Tell me about your Sulcata

[BethyB1022]

Ichabod is about 4 months old:

I am looking forward to him getting to be REALLY big but am enjoying his small size for right now. He's a lot of fun to watch and I like to think he recognizes me (I am the food goddess after all!). He's not shy and I am hoping he stays really friendly. He's spoiled rotten at the moment and is really enjoying his new xmas tree bin enclosure.

Owning a sulcata is definitely a learning experience, and I am continually tweaking my husbandry. I hope that he can grow up to be a nice healthy tortoise with a shell as nice as Tyler's sullys have. I am looking forward to creating his outdoor enclosure for when he is big enough, and I hope I will have great stories like Maggie has about Bob .

I have really liked looking at everyone's pictures and hearing their stories. Thanks for starting the thread!

 

[Maggie Cummings]

In my defense, Bob was about 5 or 6 pounds when I got him and the pyramid damage was already done. I was only keeping him for abt 2 weeks while Yvonne found homes for the Sulcata she already had as she didn't have room for Bob. He already had his name. But by the time she had room for Bob it was too late. I believe he has more personality then most other tortoises and he does cause all the trouble I have written about. He is a great friend to have. He does follow me around like a dog and he does come to the sign of my wriggling fingers. I was sitting on the floor in his shed a couple of nights ago just socializing with him when he climbed up on my lap and just sat there staring into my eyes like he was looking for something. It lasted for what seemed like a long time, (well it was 80 pounds of dirty poopie Sulcata), he will follow me wherever I walk, at the same time will ignore someone else who's waving strawberries at him. I think he's smarter then most and I just adore him and have tried to tell myself that he would be better off in a better climate, but I can't part with him just yet. He is in my will for a friend in Alabama. My son thinks he's getting Bob, but not if they follow the wishes written in my will...
Bob used to travel a lot with me, here he is in his Motel 8 November 12, 06...

Here is Roxie checking Bob out, you can see him if you look, this was 10/06

This is Bob and Big Bubba eating together...it's a sweet picture beautiful cat, small Bob

Just another shot of small Bob and Big Bubba...

Bob eating again sometime in 2006

So there are a few pictures of him when he was smaller...it's kinda hard to remember him that small. But in that last picture you can see he already had that evil glint in his eye and the bump on his nose...He is fun to have but expensive. It was $800 just to create the shed so he could be comfortable in it. But you know, I sure can't think of anymore money he has cost me, so maybe he's not all that expensive after all is said and done...In Spring I will try to move the cinder block to make a bigger pen for him...I will close this by saying there isn't enough money in all of Dubai to take Bob away from me...

 

[Meg90]

Awwww! Baby Bob! I love these pictures!

Great thread everyone, it was an excellent idea, Candy!

 

[Maggie Cummings]

We all love Bob, but Maggie who the little Sulcata in the picture with bob is that the one you had to give up because Bob kept picking on him?

Kayti, I meant everyone who has one. I would love to know how active yours is right now at his/her age. And what kinds of things does he/she do? And are you afraid of how big it's going to get or not?

Tyler who the little girl in that pictures and are those your Sulcata or did you have that picture take for your business? Either way those are some beautiful big guys. And I'm also curious do they bite or are you afraid of them biting when they're that size or not?

That's Tony, named after Tony Stewart. Tony was blinded by a combination of pine substrate and those coil bulbs but I can't remember the way it happened to repeat it. Yvonne found a better forever home for him, but I do remember he adored Bob and followed him around the yard always. When you saw Bob Tony was not far behind.

 

[chadk]

I blame Bob and Maggie for my 3 sullies... Dozer, Tank, and Thunder. Dozer reminds me of Bob - always getting into trouble. Tons of fun though.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I blame Bob and Maggie for my 3 sullies... Dozer, Tank, and Thunder. Dozer reminds me of Bob - always getting into trouble. Tons of fun though.

Yep...it's always *MY* fault!!!

 

[Candy]

These stories are great and I am in awe of all Sully caretakers. My son and 2 roommates[all Marine Officers, now] graduated U of M in April 2008. "Mortimer"/now to be called Mortisha via blood test confirmation, made the drive[9 1/2 hours] from Michigan to New Jersey weighing only 6.5 oz. Her estimated B-Day was about July/August 2007. Today she weighs 8.5 lbs. and has totally taken over the hearts of anyone who meets her. I broke my leg last January and she was my calming feature during the seven weeks I was on crutches. Because of her my husband learned how to find spring mix, dandelion,and chicory in the food store. We have had some health issues and despite the trips to the vet, she has continued to "grow" not only in size but in my heart. I can't remember what it was like without her here. Would I do it again?---Only if I lived in a state more condusive to her native habitat. I would rather ask my husband to move to another state because of her. I love her.

She sounds wonderful do you have any pictures that you could show of her? I'd love to see her. Good for your husband he probably won't even let you shop for her anymore, right?

---

I'm loving these stories and all of these pictures of these beautiful Sulcata's. I would like someone to answer whether or not if you have two males that grow up together does that mean they will eventually fight when they become adults? I know Yvonne mentioned Dudley knocking things down to get to another Sulcata does this happen if they're raised together?

 

[Laura]

why is this topic under debatable topics? Shouldnt it be under Sulcatas?
love them! i have four and it might end up being a bit much!

 

[TylerStewart]

It depends on the specific males.... It's not correct to say that males just fight automatically. I had 2 males around 75+ pounds that would seek each other out and fight all day long if you let them. They were exactly the same size. The same males did ok with other males, just not each other. My sulcata groups have at least 2 males in each of them.... Bigger males are dominant, and the smaller ones know that, but they get along well in general. Occasionally I'll find one flipped over, but I find females flipped over sometimes too. It helps if they have plenty of space, and plenty of other things to take their minds off of each other. A size difference helps, and it might take a month for them to figure out the order of things, but you just want to keep an eye on them for a while. Those bigger males were hitting each other hard, hard enough that I separated them immediately. Nowadays we just get the occasional one time pushes they do to each other, mostly during feeding, but it's no more towards the males than it is the females.

 

[Candy]

Kind of like at my party yesterday when we had 5 dogs over and 2 ended up fighting, but at the last party they were fine with each other. You just never know why, but they do. They got along fine the rest of the day, but it made a couple of people nervous, but I was fine with it, dogs should be with dogs. Anyway I'm the alfa dog. Sorry that was supposed to be about Sulcata's behavior being like dogs, but I waivered off just a bit. Thanks Tyler for explaining that for me.

 

[Annieski]

Hopefully the pic's will work--This is my Morty

 

[Candy]

Very cute and looks like he's a little shy is he? He has a lot of space to roam around that's good. How big is he it's hard to tell in the pictures. Do you know how much he weighs?

 

[Annieski]

Very cute and looks like he's a little shy is he? He has a lot of space to roam around that's good. How big is he it's hard to tell in the pictures. Do you know how much he weighs?

Morty isn't shy with me --in the second picture she was in her "sleeping"place. When I first got her she weighed 6.5 oz and now she weighs 8.5 lbs. The area in the picture is only 1/2 of her roaming space. We are in the basement now because of temps in New Jersey.

 

[Italianlnm]

I only have one Sulcata. I did have two, but sadly my baby died. And I am currently looking for an older one.

The first sully I had was Tank. Tank was the baby. He was the cutest thing, and I couldn't help but be reminded of a little old man everytime I looked at him. I just wanted to hug him. I ended up buying him, because he was in a pet store, and he was in awful condition. I think that is one of the reasons he passed away. He didn't have a good start, but at least I know that his last few monthes were great for him. I also know that the babies have a high mortality rate, so it probably wasn't preventable.. Because some just don't make it.

While I had Tank, I happened to adopt Bullet. Bullet was a rescue that I got from someone who had originally had two. She said that his 'friend' died, and he had stopped eating. That she couldn't care for him anymore, and gave him to me. But I soon after learned from Yvonne that they don't really mourn, so it had to be some other issue. The woman had his set up all wrong, and after I got him, I tweaked that to the best of my ability. He is now eating (LOTS!) and he is a very healthy little man. He does have pyramiding from the previous owner, but we are working hard to get that under control. And so far, his new growth is as smooth as a babies butt. Bullet is very shy, because he never really got handled as a baby, but he is becoming unshy with me. His personality is starting to show. He is very michevious, and it is quiet funny. He is quite the character.

Recently, I have finally realized that I do want another Sulcata, again. I just want an older one, and not go the Hatchling route again. So, I began my path to build Tortoise Tables for both Bullet and a new sully. I have completed them and they are looking great. I know that the new tortoise will be happy in it. My husband has also contacted a contracter and they have drawn up the plans for a huge shed, so that I can adopt a larger tortoise. I think I can going to stop at 3 though. I want a larger one, but I still want another smaller one as well. The shed won't be done until Spring, so I will have plenty of time to look around for a larger one. There was a tortoise I was going to adopt, but that didn't work out, so I am on the hunt again!

Thanks for starting this post, it is great!

 

[Tom]

I love having sulcatas. They are a complete joy to be around and are so interesting.

I got franklin for my birthday when he was a baby and he is now 2 and a half years old.
He crawls up his little log house thing and slides down it face first like he's going down a water slide, it's the funniest thing in the world. At first I was a bit nervous about it but after a while I thought hey if he keeps doing it over and over and over again it must not hurt him!! He is so sweet and runs around my room all the time. A while back I took frankie outside so he could have some 'sun time' and a came back three min later and he was gone. I searched everywhere for him and couldnt find him. My boyfriend felt horrible and got me a baby sulcata, who I named peanut. yet at the same time no one could replace franklin. the next day I went outside to look for him and he was sitting right where I left him!!!! I was so happy to have him back. He's a little adventurer. And now every time he goes outside I keep all eyes on him!

Peanut and frankie are best friends and peanut whose much smaller sits on franks shell and franklin takes him for rides around my room its shilarious!

Having sulcatas can be quite a joy!

This happened to my box turtle when I was a kid. I put little remote control car racing numbers on him and never lost him again. I told people he was a "racing turtle."

 

[Tom]

Where to begin? I've alway been fascinated by big, tame reptiles. Especially tortoises and lizards. I was one of those kids you couldn't drag away from the Galops at the San Diego Zoo. They used to let you go in the pen with them and little kids were invited to sit on them for a pic.

I discovered sulcatas in 1993. I like all tortoises, but everything I like about tortoises in general, sulcatas have in abundance. They are the most active, hardiest, least fearful, most outgoing, most adaptable, easiest to feed and most attractive. They are so tough you almost can't kill them. They all have different personalities, but they are all outgoing.

They even look cool. I love the light color and perfectly proportioned shell. It is fascinating to watch them move as their substantial armor articulates. They are just so substantial and powerful, yet graceful and controlled in their movements.

I find them to be very easy keepers and highly adaptable. It doesn't matter whether you live in the dry California High Desert or the super humidity of Southern Florida your sulcata will do great.

I see their big size as a positive attribute. If they got double the size they do, I'd think it was great. Its an outdoor pet and a relatively easy one to manage. There is nothing like the sight of two or three giant tortoises meandering through the scrub brush. Its awe inspiring. To enjoy them to their fullest, you really need some space to watch them wander around loose. I've got five acres for them to roam and somehow they have a way of making me feel like they are cramped.

They are, in my mind, tortoise perfection personified.