New Sulcata owner!

[JustinS]

Just wanted to introduce myself and my young Sulcata named Toby. He was purchase a little more then 3 weeks ago and weighed in at 33 grams the day i got her/him. With a lot of reading on here I've got him/her eating some grass now but still easing him/her into that with a mixture of turnip greens, bac choy, and spring mix.....i know glass aquarium have been frowned upon but I've transformed an old cracked 90 gallon into a enclosed home for Toby. The overflow allows some fresh air in and old air out with the humidity staying between 65-80

The basking spot where Toby can be seen in the attached picture is constantly 105-107 with the rest of the area on the left side stay between 90-95, inside of the hide on the left stays between 85-87 and the one on the right stays right at about 82. The far rightend of the tank sometime dips down to the high 70s at night but lowest I've seen is 77.

Toby get a daily soak which s/he has begun to enjoy, didn't really like um at first. S/he also gets outdoors for about 3-4 hours a week depending on my work schedule and weather.

S/he is starting to put on some weight, was 49 grams today when s/he went on the scale.

Any suggestions anyone?? Trying my best with my first tortoise. S/he will be moving outside after a year or so inside.

Ah one last thing, I did add the black paint/rocks due to s/he flipping over twice about a week ago and it appears to have helped with that.

S/he is a very active little guy/gal

 

[JustinS]

Photo didn't attach to original post

 

[Yvonne G]

Glass habitats are just fine for babies. I use them all the time. If you notice he's trying to get through the glass you can just tape a narrow strip of paper around the bottom of the tank.

 

[Big Charlie]

Welcome! I hope you and Toby will have a long life together. I got my sulcata 18 years ago and he still fascinates me.

 

[Bee62]

Hello and welcome !
Toby`s enclosure looks good, I like it.
I wish you a lot of luck and joy with your shelled friend.
Please keep us updated about the growth of Toby.

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome. Sounds like a good first effort over all. There are a few things I'd change:
1. Basking area is too hot and its going to contribute to pyramiding. Shoot for 95-100. You can add a rheostat to change it.
2. No red bulbs. They need daylight during the day and darkness at night.
3. Your over night low is right on the borderline. Be careful. I'd use a CHE on a thermostat to keep it closer to 80.
4. Diet needs more variety and more high fiber weed and leaves. Less grocery store stuff. Grass is good. Read this one:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/
5. 65% humidity is too low. Its going to cause pyramiding. What substrate are you using? You might be able to bump those numbers up by adding more and having a damp 3-4" layer. Fine grade orchid bark works best for sulcatas. No sand or soil. Coco coir can work too, but its messy and I prefer orchid bark.
6. Your half logs are nice, but your tortoise needs a humid hide too. Something closed in with only a tiny door hole.

Read these for more info:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/

 

[JustinS]

Tom,

Read sooo many of your post so I honestly take what ya say seriously, so I added a new photo of the enclosure.

Changed from the red bulb to a CHE, still working on the overall heat, the warm side is spot on with 97-98 in basking area, and it is above 80 at ground level all the way until the mid area of the water dish and then dips down to about 77-78. I may need to cut out the middle support for the aquarium on the top and centralize the CHE better, humidity is sitting about 80-85%, I made a homemade humidifier which I attached a photo of.

I did add in a humid hide, but Toby rarely uses it and is attached to the log on the left, if he doesn't start using it more often I will try switching the log and location of the humid hide.

For food: still getting some grocery greens but adding more of the grass/weeds which s/he is eating slightly more of, but still demolishes the grocery greens.

I know I didn't put in original post but substrate is coco coir and the light is a 18" uvb tube bulb which is on a 9a-9p timer. I weighed the little guy/gal yesterday and was sitting at 53.68 grams.

Added a photo of Toby also, little camera shy and the glare was awful off the glass.

 

[Tom]

Its looking good.

They tend to get a lot less picky over time. Keep offering the good stuff and in time your tortoise will be hoovering up anything and everything you put in front of it. No tortoise eats like a juvenile sulcata. It is truly incredible.

Many sulcatas avoid their hides. I think in the wild this survival instinct keeps them from getting eaten by whatever African animal dug the hole in the first place. I like to put them in there after dark. After a week or two, the tortoise will realize that it is the only inhabitant of that hole and start to use it more.

You can leave it how it is set, but I like my basking lamps to go from about 7am to 8pm and UV tubes from 9 or 10am to about 5 or 6 pm. This more closely simulates the brighter light and higher UV levels of the mid day sun, and gives them a little more of a dawn and dusk effect.

 

[teresaf]

He has started to show the smallest sign of pyramiding it looks like the last growth ring is in the upward instead of outward Direction. To stop this from happening your enclosure needs to be so humid that the glass gets dewy.

It's important to have an accurate thermometer for your enclosure. Actually 2 of them would work better. The kind that have the long probe that you put inside the tank and the mechanism stays outside the tank. The button type that is inside that tank are notorious for being wrong most of the time especially in high humidity applications. This is the kind that I use... I attached a picture below I have several of them they're always really close together on their temperatures... You can get them off Amazon quite easily and cheaply.

If you put those rocks around the water dish area then less dirt will go inside the water dish. . You can use the same kind of water dish for food as well. maybe a smaller one. They're easier to get in and out of them those other food dishes. I found that asparagus fern does really well in fish tanks and the tortoises really don't mess with them even though they're safe to eat.

If you keep all your plants in their containers then you can change them out when they start looking yucky with fresh ones and put the yucky looking ones outside to recover.

For your first enclosure... You did much better than most of us. Just remember don't let them get under 80 and don't keep the temperature any higher than 100 and your good. To get your humidity up higher I found all you need to do is dump a glass of water in a corner or all four corners if you need to... I used the 200 gallon tank for my baby tortoises.

 

[tortlover73]

Glass habitats are just fine for babies. I use them all the time. If you notice he's trying to get through the glass you can just tape a narrow strip of paper around the bottom of the tank.

Yep that's what I did. That setup worked well as a closed system until he outgrew it.