new from Indiana with a surprise tortoise

[Jewels03]

First post and first time tortoise owner. My stepson and his friend went to a reptile expo and SURPRISE came home with a baby sulcata tortoise with absolutely NO IDEA how to care for it. I tried to take him back but the seller wouldn't take him back even after explaining he sold an animal to a 15 year old child without parental consent. So now we are trying to make the best of this. I am determined to make this tortoise a happy little guy/girl. It's not the tortoises fault it was sold by crappy people. I am not new to reptiles though as I have quite the collection already.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hello there is a lot of help here. Read the care sheets here . Have a great tort day !

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome to the Forum!

You've definitely come to the right place - a new tortoise keeper with a brand new baby. We like to start them out the right way, and if you read the care sheet here and some of the other pinned threads at the top of the sulcata section, you just can't go wrong.

 

[Jewels03]

Thanks, been up reading most the night and today will be working on changing up his enclosure. It's too small I see, and not nearly humid enough, and needs different substrate.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Hello and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum to you ans your little Sully.
Have you read http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
and http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/ yet?
Very useful starting threads.
If so, sorry.
Ask if you have any questions, there's usually somebody about with the answers.

 

[4jean]

Welcome!

 

[Alaskamike]

I grew up in Indiana outside of Fort Wayne - welcome!
I was that kid who came home with every animal imaginable - most caught in the woods or given to me. It's how I learned. My folks were great about it - but it was me getting up every 2 hour round the clock to dropper feed the baby robins - not Mom hahahah.

Sulcatas are a fun, active tortoise. Quite the little scamps. I think you'll find that once you get the right set up created, the maintenance of it is easy, your son can do it without a problem. I've often wished I hadn't moved all over the world and still had my fist tortoises - they are so long lived they could be with a person for a lifetime.

At 15 he should be computer savvy enough to join the forum here himself and do his own research and be telling you what is needed for the little guy

Good fortune to you. There are many on here who received their tortoise almost by accident and became converted tortoise hobbyists in short order.