New tortoise owner from Mexico

[sulandcata]

Hi from Mexico i got 2 small sulcata tortoise named sul and cata I joined the forum because i want to learn how to take care for them properly since the 3 pet shops I did my investigations started telling me that the other pet shop was crazy on how they told me to care for them and I just want them to grow nice and big. I will leave a photo of Sul and Cata here so you guys can met them If you notice something odd on my enclousure please let me know.

 

[Jacqui]

Hi and welcome! The substrate needs to be deeper, so that water source can be buried down in it. What are you using for lights? I would change the food dishes into Terra cotta plant saucers or a slate tile. I would also suggest a temp gun for a more accurate tempereading. eading.

 

[sulandcata]

Hi and welcome! The substrate needs to be deeper, so that water source can be buried down in it. What are you using for lights? I would change the food dishes into Terra cotta plant saucers or a slate tile. I would also suggest a temp gun for a more accurate tempereading. eading.

Of course will go get the dishes today and will add more substrate later tonight the humidity normally is between 40-60 and heat between 85-100 thank you very much for the tips.
Ligths I am using
UVB REPTILE UVB 150 of 26 W 14 hours a day
Nocturnal Infrared Heat Lamp 75W for night
And Intense basking spot 75 W for day

 

[Yvonne G]

You've got a nice, closed enclosure, which is what the babies need to grow smooth shells, but you need to add quite a bit more water to the substrate. Also, you may soon find out the one is growing bigger, faster than the other. That is because having two tortoises in an enclosure never works out ok. The more dominant tortoise is continually telling the less dominant one to get out of the territory, however he has no way to get out, so he eats less, tries to keep out of the other's way, hides a lot. I know those enclosures are costly, but for the babies' sake, you need to get another one and set each tortoise up by himself. Humidity up in the 80's is what you're wanting.

 

[Ray--Opo]

Ditto what Yvonne said. Most pet stores know nothing about raising tortoises. If they really cared, whoever sold you 2 sullies. Would have warned you to raise them separately. What looks like their cuddling is really one trying to dominate the other. With more substrate you should be able to bring the humidity up to 80%. That is the minimum level of humidity.

 

[sulandcata]

You've got a nice, closed enclosure, which is what the babies need to grow smooth shells, but you need to add quite a bit more water to the substrate. Also, you may soon find out the one is growing bigger, faster than the other. That is because having two tortoises in an enclosure never works out ok. The more dominant tortoise is continually telling the less dominant one to get out of the territory, however he has no way to get out, so he eats less, tries to keep out of the other's way, hides a lot. I know those enclosures are costly, but for the babies' sake, you need to get another one and set each tortoise up by himself. Humidity up in the 80's is what you're wanting.

Thank you very much I did add more substrate and I did see one is more time out of the hide so what I am doing is try to feed the other one while the more active is soaking and on their daily sun walks when the temperature has been 85f ´+.
I do have a small fish tank that used to house acuatic frogs it is not as large as the enclousre it is 25 in x 12 in fish tank could I house my other turtle there?

 

[Ray--Opo]

Thank you very much I did add more substrate and I did see one is more time out of the hide so what I am doing is try to feed the other one while the more active is soaking and on their daily sun walks when the temperature has been 85f ´+.
I do have a small fish tank that used to house acuatic frogs it is not as large as the enclousre it is 25 in x 12 in fish tank could I house my other turtle there?

You could for a minute. It would be better than being together. Just make sure you can cover the top with shower curtain or tin foil to hold humidity in. But they grow fast, so be prepared to find or build something bigger.

 

[Tom]

Hi from Mexico i got 2 small sulcata tortoise named sul and cata I joined the forum because i want to learn how to take care for them properly since the 3 pet shops I did my investigations started telling me that the other pet shop was crazy on how they told me to care for them and I just want them to grow nice and big. I will leave a photo of Sul and Cata here so you guys can met them If you notice something odd on my enclousure please let me know.
View attachment 325520

Bienvenidos amigo! You've gotten the usual wrong advice and wrong products. Pet stores are infamous for this all over the world.

1. Get rid of the ramped water bowl. They are a flipping/drowning hazard. Sink a terra cotta saucer into the substrate instead. And another one for food.
2. Get rid of the cardboard hides. Those will mold and rot. Replace them with plastic.
3. Tortoises should never be kept in pairs. They each need their own enclosure.
4. This enclosure is too small for one tortoise. You need two big closed chambers.
5. ALL of your bulbs are the wrong bulbs. No colored bulbs (infrared), no spot bulbs, and no cfl bulbs.
6. Humidity needs to be 80+% all the time.
7. Your temperatures are good!

All of this and more is explained right here. If you want them to grow big and healthy, read and follow this info: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/the-best-way-to-raise-a-sulcata-leopard-or-star-tortoise.181497/

Questions are welcome.

 

[sulandcata]

Bienvenidos amigo! You've gotten the usual wrong advice and wrong products. Pet stores are infamous for this all over the world.

1. Get rid of the ramped water bowl. They are a flipping/drowning hazard. Sink a terra cotta saucer into the substrate instead. And another one for food.
2. Get rid of the cardboard hides. Those will mold and rot. Replace them with plastic.
3. Tortoises should never be kept in pairs. They each need their own enclosure.
4. This enclosure is too small for one tortoise. You need two big closed chambers.
5. ALL of your bulbs are the wrong bulbs. No colored bulbs (infrared), no spot bulbs, and no cfl bulbs.
6. Humidity needs to be 80+% all the time.
7. Your temperatures are good!

All of this and more is explained right here. If you want them to grow big and healthy, read and follow this info: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/the-best-way-to-raise-a-sulcata-leopard-or-star-tortoise.181497/

Questions are welcome.

Thank you very much for the advice i am making some of the changes
1 I was able to change the water bowl and the saucer but since i did that they just drop the food to the substrate before eating is this normal behavior?
2 Wasn´t able to change the tetrapack hides since they dont have hides with big entrance on the pet shops I am near will try to get one from amazon meanwhile I replace the tetrapack hide everytime I finish one so it doesnt mold.
3 I won´t be able to separate them for at least 2 to 3 months since the money was planned for what they told me at the store but I am making sure both tortoise eat and both get enough uvb is there something else I need to pay attention on the meantime?
4 The enclosure is the biggest one they had on 3 different pet stores so I will need to make the two myself to fix this issue hence the time it will take to separate them will take me probably 4 months to make both.
5 Got the new bulbs acording to the guide you paste me.
6 Do you have any tips on Humidity for the new enclosure that I need to make since it is impossible for me to keep general humidity at 80+ (I have tried using water every 2 hours and moist or putting water directly on the substrate like a bottle or 2 a day but it stills keeps going down to 60 in the termostat) the substrate does have higher humidity specially out of the basking zone and in the hide but not sure how to maintain thouse humidity levels.

 

[Ray--Opo]

Is the top of your enclosure open to the air? The top needs to be covered before you can achieve 80% humidity. Tin foil is a quick fix. Pour water directly on the substrate. You don't want standing water but you want your substrate wet. If your enclosure has vents on the sides. You can also cover with tape to help keep the humidity in.

 

[Tom]

Thank you very much for the advice i am making some of the changes
1 I was able to change the water bowl and the saucer but since i did that they just drop the food to the substrate before eating is this normal behavior?
2 Wasn´t able to change the tetrapack hides since they dont have hides with big entrance on the pet shops I am near will try to get one from amazon meanwhile I replace the tetrapack hide everytime I finish one so it doesnt mold.
3 I won´t be able to separate them for at least 2 to 3 months since the money was planned for what they told me at the store but I am making sure both tortoise eat and both get enough uvb is there something else I need to pay attention on the meantime?
4 The enclosure is the biggest one they had on 3 different pet stores so I will need to make the two myself to fix this issue hence the time it will take to separate them will take me probably 4 months to make both.
5 Got the new bulbs acording to the guide you paste me.
6 Do you have any tips on Humidity for the new enclosure that I need to make since it is impossible for me to keep general humidity at 80+ (I have tried using water every 2 hours and moist or putting water directly on the substrate like a bottle or 2 a day but it stills keeps going down to 60 in the termostat) the substrate does have higher humidity specially out of the basking zone and in the hide but not sure how to maintain thouse humidity levels.

Number one tip for you: Get out of the pet store. Most of what you need is found at hardware stores.

They need to be separated now. The chronic stress of living as a pair is not good for them. Living that way for months will not be good. You can get large plastic tubs cheaply at a department store or hardware store like Home Depot, or the Mexican equivalent.

You need a closed chamber for humidity. Open tops and lights on the outside dry everything out. This also need to be corrected ASAP because every day that it is too dry, you are going to get irreversible pyramiding that will never go away.

 

[sulandcata]

Number one tip for you: Get out of the pet store. Most of what you need is found at hardware stores.

They need to be separated now. The chronic stress of living as a pair is not good for them. Living that way for months will not be good. You can get large plastic tubs cheaply at a department store or hardware store like Home Depot, or the Mexican equivalent.

You need a closed chamber for humidity. Open tops and lights on the outside dry everything out. This also need to be corrected ASAP because every day that it is too dry, you are going to get irreversible pyramiding that will never go away

Ok I took the lights out so I dont have the UBV nor the basking light as to not dry the enclousure and also added the foil , changed the hide to the non basking side and will return them next week since they cant be in pairs. To be honest at this point I am just really confused with what people are telling. Since herpatoligist, vets, and breeders and people here just say different things and it is kind of overwelming.

 

[Tom]

Ok I took the lights out so I dont have the UBV nor the basking light as to not dry the enclousure and also added the foil , changed the hide to the non basking side and will return them next week since they cant be in pairs. To be honest at this point I am just really confused with what people are telling. Since herpatoligist, vets, and breeders and people here just say different things and it is kind of overwelming.

For decades we've all been doing it wrong. I was taught all the wrong info more than 30 years ago. After nearly 20 years of failure and bad results, I began researching and experimenting to figure out what was wrong and why all the conventional info didn't work. With help from many sources I/we were able to figure it out about 12-13 years ago. I shared that info with people here on the forum, but most of the tortoise world still hasn't caught on. Many are so entrenched with the old wrong knowledge, they don't even realize how bad it is. I did it their way for nearly 20 years. They've never tried it my way.

Look at the tortoises that belong to the longer term forum members here. They all looks healthy and smooth. Look at tortoise pics on FaceBook. They tend to look dried out and pyramided. If you keep keeping tortoises and try it different ways, you will know what I know many years from now. I'm giving you the info up front so you don't have to go through what I went through to learn it all. Best of all, your tortoises don't have to suffer through that process either.

 

[sulandcata]

I was on this thread to try to do the best for my tortoises but honestly is hard when the people here say one thing the vet says another and the breeders says another thing and keepers says another things. I tried to follow all the advice I have recived but it has been a lot of trouble and my sulcatas are looking less happy. So if someone has the time and will to help me please sent me a PM so I can give a discord channel to have a 1 on 1 talk to be able to keep the tortoise. If not I will be forced to give them away or return them. I have cared for other delicate and difficult animals but at least the information was better in this case everyone says that they have the correct information and that the other one is giving bad advice.

 

[wellington]

What I can tell you is most people including vets are wrong with old outdated information.
Stick to the info here and be sure to apply the info according to your location. Have to remember,to differentiate what applies to people in AZ or FL may not apply to people in IL or MI, etc.
Post pics of your enclosure, give details of lighting, temps, humidity, diet and pics of the tortoises and we can help you.

 

[sulandcata]

Ok in that case i will post a picture of the changes i did to my enclousre later today with individual pictures of the tortoises. So then reptile Vets and reptiles experts and breeders are not trusthworthy?(Not asking ironically I am just asking since those 3 types of person give me advice.)

 

[Tom]

Ok in that case i will post a picture of the changes i did to my enclousre later today with individual pictures of the tortoises. So then reptile Vets and reptiles experts and breeders are not trusthworthy?(Not asking ironically I am just asking since those 3 types of person give me advice.)

As I explained above, they are still using the old wrong info. They don't know better. They might be nice people, but they don't know how to raise tortoises. There is no semester on tortoise care in vet school.

You've got a unique opportunity here. The two tortoises need to be separated. Set up one enclosure the way the vet and "reptile experts" are telling you to do it, and set up the other one according to my care sheet. You'll see the difference in a few weeks, and it will be painfully obvious in a few months.