Small tortoises?

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

These are my 3 year old sulcata tortoises and I am concerned we have them on a heat regulator give them soaks feed them timothy hay, lettuce, and Bermuda grass mostly they occasionally also get hibiscus, watermelon, and strawberries. We recently moved and haven’t been able to find the type of prickly pear we usually feed them. Our aloe plants are small so they aren’t getting that much of it. The breeder we bought them from 2 years ago had them in an 15 gallon and feed them strawberries and cabbage with a bowl they couldn’t get in to and they had a red light all day. They were pyramided badly but they’ve been growing now I’m just worried.

 

[wellington]

You need to separate them ASAP, they can not live in pairs. They are should not be fed fruit, so stop that.
They should have been housed in a closed chamber enclosure with 80% humidity for their first 2 to 3 years.
Substrate should not be hay, it's too drying. Coconut coir or orchid/fir bark should be the substrate.
The heat should be from a incandescent flood bulb with a ceramic heat emitter or better a radiant heat panel if added day heat is needed and for night heat. A tube florescent for uvb.
Diet is good except the fruit. But try to add more variety.
They are small for being 3 years. They are living a stressful life being together and the fruit isn't helping their gut.
Get changes done ASAP.

 

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

You need to separate them ASAP, they can not live in pairs. They are should not be fed fruit, so stop that.
They should have been housed in a closed chamber enclosure with 80% humidity for their first 2 to 3 years.
Substrate should not be hay, it's too drying. Coconut coir or orchid/fir bark should be the substrate.
The heat should be from a incandescent flood bulb with a ceramic heat emitter or better a radiant heat panel if added day heat is needed and for night heat. A tube florescent for uvb.
Diet is good except the fruit. But try to add more variety.
They are small for being 3 years. They are living a stressful life being together and the fruit isn't helping their gut.
Get changes done ASAP.

I put hay with them in the hide they just threw it everywhere orchid bark is what’s under it they are in a 100 gallon and when one got her arm chewed by a and we separated them the male stopped eating and sat by the wall they are fed fruit maybe every 2 months it’s to vary their diet soooooo you didn’t answer my question just told me what I know if I separate them they get stressed they never fight and have been together apparently since they hatched

 

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

You need to separate them ASAP, they can not live in pairs. They are should not be fed fruit, so stop that.
They should have been housed in a closed chamber enclosure with 80% humidity for their first 2 to 3 years.
Substrate should not be hay, it's too drying. Coconut coir or orchid/fir bark should be the substrate.
The heat should be from a incandescent flood bulb with a ceramic heat emitter or better a radiant heat panel if added day heat is needed and for night heat. A tube florescent for uvb.
Diet is good except the fruit. But try to add more variety.
They are small for being 3 years. They are living a stressful life being together and the fruit isn't helping their gut.
Get changes done ASAP.

 

[Tom]

These are my 3 year old sulcata tortoises and I am concerned we have them on a heat regulator give them soaks feed them timothy hay, lettuce, and Bermuda grass mostly they occasionally also get hibiscus, watermelon, and strawberries. We recently moved and haven’t been able to find the type of prickly pear we usually feed them. Our aloe plants are small so they aren’t getting that much of it. The breeder we bought them from 2 years ago had them in an 15 gallon and feed them strawberries and cabbage with a bowl they couldn’t get in to and they had a red light all day. They were pyramided badly but they’ve been growing now I’m just worried.View attachment 361158View attachment 361159

Hello and welcome. What is your question?

Start here and look for the sulcata care sheet near the bottom.

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

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[RiDaGeckoGuy]

Hello and welcome. What is your question?

Start here and look for the sulcata care sheet near the bottom.

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

If they’re small and how to make them catch up I know how to take care of sulcatas I just don’t know what’s wrong with them

 

[ZEROPILOT]

If they’re small and how to make them catch up I know how to take care of sulcatas I just don’t know what’s wrong with them

Their care has been incorrect.
They needed high humidity. A correct diet. A much larger enclosure and separation to start.

 

[wellington]

If you listen to what has been said, read the link Tom gave you, they will get healthy and should catch up. A closed chamber does not have a screen top. A proper enclosure is not so small they barely have room to walk. You will cause them to have digestive problems and walking problems if you don't get them separated and into bigger enclosures and a better diet.

 

[TammyJ]

Hey, most of us came here thinking we knew at least something about tortoises! I am one who thought I knew a lot. I am still learning, and very glad I came here and followed the advice. Please give your tortoises each a chance to thrive from here on by doing what is recommended! Thanks.

 

[Tom]

If they’re small and how to make them catch up I know how to take care of sulcatas I just don’t know what’s wrong with them

We'd love to help. It will help us if you could use punctuation and capital letters where appropriate so that we can better understand what you are saying or asking.

When they are kept too dry, too cool, fed wrong, and housed wrong, it slows or stops their growth. The solution then is to house, feed, hydrate them correctly. All the info for how to do that is in the links I left for you. Just click and read. Questions are welcome. In most cases, once the conditions and diet are corrected, growth picks up substantially.

 

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

We'd love to help. It will help us if you could use punctuation and capital letters where appropriate so that we can better understand what you are saying or asking.

When they are kept too dry, too cool, fed wrong, and housed wrong, it slows or stops their growth. The solution then is to house, feed, hydrate them correctly. All the info for how to do that is in the links I left for you. Just click and read. Questions are welcome. In most cases, once the conditions and diet are corrected, growth picks up substantially.

How am I not feeding and hydrating correctly. I’m broke as **** I plan on building a bigger cage just not now. They’re kept at high humidity I live in a very humid place too, I have so many reptiles in my room it’s almost like a sauna always at 85 degrees and humid. I can’t separate them right now. Maybe I should have specified I did my research what all I could find on taking care of them. They were in an enclosure so big before I couldn’t fit it in my trunk and had to trash it. It was the breeder I bought them from who had them on red light in a 15 gallon with a water bowl they couldn’t get into. The breeder didn’t even give them calcium I got them really healthy and then we moved halfway across the country. Even though this would barely fit in my trunk (it would just barely ) the other stuck out halfway.

 

[Tim Carlisle]

How am I not feeding and hydrating correctly. I’m broke as **** I plan on building a bigger cage just not now. They’re kept at high humidity I live in a very humid place too, I have so many reptiles in my room it’s almost like a sauna always at 85 degrees and humid. I can’t separate them right now. Maybe I should have specified I did my research what all I could find on taking care of them. They were in an enclosure so big before I couldn’t fit it in my trunk and had to trash it. It was the breeder I bought them from who had them on red light in a 15 gallon with a water bowl they couldn’t get into. The breeder didn’t even give them calcium I got them really healthy and then we moved halfway across the country. Even though this would barely fit in my trunk (it would just barely ) the other stuck out halfway.

Just a thought - housing pairs together is often stressful for them which CAN impact growth. @Tom put an excellent thread together explaining the signs and symptoms. https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/signs-of-bullying-in-young-tortoises.188026/

 

[Yvonne G]

The way to get them back to growing as they should is to have them in separate enclosures, improve the diet and give them the correct lighting/UVB. These things have a BIG effect on how a sulcata tortoise grows, especially the pairs thing. Bullying is subtle. The keeper rarely recognizes it because it's not overt. One of the tortoises is constantly telling the other tortoise to get out of his territory, but the other tortoise has no way to 'get out,' so it's very stressful on both of them. Stress is one reason they've not grown to your liking.

 

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

The way to get them back to growing as they should is to have them in separate enclosures, improve the diet and give them the correct lighting/UVB. These things have a BIG effect on how a sulcata tortoise grows, especially the pairs thing. Bullying is subtle. The keeper rarely recognizes it because it's not overt. One of the tortoises is constantly telling the other tortoise to get out of his territory, but the other tortoise has no way to 'get out,' so it's very stressful on both of them. Stress is one reason they've not grown to your liking.

I have a good uvb and it keeps them warm and helps with vitamin A

 

[Yvonne G]

I have a good uvb and it keeps them warm and helps with vitamin A

. . . you mean vitamin D.

 

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

. . . you mean vitamin D.

Yeah

 

[wellington]

All the research you did was not correct, or at least some of it wasn't. If they were so healthy as you think, they wouldn't be so small and pyramided. I understand most of that came from the person you got them from but you are not doing much better!!! If you can't afford to do better then don't get them!!! They need better Now! For under 100 bucks, sometimes under 50 bucks a pop up green house can be purchased to make them a closed chamber enclosure.
Google search for ones like pictured.

 

[Tom]

How am I not feeding and hydrating correctly.

They are too small for hay, and Timothy hay is the wrong hay to use when the time to use hay comes. Watermelon, strawberries and other fruits are not good for them. Lettuce does not meet their nutritional needs unless you add amendments to it. Bermuda grass and opuntia are both excellent foods, so good job there.

Are you soaking them daily? What is their humidity level in their enclosure? People in south Florida cannot keep humidity high enough in indoor open topped enclosures. This has nothing to do with where you live. It has to do with the type of enclosure. You need a closed chamber.

I’m broke as **** I plan on building a bigger cage just not now.

The tortoises need what they need. A person's financial status doesn't affect this. The tent that Wellington linked for you is a cheaper alternative than buying a proper closed chamber.

Maybe I should have specified I did my research what all I could find on taking care of them.

Did you read the thread I linked? It explains why this research steered you wrong.

They were in an enclosure so big before I couldn’t fit it in my trunk and had to trash it.

An enclosure for a young sulcata needs to be much larger than anything that would almost fit in a trunk.

It was the breeder I bought them from who had them on red light in a 15 gallon with a water bowl they couldn’t get into. The breeder didn’t even give them calcium...

Sounds like the breeder was a terrible tortoise care taker. You have given them a MUCH better life, but your question was; "If they’re small and how to make them catch up I know how to take care of sulcatas I just don’t know what’s wrong with them"

The are very undersize for their age. The way to catch them up is to give them the proper care, conditions and diet, which is all explained in detail in the link that I left for you. You do not know how to take care of sulcatas. You read stuff on the internet that is all the usual wrong info, and that is part of what is wrong with them and why they are so small. The stress of living as a pair is also a big part of the problem.

This is NOT an attack on you or an insult in any way. You got these tortoises, and you've done all the things you thought were right for them. You unfortunately found bad advice, as almost everyone does, and now you are frustrated because all the stuff we are telling you goes against that bad info you found previously. I understand. You are not the first person who got the tortoise red pill. We'e been through this many times before, and we will happily help YOU get through it too, if you'll let us.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I don't want to beat a dead horse. And I apologize for piling on more bad news. But if your UVB bulb also provides heat, it's probably a MVB bulb.
These are also not recommended because they don't provide a constant and reliable level of UVB. And they dry out the enclosure and the tortoise.

 

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

I get it I am trying I can’t put them outside I almost lost my whole flock of chickens the other day there are TONS of predators I will take your advice but if I get them a huge cage is there any way I could get like more females so I don’t have to separate them TYSM everyone I’ll try my best