Nitpick me please

[Damien Szkatulski]

The coir needs to be damp. You can't keep aspen shavings damp, and aspen alone is far too dry. Coir works but its too messy for sulcatas. I've tried it and I don't like it. Fine grade orchid bark works better.

The rest is sounding pretty good.

You said he sleeps in a "95 hide". Is that temperature or humidity percentage? If that is humidity, its great. If that is the temperature, its too hot.

95 humidity hide. I use my hand to soak the choir that is under the bark, the bark acts as a carpet because it's less messy.

 

[OMary]

@Yvonne G where do you get orchid bark that is safe to use in their enclosure? I have my yearling leopard on topsoil, with cypress mulch in the humid hide ("she" is in a sealed, high humidity enclosure). I want to switch to orchid bark. Thanks!

 

[ManuelaEla]

Hi!

And if that would make me set for "almost forever..." when I have all of that set up I'll start thinking about an outdoor setup for summer

Hi! I got my Sulcata a couple of months ago. I'll tell you what I feed him: weeds, grass, grassland tortoise food by ZooMed, organic lettuce; no fruits. I live in a cold climate too and sun is poor all year round, so I decided that the best investment in light and heat was to get a mercury vapor bulb, so far so good. After reading from different sources, I came to the conclusion that this care sheet that I'm going to share here in the link, is the right solution for my tortoise. Another thing: it's important to give your tortoise the chance to do exercise every day. What I do is to fence an area of my living room, so he can roam safely for like 20 minutes, than I put him back in his enclosure. Last thing, I soak him almost every day and I put in his enclosure a shallow bowl with water.
http://www.christinaspets.mysite.com/

 

[Bambam1989]

Hi!

Hi! I got my Sulcata a couple of months ago. I'll tell you what I feed him: weeds, grass, grassland tortoise food by ZooMed, organic lettuce; no fruits. I live in a cold climate too and sun is poor all year round, so I decided that the best investment in light and heat was to get a mercury vapor bulb, so far so good. After reading from different sources, I came to the conclusion that this care sheet that I'm going to share here in the link, is the right solution for my tortoise. Another thing: it's important to give your tortoise the chance to do exercise every day. What I do is to fence an area of my living room, so he can roam safely for like 20 minutes, than I put him back in his enclosure. Last thing, I soak him almost every day and I put in his enclosure a shallow bowl with water.
http://www.christinaspets.mysite.com/

The care sheets from this site is not accurate in many ways, although there is a lot of good information most of it is out of date. For example, the cause of pyramiding is not linked to diet, but is from being raised in dry conditions-here on the forum has been proven.
These are the care sheets we recommend and if you have any questions or want to debate the information, you are welcome to start a new thread and do so.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-45180.html

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/sulcata-diet-sheet.64290/

 

[Yvonne G]

@Yvonne G where do you get orchid bark that is safe to use in their enclosure? I have my yearling leopard on topsoil, with cypress mulch in the humid hide ("she" is in a sealed, high humidity enclosure). I want to switch to orchid bark. Thanks!

I buy mine at a local hardware store (Orchard Supply Hardware), but I imagine you should be able to find it at plant nurseries.