Tortoise Questions w/ pics!

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Urtle

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Hello members of the tortoise forum,
I first would like to say how much I love this website, I visit on a daily basis and always find useful info coming from such wonderful people.

I currently have 2 sulcata tortoises, 1 who is a male measuring at 15'' about 9 years old and a 4 month old who I have yet to measure who has been growing steadily with hardly any pyramiding.

I love my tortoises very much and want the best for them. So with that said, I have a few questions Im hoping will be answered here.

First, I want to know what causes shell rot. I am always worried that my older sulcata will develop this so I want to avoid it before its too late.

Also, I wanted to know how it is possible that you can feed cactus pads or cactus fruit to a sulcata without removing the little hairs? Although I will remove them, wouldn't this be painful for them?

And finally, I have noticed my older sulcata sometimes eats rocks. This usually happens after I feed him. He has a large area to graze on grasses and weeds but once in a while Ill buy him a batch of dandelion greens that I wash thoroughly and lay under a shady area and after hes done munching away he finds a spot with rocks and eats them. I have a calcium supplement I give my little one twice a week. Should I start giving some to my older one as well? or whats the deal?

Any who, here is a pic of both of them that I took about 3 weeks ago that I hope you guys will enjoy.

Thanks everyone for the help.
 

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Ruchonnet

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Im no expert but I've read shell Rot is extremely rare for a sulcata to have or get. And I've heard mineALL help give them minerals that they need which can help with the rock eating :)
 

wellington

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First, I hope you have the two together just for the pic. the big one will for sure hurt, most likely kill the little one. As for the rock eating, get some outdoor miner-All. I have a thread about the same rock eating. I would also remove all those little rocks if possible. They might not bother the big one much, but the little one sure could get hurt by eating one. BTW, give the miner-All to both. The cactus, well no one picks anything off of them in the wild. That said, remove any big spines and you can also scrape or burn off the small hair like ones. Some people do, some don't. Can't really help with the shell rot. Someone will be along for that. Great looking torts:)
 

Urtle

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wellington said:
First, I hope you have the two together just for the pic. the big one will for sure hurt, most likely kill the little one. As for the rock eating, get some outdoor miner-All. I have a thread about the same rock eating. I would also remove all those little rocks if possible. They might not bother the big one much, but the little one sure could get hurt by eating one. BTW, give the miner-All to both. The cactus, well no one picks anything off of them in the wild. That said, remove any big spines and you can also scrape or burn off the small hair like ones. Some people do, some don't. Can't really help with the shell rot. Someone will be along for that. Great looking torts:)


Of course only for the pic. He doesn't care for the rocks in the picture at all and the neither does the small one but Im not sure how often now, its been a while but the rocks he does eat are tiny round pebbles in another area.

Thank you for your input, I will look for miner-All
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Ben:

Those are two of the prettiest sulcatas I've seen in a while. You've really done a good job with them.

I think that in order for your sulcata to get shell rot, you would have to have them living in wet conditions where their plastron was wet all the time. I don't think you have to worry about shell rot.

I use Miner-all too.
 

Urtle

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emysemys said:
Hi Ben:

Those are two of the prettiest sulcatas I've seen in a while. You've really done a good job with them.

Thank you!!
 

LuckysGirl007

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emysemys said:
Hi Ben:

Those are two of the prettiest sulcatas I've seen in a while. You've really done a good job with them.

I think that in order for your sulcata to get shell rot, you would have to have them living in wet conditions where their plastron was wet all the time. I don't think you have to worry about shell rot.

I use Miner-all too.

Oh no! I keep my substrate wet all the time! Do they need a dry area? I thought the whole thing was supposed to be moist! (mine are 1 month old)
 

Dizisdalife

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LuckysGirl007 said:
emysemys said:
Hi Ben:

Those are two of the prettiest sulcatas I've seen in a while. You've really done a good job with them.

I think that in order for your sulcata to get shell rot, you would have to have them living in wet conditions where their plastron was wet all the time. I don't think you have to worry about shell rot.

I use Miner-all too.

Oh no! I keep my substrate wet all the time! Do they need a dry area? I thought the whole thing was supposed to be moist! (mine are 1 month old)

I always kept a large flat stone in the basking area so that my tortoise would have a "dry" spot. The substrate was moist, but not wet enough to cause shell rot.
 

Tom

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As long as your temps are warm in an indoor enclosure they should not get shell rot. In all my years and all the vets I've asked, all of us have only heard of one single case of shell rot in a sulcata. Apparently a pipe had broken and the floor inside the outdoor tortoise night house was flooded with water and poopy mud all winter long with no heat. Only one of the sulcatas show some minor shell rot.

This is a pretty extreme case. I have never seen it any other time and let me tell you, I have kept them on some wet substrate.
 

LuckysGirl007

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Tom said:
As long as your temps are warm in an indoor enclosure they should not get shell rot. In all my years and all the vets I've asked, all of us have only heard of one single case of shell rot in a sulcata. Apparently a pipe had broken and the floor inside the outdoor tortoise night house was flooded with water and poopy mud all winter long with no heat. Only one of the sulcatas show some minor shell rot.

This is a pretty extreme case. I have never seen it any other time and let me tell you, I have kept them on some wet substrate.

Phew! Ok thanks! I also have a couple of rocks in there! :)
 

Linzbragg

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mainey34 said:
Beautiful sulcatas you have there..

I agree, so beautiful! For some additional calcium you can put cuttlebone in your tort's home. Take the hard backing off of it; he'll eat it whenever he needs more calcium. That way you'll know he has enough.
 
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