Saved a baby off craigslist

[lkwagner]

So I found this little guy on Craigslist and I went to pick him up tonight. The tort actually seems to be in decent health but the shell is pretty pyramided and it seems dry and dehydrated. As you can see by the pictures they definitely didn't know what they were doing. The poor thing was living on bark in a tiny cube tank with no water dish and the tortoise pellets were completely molded and the metal part from the lid was in the bark! I'm working on his new set up right now. I already have two sulcatas so luckily I know what I'm doing and will whip this baby back into shape with a little tlc. I will keep the updates coming

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Might not be as healthy as I thought, it was super active in the car but I can't get it to open its eyes. I'm going to give it a bath but I'm not going to mess with it much tonight cause I'm sure it's super stressed. I'm going to buy some vitamin a drops tomorrow and give it some baby food soaks.
Hopefully everything is okay!

 

[african cake queen]

hi, nice save. good luck with your new baby.

 

[65redroses]

Is bark good to use for desert torts too? Thanks

 

[wellington]

Good luck. Hope he is okay.

 

[lkwagner]

Is bark good to use for desert torts too? Thanks

No bark is not good! I'm sure that has a good part to do with his pyramiding shell.
I will be getting rid of it tomorrow. I just don't want to put it into his new home till the morning so he has a chance to relax. I'm sure he is super stressed out from the move. I will be putting him on coco coir cause it holds humidity well and they can burrow good in it.

 

[sibi]

Hi, and I'm glad you got this baby. Did you read all the threads from Tom on how to care for baby sulcatas? He already has pyramiding and it's difficult to determine his age because I have a 3 year old rescue that actually looks just like yours. In fact, your baby may even weigh more than mine. Warmth, humidity, calcium supplement, exercise, and outside sunshine is going to be a must for your baby. Tom goes into all these issues. But, what you still don't know, we can help you with. Thanks for saving this baby

 

[mainey34]

Nice save..the threads sibi is talking about are under my signature. Feel free to reed...

 

[surie_the_tortoise]

good to see other people getting babies and even older torts in some casses that need saved not just running to online stores. my baby also come from craigslist. a group of brother and sisters bought a total of 4 baby sulcata then in a matter of weeks had them up for sale. my guess would be they found out what they got themselves into after it was to late. my 7 year old was off facebook when the family that had her from a hatchling no longer had the time she needed .

 

[Annaliisas]

I too rescued a 5 year old from Craig's list. He is only the size of a 2yo and he is severely pyramided. But he had a huge new out door enclosure and he is very happy. I can tell. Good luck. You have better chances of smoothing yours out than I do with my Wally. But Wally is active, has lots of heat humidity and sunshine and good food. It's the best I can do

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I too rescued a 5 year old from Craig's list. He is only the size of a 2yo and he is severely pyramided. But he had a huge new out door enclosure and he is very happy. I can tell. Good luck. You have better chances of smoothing yours out than I do with my Wally. But Wally is active, has lots of heat humidity and sunshine and good food. It's the best I can do

"Has a new enclosure" darn auto correct!

 

[Phobi]

Im soo happy you found this lil guy! Youre an angel to give him a great life and way more years to live

 

[lkwagner]

Im soo happy you found this lil guy! Youre an angel to give him a great life and way more years to live

Thank you! I knew I wanted just one more, but I decided I would much rather rescue one!

Also, I have read all of Toms threads on how to raise hatchlings. Thanks

 

[lkwagner]

Wow! Saturday he weighed 78g and today Tuesday he weighed 91g! So happy he's doing so much better now

 

[srod]

Glad you saved this baby! Sounds like he's well on his way to a good and happy life

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

I scoured Craigslist for months before getting Carl, but apparently no one in Nebraska wants to give up their tortoises unless they have sulcatas, and I knew I didn't have room for one of those big guys!

Thanks for saving the little guy! From the sounds of it, the people weren't necessarily ignorant, they were just given a baby tortoise, probably didn't really want him, and made do with what they had. At least they had the sense to give him away!