Hello everybody. I just adopted an adult Sulcata tortoise a couple days ago and I thought I would post some pics and see what you guys think of him. He came from a home that treated him like a dog, he ate with the families dogs and slept with the families dogs and a large part of his diet was dog food. The previous owners had him for 7 years and believe that he's around 17 years old, I'm not sure if that's true. His shell has some pyramiding, but seems to be in decent shape considering the conditions he was living in. It looks like he has a hook growing from the bottom part of his mouth and I can tell it makes it difficult for him to eat. He also seems to be partially blind, I can put my finger really close to his eyes and he doesn't move his head and his eyes just look cloudy and unhealthy. The good thing is, I have an appointment with a local reptile vet next week and hopefully I can get him feeling better. I live in upstate NY and he will be living inside my house until it gets warm again, then he will have a big backyard all to himself.
Sulcata Tortoise Adoption
- Thread starter Scott.D
- Start date
Good job. The shell looks decent to me, but dry. I am not a Sulcata owner though. His eyes do not look good to me. I hope you can get him squared away and healthy. More knowledgeable advice will be a long soon I am sure. Welcome to the forum
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2013
- Messages
- 10,876
Hello Scott welcome to the TFO from AZ . Have a great tort day !
Thanks for rescuing him from his previous owners. Imnreally glad you found tortoise forum! His eyes, as you mentioned do look cloudy. The vet will need to take care of that lower hook problem. Others will chime in to give you advice. What is your indoor setup for this guy?
Thanks for joining the Forum and for sharing your story here! Best of luck with him. Be careful near the woodburning stove - they really suck the moisture from the air. Make sure that you soak him and keep him well hydrated.
Welcome to the Forum, Scott. Good job on the rescue. The beak will need to be filed, however, it looks like the lower jaw juts out beyond the upper jaw...some sort of misalignment. The extension can be filed down, but with the jaw jutting out like that, it will just keep growing back with nothing up above to oppose it. Makes you wonder what happened to his eyes, huh. All in all, a pretty nice-looking sulcata.
Welcome!
Thanks for replying to my post everybody. Everything seems to being going good with my new rescue tortoise. This is the third day he's been with me and he seems to be getting healthier everyday. I've been soaking him in my tub every morning in warm water and I leave the shower on when he soaks, he seems to really like it. He puts his head under the water during the soaks and it has seemed to help clean his eyes out a little bit. I've been feeding him spring mix and a bunch of other grocery store vegetables for now, I know that's not the proper diet for him, but I wanted to spoil him for a few days, since he's been living off of dog food for the last seven years. I will be building his winter enclosure this week inside my home, the past few days he has been living in an extra bedroom I have in my house. I really need some advice on building his indoor enclosure. I could let him have a whole room of my house, but I don't know how many basking lamps and uvb lights he would need. My other option is to build a smaller enclosure, so I now he is soaking up the uvb and heat. Thanks in advance for your replies.
If it was me, I would give him the whole room. Set up a separate heat source for the room and keep ambient temperature over 70. Put some kind of sealed floor in the whole room. The set up an area with dirt and the lights. Set up a humid hide attached to this area.
This is my large Leopard indoor enclosure. She doesn't get the whole room, because has to share with my other 5 smaller Leopards.
This is not a great picture, but hope you get the idea.
This is my large Leopard indoor enclosure. She doesn't get the whole room, because has to share with my other 5 smaller Leopards.
This is not a great picture, but hope you get the idea.
