Stump... 3.5mo and 135g.
- Thread starter ryan57
- Start date
Beautiful!
Dear Stump,
YOU ARE TOO CUTE!!!!😍
I want to kiss you on your head so that it leaves a lipstick mark!!! 💋💄🤣
Oh…and a raspberry on your little butt to make you vibrate. 😝
Great looking tort! Have you read the caresheets?
Pictures of your enclosure would be great. That way we can make sure you have it setup correctly. Pet stores give horrible advice.
Pictures of your enclosure would be great. That way we can make sure you have it setup correctly. Pet stores give horrible advice.
Tom's care sheet on a closed chamber and diet seems to be perfect for them.
Enclosure... Notice temp/humidity sensor on right... constant 84 degrees and 79-93% humidity.
60W Ceramic Heat Emitter always on. Constant 84deg in box.
Inside... you can see the spot on upper left where he hunkers down 80% of the time. Water dish on right.
Food outside. Cuttlebone outside and it chews the heck out of it.
Outdoor enclosure
Fenced back yard. Will build Masonry and wrought iron over the next 2 years.
1/3 of back yard
1/4 of front yard
Side yard
More side yard all mowed pretty short.
So... sunroom
So if I place the muggy as hell box outside occasionally this little guy CHOOSES to explore the sun room and yard supervised within 15' by my wife or I.
It can go in and out by itself. Stump is outside about 3 hours per day and is either in the enclosure but in the evenings, wanders about with hawk supervision and literally has been everywhere. outside his enclosure to the front yard, side yard, made a trip by itself to the back yard, sun room, etc. grazing all the while after eating all the food inside. Then I replenish food in the evening as it sometimes comes out for a snack.
Exercise and sunshine as much as it wants seems to be key to good growth it seems.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/86f94g3s6aek0vw/IMG_1896.MOV?dl=0
This is why you have to be around when they are exploring...
This is why you have to be around when they are exploring...
Welcome!
My phone just reminded me of the day after I got this very spoiled tortoise. Soooo small.
This picture had me worried about pyramiding and rightfully so. Too cold and too dry. Wrong food, etc. Then I found Tom's guide, fixed the temps and used Yvonne's aluminum foil trick over the bulb for a few weeks then got it dialed in using a closed chamber.
Today Stump weighed 160G @ 4 months. Outside when reasonable for 3-4 hours per day.
Thank you for all the good information that you make available to beginners on this forum.
Seems like there are new growth lines every week at this point! 4 months and 1 week tomorrow... 185grams
This thing is starting to eat everything in the dish throughout the morning and then eat everything in sight (grass and weeds) when it's outside. These photos are under the light in the living room after the warm soak.
He is looking great!
Like a weed. 191g today.He is looking great!
…
They grow up so fast….🤦♀️
This guy/girl... baby dinosaur.
199g today. So I've been keeping up with growth charts and noted the example where the growth rate stayed pretty consistent after stabilized. I sure hope not. Check out the screenshots of the excel file. I measure this guy/girl on the 1st of the month on the first tab and weekly on the other to establish a percentage.
It is being fed 2% of weight Mazuri LS Small Tortoise currently throughout year one. I called them and this is the recommended food/supplement until year 1 when they should switch to the Mazuri LS. So he eats handful of greens the same size as him, 2% of body weight in Mazuri and then eats every piece of bird poop he finds AND grass, weeds, dandelions, etc. in his outdoor enclosure. This thing is absolutely ridiculous in his eating now and I take for long walks every evening that the weather is real nice.
Question. Mazuri says LS Small Tortoise for year one (sulcata) obviously as a supplement with a ton of other offerings including the hours of grazing that this thing gets. There is no doubt that Stump will be 450-600 Grams @ 6 months at this rate but the alarming thing is that if the growth rate is constant through year one we're potentially looking at a very big tortoise. Is it worth reducing the Mazuri or cutting it off completely at some point like 6 months when 600g or so is reached? Or do you say just go with it? Obviously he has no shell pyramiding issues, active, ton of sun, lots of exercise, etc.
So I disturbed his muggy box and boy was he pissed which made my wife pissed too. Seems he was starting a nice clover garden from the seeds and weeds his poop brings back and I wrecked his two 'beds' and his garden. Today she got a bigger muggy-as-hell box and this should last until his shell is 12" or so and I'm planning on not disturbing except to rinse and get the poop out. Then he will move to the permanent digs. It's 40"x22" just pretty much for sleeping/resting/warming and it comes out for food, walk around the room and to go outside. Still 84deg ambient and 94% humidity which is what it has been for the past 2 months or so. If you zoom in on the device. Food lid is now ridiculous size every day and it was heaping this morning and... as you see - Gone.
199g today. So I've been keeping up with growth charts and noted the example where the growth rate stayed pretty consistent after stabilized. I sure hope not. Check out the screenshots of the excel file. I measure this guy/girl on the 1st of the month on the first tab and weekly on the other to establish a percentage.It is being fed 2% of weight Mazuri LS Small Tortoise currently throughout year one. I called them and this is the recommended food/supplement until year 1 when they should switch to the Mazuri LS. So he eats handful of greens the same size as him, 2% of body weight in Mazuri and then eats every piece of bird poop he finds AND grass, weeds, dandelions, etc. in his outdoor enclosure. This thing is absolutely ridiculous in his eating now and I take for long walks every evening that the weather is real nice.
Question. Mazuri says LS Small Tortoise for year one (sulcata) obviously as a supplement with a ton of other offerings including the hours of grazing that this thing gets. There is no doubt that Stump will be 450-600 Grams @ 6 months at this rate but the alarming thing is that if the growth rate is constant through year one we're potentially looking at a very big tortoise. Is it worth reducing the Mazuri or cutting it off completely at some point like 6 months when 600g or so is reached? Or do you say just go with it? Obviously he has no shell pyramiding issues, active, ton of sun, lots of exercise, etc.
So I disturbed his muggy box and boy was he pissed which made my wife pissed too. Seems he was starting a nice clover garden from the seeds and weeds his poop brings back and I wrecked his two 'beds' and his garden. Today she got a bigger muggy-as-hell box and this should last until his shell is 12" or so and I'm planning on not disturbing except to rinse and get the poop out. Then he will move to the permanent digs. It's 40"x22" just pretty much for sleeping/resting/warming and it comes out for food, walk around the room and to go outside. Still 84deg ambient and 94% humidity which is what it has been for the past 2 months or so. If you zoom in on the device. Food lid is now ridiculous size every day and it was heaping this morning and... as you see - Gone.
One very ridiculously spoiled (and cute) 216g tortoise after a long graze, walk and a sore muscle soak today.
Realized that we are not training Stump. Stump is training us to notice what (s)he wants. Now (s)he goes to the door inside when (s)he's ready to go out just like the mat outside when (s)he's ready to come in.
Realized that we are not training Stump. Stump is training us to notice what (s)he wants. Now (s)he goes to the door inside when (s)he's ready to go out just like the mat outside when (s)he's ready to come in.
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