Update for Pépe 6 weeks old, does everything look OK to you guys?

Status
Not open for further replies.

PEEEETE

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
91
Location (City and/or State)
Vacaville, CA
Hello Tortoise junkies, I just wanted to post an update on my baby sully, Pépe. He's just over 6 weeks old now, and is growing quickly, and looks to be healthy to my amateur eyes, I was hoping that YOU, the experts, and experience tortoise handlers could tell me if all looks well.

Here's my little buddy
mcwXE.jpg


Rear right
SI284.jpg


Rear left
qqDfr.jpg


Low angle, and inside his leg openings
z6dVF.jpg


top view
FTiSr.jpg


Plastron
yT0E6.jpg



His weight at 4 weeks was 45 Grams, and now he's at 56 Grams. His diet is mostly Spring mix, and mulberry Tree leaves mixed 50:50, and some grasses when I can get him to eat them. I get the wheat grass from the grocery store, so I can be sure there's no chemicals.

every other 2 days, I have been sprinkling Rep-Cal Calcium, and multivitamins on his damp food 1:1. Are these 2 the proper supplements for a young Sully?
http://www.repcal.com/supp.htm#Original Calcium - pink label
http://www.repcal.com/supp.htm#Herptivite - Blue label

He gets to run around in the sun for a couple hours or so, maybe twice a week, but mainly he stays inside exploring, or in his indoor habitat that is kept super moist, with Coco Coir. His temps are all correct in the cage, since I got a laser temp gauge for him.

My only concerns for him are the following.
* The Coco coir seems to be turning his face brown/red, because I'm assuming he is burrowing in it face first. Is that ok? when I soak him, I usually try to rub that off, gently and it barely makes a difference.
* The sides of his shell seem a tiny bit lumpy, but I think it may just be his shell growing up to a higher peak, as observed in Tom's "end of pyramiding" thread.
* I have no idea what to look for on the plastron, so I always worry that I'm looking past something that could be a sign of an illness or problem.

Thanks for your time, guys! I really appreciate having a community like this where I can learn, and make my Tort's life better.
 

dmarcus

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2011
Messages
9,036
Location (City and/or State)
Las Vegas, NV
Wow that is one dark head compared to the rest of him, if the substrate is doing that I would consider something else. I think everything else looks very good and your doing a great job so far...
 

HipsterTorts

Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
440
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
Are you sure it's the substrate making his head so dark? I would think if his head was turning that color because of it then so would his front legs.
 

CtTortoiseMom

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
Messages
4,515
Location (City and/or State)
CT
Whoa, great job. We used cocoa coir for awhile and a couple of months ago switched to cypress mulch. The cypress isn't as fine and doesn't stick to everything like the cocoa coir did. I don't think it will hurt him though, it just get's everywhere.
 

AnthonyC

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
2,513
Location (City and/or State)
New York
I was using coco coir too for my 2 babies and it was doing the same thing to their faces. It never stuck to their legs, feet, or tails just the face. I think what I did wrong was dump the entire contents of the bag into their enclosure. At the bottom of the bag was all this fine-red coco "dust", like in the bottom of a box of cereal. Once it was in the enclosure it sunk to the bottom so every time they dug in the substrate (head first) they would get coated with the dust. I remedied this by dumping all of the coco coir out of the enclosure and sifted it through a large kitchen strainer. It took a few piles but eventually I got it done. After that I ran to Home Depot and bought some cypress mulch and refilled the enclosure with a 50/50 mix of cypress and coco. This solved the problem for me. No more "cherry head sulcatas".
I'm not sure this is the best way to solve the problem so you may want to poll other more experienced TFO members before taking my advice. Good luck! BTW--Your baby looks awesome!!!
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,264
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
He looks great! I don't think you need to worry about any of those concerns.
 

PEEEETE

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
91
Location (City and/or State)
Vacaville, CA
Wonderful! Thanks for the input everyone. I'm not too concerned with the red face, but my girlfriend hates it. Hahaha...

I forgot to mention that I also got myself a self IP webcam that I keep on his enclosure 24/7, so that I can keep an eye on him while I'm at work, and no one else is home. He still has a tendency to want to flip over in his enclosure, which has always scared me. It's pretty spiffy, I can check it from my Droid, or any computer, and the whole setup only cost me $99. If you've ever thought of something like that, just know it's not difficult at all.
 

Stephanie

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2011
Messages
435
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
Pépe looks fantastic!
That IP webcam idea is AWESOME. If I ever get a tort that has a tendency to flip, I'm definitely investing in that idea myself. :cool:
 

SulcataSquirt

Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2011
Messages
878
Location (City and/or State)
Missouri
Great looking tort. That coconut coir stains my little sullys legs from digging in it so much. no ill effects from its for over a year. Also, how did you set up the web cam? what website or program are you streaming the living footage too? thanks you. Iv been trying to get mine set up right and cant get a good steaming website for the life of me.
 

FranklinTturtle

Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2011
Messages
392
Location (City and/or State)
Myrtle Beach SC
Are the little indents on the bottom of the stomach ok! My mom's baby has it on one side. We thought that something had happen to it. But, we are new at the world of tortoises.
 

PEEEETE

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
91
Location (City and/or State)
Vacaville, CA
SulcataSquirt said:
Great looking tort. That coconut coir stains my little sullys legs from digging in it so much. no ill effects from its for over a year. Also, how did you set up the web cam? what website or program are you streaming the living footage too? thanks you. Iv been trying to get mine set up right and cant get a good steaming website for the life of me.

I bought a D-link IP cam (my model is a DCS-932L) and once I got it to set up on my home wireless network, D-link has a website where you can access it directly. So, I don't have it streaming for anyone to see, just for myself, when I log onto their site. They also have a smart phone app, so I can check it anywhere I have service. There are other ways to do it, but they all were very involved and seemed frustrating, I lucked out getting one with that sort of system attached to it.

I recommend D-link highly. Also, if you're gonna go for it, I suggest getting the more expensive ones that can zoom and pan... Mine is stationary, and every time I view the stream, I just want to move the camera or zoom in! Mine was the base model at $99, but the good ones that do that are around $200
 

dmarcus

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2011
Messages
9,036
Location (City and/or State)
Las Vegas, NV
PEEEETE said:
Wonderful! Thanks for the input everyone. I'm not too concerned with the red face, but my girlfriend hates it. Hahaha...

I forgot to mention that I also got myself a self IP webcam that I keep on his enclosure 24/7, so that I can keep an eye on him while I'm at work, and no one else is home. He still has a tendency to want to flip over in his enclosure, which has always scared me. It's pretty spiffy, I can check it from my Droid, or any computer, and the whole setup only cost me $99. If you've ever thought of something like that, just know it's not difficult at all.

I checked on my hatchling today and was shocked to see he has a red face also :p, he lives outside and has no access to coco coir so I guess it's just something that happens..:D
 

PEEEETE

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
91
Location (City and/or State)
Vacaville, CA
ascott said:
he looks adorable....and wow, a rubix cube....awesome :D

Are you a cuber? I'm working on the 12 sided Megaminx right now... it's getting the best of me. I'm trying to get my 3x3x3 time down, too. I'm at 1min 40sec, and about the same for the Square 1 (which I actually prefer hahaha)

dalano73 said:
I checked on my hatchling today and was shocked to see he has a red face also :p, he lives outside and has no access to coco coir so I guess it's just something that happens..:D

Well there we go then. hahaha
 

Robert

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2010
Messages
772
Location (City and/or State)
Galaxy far, far away...
I've always wanted to be a master of the Rubix cube. Unfortunately, like with some other things that I have wanted to master, I have found that putting in zero time and effort has caused me not to get any better than when I started. Maybe someday.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top