new member long.time.reader

[snoit83]

Hello everyone! I've been reading for a while while studying for the new member...now members of our family!! Vivian took her first poop with us today. It looks white and running to me. Her and Herman have been munching on some wet orchard grass and grazing outside once a day on clovers and the regular blade grass. We have planted blue stem and have a sulcata mix (seeds) on the way.
They also have there first vet visit tomorrow... yay!! So many firsts!! Anyway here is a picture of the poo. I look forward to talking to all of you!!
Thanks,
Piper

 

[jeffbens0n]

Welcome! We would love to see pictures of your babies. I in particular would love to see pics of your great pyrenese and great dane! I have always wanted a great dane and will have one eventually!

 

[Angi]

Welcome!

 

[coreyc]

Welcome to the forum

 

[Isa]

Welcome to the forum

 

[snoit83]

[quote='jeffbens0n'

Im trying to get it to upload pictures from my phone. Im having trouble. There wasn't a picture of Vivian on the first post, was there?

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Piper:

Welcome to the forum!!

I don't know why its so hard to use the Forum's picture loader, but it is. Most of us use an outside picture manager. I use Photobucket and a lot use tinypic.com. The only bad thing about that is if you want your pictures to remain forever on the forum's post, you have to leave them forever in Photobucket. But I like it anyway.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome.

 

[snoit83]

Hi everyone!

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome. Love the names. Will there be a Grampa and Eddie coming soon too?

Texas is a great state for Sulcatas. Everything is BIG there. Hahaha. They are still my favorite species, even with their "flaws".

Here's a sheet I typed up for babies. Some new info there. It all works really well for me.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-How-To-Raise-Sulcata-Hatchlings-and-Babies#axzz1HGdoyuiS

 

[snoit83]

Hi everyone! If u have any advice for me im all ears!! My new babies are 7 weeks old. What should they be eating? How often should I soak them? Is handling them everyday bad? Is white poo normal? Just so many things to cover w new precious children!! Yay!! Im.so excited!!

 

[coreyc]

Have you read this yet ?
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-How-To-Raise-Sulcata-Hatchlings-and-Babies
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-My-tortoise-pooped-out-some-white-stuff

 

[snoit83]

I did read those!! Thank you!! I soak them everyday around 12 before I go to work. We go outside and soak and graze!! Im so excited!! This was a huge decision for us!! We will never have human children so I feel that Herman and Vivian are our adopted children! Yay!!!

---

When Herman pooped today it was all white...I wish I could upload a picture of it... is that normal? They are starting to eat the "hay" orchard grass, bermuda grass, buffalo grass if I soak it first. They prefer the grass in the front yard though. So anyway.... is white poo normal?

 

[tortoisenerd]

Welcome to the group!

That second link Corey posted explains about urates (ie. white "poop"). Tortoise poop looks like any other poop, but their pee can have a white component to it, completely normal. Keep in mind you may not see any normal poop because Sulcatas tend to eat it (normal) and it hides in grass as its small. Good luck with two Sulcatas--wow you will have a lot to deal with one they get huge! Start that yard going now with chemical free graze. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't interested in hay or grass--its ok to feed greens, good lettuces like spring mix, broadleaf weeds, etc. They may look like they are eating, taking a nibble here or there, but they need to be eating a pile of greens and such at least their size, daily.

 

[snoit83]

Thank you!! Everyone!! This is a wonderful site!! We have started an indoor and outdoor grazing area for them w a sulcata blend sees mix and blue stem. The blue stem has started to sprout in just a few says but the seed mix hasn't. We had planned on just getting herman but when we saw all the adorable babies we couldn't resist! I pray every night that we have a female and male to reduce the tendency of fighting. Hopefully I can upload some pictures soon! Thanks again for all your advice!!
Oh!! When everyone says spring mix, is it safe to buy a spring mix from kroger? Like dole or something? I would think the big corporations like that would use pesticides and stuff. What do u guys usually use?

 

[Tom]

In my opinion, if its safe for human consumption, its safe for my torts. I buy spring mix at Costco. Its much cheaper and its "organic" and "triple washed".

 

[tortoisenerd]

Organic spring mix without spinach (or pick it out) is a great choice as part of a varied diet (yes its in the produce section). Go to all your local grocers to see who has the best selection/freshness in the organic greens. We go through a lot of spring mix so I get it at Costco ($5 for 16 oz) or Trader Joe's ($2 for 5 oz). Yes, the conventional (non-organic) stuff can have pesticides. For spring mix, I don't find organic to be any more expensive near me, if I go to the right store. Most of the greens I guy (like dandelion) aren't even available in conventional. Look for a long list of inredients and learn to identify what the are online (Google Image search), so you ensure youa re actualyl getting healthy variety...not just a romaine mix, or not just 3 ingredients. I have unfortunatley found spinach even in ones where it wasn't on the ingredient list, even though its only supposed to be the other way around (they are allowed to list something and not have it...why I say learn to identify it).

The biggest thing however to watch out for is nursery plants, like a flower bush. There aren't meant for human consumption and have the highest amount of chemicals. I heard recently they can take 12 months to leech out, and that replanting or washing doesn't do a thing. So, organic is much better than conventional produce, but definitely stay away from stuff not meant for humans to eat. I buy spring mix and 1-2 other greens a week to rotate. Add in some home grown stuff and you have an awesome varied diet.

Male and female is actually a bad pair--the male tends to harass the female once they get into sexual maturity. Male and male can have dominance issues. Even female and female is no guarantee...it depends on the torts. Always plan on separate enclosures and if it works out they can be together, great.