.
 

J H

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At what size / age does the hatchling failure prob go away?
 

Tom

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At what size / age does the hatchling failure prob go away?

Most of those stall around 50 grams. If they make it over 100 grams, I think you are over that hump.
 

J H

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I just read the whole post again and Yvonne said "her" because of the extra scute.... Does that tend to be females more often than males?
 

Big Charlie

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I just read the whole post again and Yvonne said "her" because of the extra scute.... Does that tend to be females more often than males?
I've read that incubating the eggs at a higher temperature results in more females as well as extra shutes, so it is probably female.
 

Tom

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I just read the whole post again and Yvonne said "her" because of the extra scute.... Does that tend to be females more often than males?

Correct. Incubation on the higher end of the scale gets you more female babies, but there is also a tendency to get scute deformities at the top end of the scale. So most of the time, split scutes equal female, but there are occasional exception. I have a male leopard with split scutes, but they are in front, not over the back like they usually are.

It is also possible to get scute deformities at more moderate temps, but that is not very common.

So if you guess female every time you see a split scuted baby, you will be correct most of the time.
 

J H

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That's actually good news for me in the frozen north! ( Minnesota). A little smaller is better. Although I know females are large also
 

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