ceciljchen
New Member
Hey all. I look forward to learning from all the experienced members in this forum. I'd recently been looking after my sister's tortoise -Tortilla - while she's been away on vacation. Tortilla was passed on to her by a friend who was moving countries and my sister is new to tortoise care as well. While I've had Tortilla, I've been doing a tonne of reading up and information gathering on tortoises.
My sister says Tortilla is a sulcata, but I'm now not so sure. Initially, I assumed she knew about the tortoise, so I began looking up baby sulcata care, moved Tortilla from her tiny cardboard carton to a plastic tub, bought coconut coir and dry peat/sphagnum moss for a mixed substrate, planted some bermuda grass in a small area of substrate, got her terrcota water and food dishes, basking brick, set up an extra UVB light, placed thermometer/hygrometers in 3 different locations in her tub, heating pads for under and above her hide, included a warm-ish night light and am propagating some spider plant babies to place in her enclosure soon. I also placed a PVC right-angle elbow as an additional hide/tunnel near her basking area.
My sister left her a bag of Mazuri 5M-21 tortoise diet saying I need not feed her more than half or one soaked pellet a day. I see contrary information online. Meanwhile I picked up a bag of Zoo Med's Natural Grassland. I soak 2 pellets of each and squish them into a small mound for Tortilla, but she hasn't taken to the Zoo Med diet, completely ignoring it for the Mazuri, which I've learned is less than ideal for this species.
I now soak her nearly every morning, and after about 10-15 minutes, and successful indication of having relieved herself, I pat her down and place her back in her tub for a meal. I've tried a mix of other fresh greens with little success. She seems to prefer the Mazuri. Today, however, she began grazing on some of the bermuda grass that began sprouting yesterday, She grazed for a nice long while, made her way to her food dish, munched on some mazuri, leaving half of it, and the whole mound of Grassland, untouched. She seems to eat only once a day since I put her in the larger tub. when I first got her, in her small carton enclosure, she would munch on soaked Mazuri at least twice a day. so I'm quite confused by this behaviour.
It's been 3 weeks since I began looking after Tortilla and I've searched extensively online for knowledge on caring for this beautiful creature, but having seen so many pictures of sulcatas, it strikes me that Torti is somewhat different, physically, in appearance to a lot of the baby sully photos online. I wonder now if she might be a hybrid, and if so, I wonder whether I'm doing things wrong. Here are some photos of her after a soak. I hope they're good enough for any of the many people in the know here to identify what species she is and let me know what I ought to be doing differently to address some of the concerns I mentioned above. And also just enjoy photos of baby Torti - especially that heart-shaped marking on her "butt". She's a very lovely creature, in my opinion.
My sister says Tortilla is a sulcata, but I'm now not so sure. Initially, I assumed she knew about the tortoise, so I began looking up baby sulcata care, moved Tortilla from her tiny cardboard carton to a plastic tub, bought coconut coir and dry peat/sphagnum moss for a mixed substrate, planted some bermuda grass in a small area of substrate, got her terrcota water and food dishes, basking brick, set up an extra UVB light, placed thermometer/hygrometers in 3 different locations in her tub, heating pads for under and above her hide, included a warm-ish night light and am propagating some spider plant babies to place in her enclosure soon. I also placed a PVC right-angle elbow as an additional hide/tunnel near her basking area.
My sister left her a bag of Mazuri 5M-21 tortoise diet saying I need not feed her more than half or one soaked pellet a day. I see contrary information online. Meanwhile I picked up a bag of Zoo Med's Natural Grassland. I soak 2 pellets of each and squish them into a small mound for Tortilla, but she hasn't taken to the Zoo Med diet, completely ignoring it for the Mazuri, which I've learned is less than ideal for this species.
I now soak her nearly every morning, and after about 10-15 minutes, and successful indication of having relieved herself, I pat her down and place her back in her tub for a meal. I've tried a mix of other fresh greens with little success. She seems to prefer the Mazuri. Today, however, she began grazing on some of the bermuda grass that began sprouting yesterday, She grazed for a nice long while, made her way to her food dish, munched on some mazuri, leaving half of it, and the whole mound of Grassland, untouched. She seems to eat only once a day since I put her in the larger tub. when I first got her, in her small carton enclosure, she would munch on soaked Mazuri at least twice a day. so I'm quite confused by this behaviour.
It's been 3 weeks since I began looking after Tortilla and I've searched extensively online for knowledge on caring for this beautiful creature, but having seen so many pictures of sulcatas, it strikes me that Torti is somewhat different, physically, in appearance to a lot of the baby sully photos online. I wonder now if she might be a hybrid, and if so, I wonder whether I'm doing things wrong. Here are some photos of her after a soak. I hope they're good enough for any of the many people in the know here to identify what species she is and let me know what I ought to be doing differently to address some of the concerns I mentioned above. And also just enjoy photos of baby Torti - especially that heart-shaped marking on her "butt". She's a very lovely creature, in my opinion.
