Turtle growth and food quantity

[Arizona Josh]

Hey guys. We have a 2 year old sulcata. He is around 3 inches and doesn't seem to be growing as much as I thought. I am feeding him butter lettuce and grass but not sure if I'm feeding (Reggie) enough. I feed him in total throughout the day about 4 "pieces" of lecttuce a little bigger then the size of my palm but wasn't sure if I should do more and more often? Additionally we have him inside in a tank which I attached a picture of. I'm a little green with tortoises and am not sure if a bigger tank or enclosure would allow more growth. Sorry if these questions were answered elsewhere but I couldn't find them anywhere. Appreciate anyone's thoughts on these issues. Thanks in advance. Josh

 

[Hutsie B]

Josh,
You may want to feed him more grass than lettuce and more of it if he eats it. They are grazers and there are a few lists on this forum about all the grown food around the yard that you can feed your tortoise. In my opinion his tank is a little small for his size, they like to roam around a lot and you may want to build a bigger turtle table which is a nice habitat with more room for them. If you are not handy at building you can use bigger plastic containers that you can get at Lowe's or Home Depot for big flatter plastic containers. This is just all my opinion I am sure those who know more will have more to say. Hutsie

 

[TechnoCheese]

Hey guys. We have a 2 year old sulcata. He is around 3 inches and doesn't seem to be growing as much as I thought. I am feeding him butter lettuce and grass but not sure if I'm feeding (Reggie) enough. I feed him in total throughout the day about 4 "pieces" of lecttuce a little bigger then the size of my palm but wasn't sure if I should do more and more often? Additionally we have him inside in a tank which I attached a picture of. I'm a little green with tortoises and am not sure if a bigger tank or enclosure would allow more growth. Sorry if these questions were answered elsewhere but I couldn't find them anywhere. Appreciate anyone's thoughts on these issues. Thanks in advance. Josh

In my opinion, you should be feeding him a lot more variety. Try things like endive and escarole, bok choy, dandelions from your yard if you don't use any chemicals, and the list goes on and on. There's a really useful thread on here under the diet section.
also, I saw that you were using a red heat lamp. Colored bulbs are a no-no, and you might want to switch to a daylight bulb for day heat and a ceramic heat emitter for night heat. Also, what type of uvb/uva bulb are you using? Is it a coil?

I would also recommend sticking a hide in there. The glass walls will stress him out because he can see through them, but a hide would at least help that a little bit.

Happy tortoise keeping!

 

[Tom]

Hi Josh. Most people don't start these babies correctly and most of the advice given for them is wrong.

They need hydration and warm humid conditions. Were you told they are a desert species? They aren't. They are a grass land species and the babies hatch at the start of the rainy season. Ever been to sough FL in summer? Its hot, humid and rainy like that.

About your enclosure:
Its too small.
No red bulbs.
I don't know what's in the second hood, but if its a cfl type UV bulb, those should not be used.
You need much more substrate, and fine grade orchid bark works much better than coir.
Your tortoise needs a lot more variety and a lot more food. But with the added food, your tortoise needs monsoon conditions and lots of soaks.

Read theses for more info about diet and how to house them:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

After reading those, please come back with all your questions.

 

[Arizona Josh]

Josh,
You may want to feed him more grass than lettuce and more of it if he eats it. They are grazers and there are a few lists on this forum about all the grown food around the yard that you can feed your tortoise. In my opinion his tank is a little small for his size, they like to roam around a lot and you may want to build a bigger turtle table which is a nice habitat with more room for them. If you are not handy at building you can use bigger plastic containers that you can get at Lowe's or Home Depot for big flatter plastic containers. This is just all my opinion I am sure those who know more will have more to say. Hutsie

Thanks for the info. I appreciate the help.

 

[Arizona Josh]

In my opinion, you should be feeding him a lot more variety. Try things like endive and escarole, bok choy, dandelions from your yard if you don't use any chemicals, and the list goes on and on. There's a really useful thread on here under the diet section.
also, I saw that you were using a red heat lamp. Colored bulbs are a no-no, and you might want to switch to a daylight bulb for day heat and a ceramic heat emitter for night heat. Also, what type of uvb/uva bulb are you using? Is it a coil?

I would also recommend sticking a hide in there. The glass walls will stress him out because he can see through them, but a hide would at least help that a little bit.

Happy tortoise keeping!

Thanks for the suggestions, I will definitely make the appropriate changes.

 

[Arizona Josh]

Hi Josh. Most people don't start these babies correctly and most of the advice given for them is wrong.

They need hydration and warm humid conditions. Were you told they are a desert species? They aren't. They are a grass land species and the babies hatch at the start of the rainy season. Ever been to sough FL in summer? Its hot, humid and rainy like that.

About your enclosure:
Its too small.
No red bulbs.
I don't know what's in the second hood, but if its a cfl type UV bulb, those should not be used.
You need much more substrate, and fine grade orchid bark works much better than coir.
Your tortoise needs a lot more variety and a lot more food. But with the added food, your tortoise needs monsoon conditions and lots of soaks.

Read theses for more info about diet and how to house them:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

After reading those, please come back with all your questions.

Tom-
Thanks for the info and the article. I got the tortoise at a reptile store and was told he was a desert tortoise and to use a red heat bulb and another light CFU bulb for light during the day. Never got a mention of soaks or variation of food or a lot of other info you have provided. I wish I would have looked this "stuff" up earlier.
I do have a few questions:
I do have to keep him indoors at least for the moment. Any suggestion on type or size of enclosure I should think of to switch him into other then building like you did?
Do you feel a larger enclosure correlates to the growth of the Tortoise?
Anything else you think of that might be relevant to his long term health and growth that I can do please let me know.
Thanks again,
Josh

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

In addition to the other great points of view expressed here, I feed enough so that the next day there is always some available, and not the bits pushed into corners they would have a difficult time getting. I feed them enough so they have a breakfast the next day is I feed late in the morning.

Look here http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/live-naked-people.126107/page-19#post-1522217 some is left over till next morning.

 

[Tom]

Tom-
Thanks for the info and the article. I got the tortoise at a reptile store and was told he was a desert tortoise and to use a red heat bulb and another light CFU bulb for light during the day. Never got a mention of soaks or variation of food or a lot of other info you have provided. I wish I would have looked this "stuff" up earlier.
I do have a few questions:
I do have to keep him indoors at least for the moment. Any suggestion on type or size of enclosure I should think of to switch him into other then building like you did?
Do you feel a larger enclosure correlates to the growth of the Tortoise?
Anything else you think of that might be relevant to his long term health and growth that I can do please let me know.
Thanks again,
Josh

Your tortoise is ready for a 4x8' closed chamber. Something like this:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/closed-chambers.32333/

If you make one that size, it will last until your tortoise is ready to live outside full time. Let him live in the big indoor cage on cool winter days, rainy days and over night. Then use your larger outdoor enclosure during nicer weather. The closed chamber will also use a lot less electricity and make it much easier to maintain the correct growing conditions for your tortoise.

 

[Arizona Josh]

Your tortoise is ready for a 4x8' closed chamber. Something like this:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/closed-chambers.32333/

If you make one that size, it will last until your tortoise is ready to live outside full time. Let him live in the big indoor cage on cool winter days, rainy days and over night. Then use your larger outdoor enclosure during nicer weather. The closed chamber will also use a lot less electricity and make it much easier to maintain the correct growing conditions for your tortoise.

Tom thanks for the help. One additional question for you. How thick a substrate should be used in regards to using orchid bark?

 

[Tom]

Tom thanks for the help. One additional question for you. How thick a substrate should be used in regards to using orchid bark?

I like a 3-4" layer of orchid bark.

 

[Arizona Josh]

I like a 3-4" layer of orchid bark.

Thanks Tom. I laid the orchid bark down in a much larger enclosure for our tortoise and he seems much happier. However, I was reading I should wet the bark but wasn't sure how often or how much water to use on it. I now have him in a 50 gallon tank as opposed to a 20. Thanks for any tips again.

 

[Tom]

Thanks Tom. I laid the orchid bark down in a much larger enclosure for our tortoise and he seems much happier. However, I was reading I should wet the bark but wasn't sure how often or how much water to use on it. I now have him in a 50 gallon tank as opposed to a 20. Thanks for any tips again.

I keep it damp, but not wet. One nice thing about orchid bark is that the lower layers can be kept damp to aid in maintaining humidity,while the upper layers can still be dry-ish. This works best in a closed chamber. How much water to add and how often varies with each enclosure.

Be sure to keep the temperature above 80 at all times with damp substrate for a sulcata.