Wake up sulcata for breakfast or not?

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DonaTello's-Mom

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Ok here's my morning routine with my 1 yr sulcata. I get him from his hide (humid hide that is!) at 8am, soak in a warm tubbie for 10 minutes then put him in front of his food. After he eats he's doing what he wants. So my question is, should I wake up or let him decide when he wants to crawl out of bed? Should I do 'nature' or nuture? I just want to know how other members keep their young ones.
 

Tom

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My outdoor sulcatas just come and go as they please. I feed them when I see them up and foraging.

Daisy, my little, indoor one, gets soaked and fed whenever she gets up. I set my light timers to roughly coincide with the sunrise and sunset. I like them to get a little seasonal variation throughout the year. I usually wait for her to come over near the light to grab her as its hard to reach her on the other end because of the cover. I wouldn't wake them up and pull them out of their hide on purpose. I don't think it will kill them, it just doesn't seem very nice. Their little bodies tell them when to sleep and when to get up and get moving. I think they know better than we do.

Anyhow, that's the way I do it.
 

DonaTello's-Mom

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I guess it does sound a little 'rude' to be pulled from your warm bed! I just worry that he'll stay in bed all day. He was badly neglected when we got him so maybe I'm overdoing it............I feel really guilty now. Ok, enough of boo-hooing about it! I'll take your advice (good, logical as always) and let him do his 'own' thing, thanks Roachman!
 

sammi

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Haha, well I kind of do the same thing for Ernie. On bath days, sometimes I pull him out of bed, and then hes off to breakfast, but on days when he doesn't get a bath, I let him lounge in bed until he wants to eat. Lately though Ernie has been waking up earlier than me!
 

DonaTello's-Mom

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Thats funny sammi! See I have no idea of when he'll wake because I always drag poor Donnie out of bed! Guess I'll find out how long he wants to sleep in now.
 
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Maggie Cummings

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I turn their lights on at the same time every morning. That's their sign to get up, then after about 15 minutes or so if they aren't up I get them up. But mostly they are awake and walking around before I turn their lights on. It helps to have them in a routine because when they don't follow the routine it's a good way to tell you they are sick or getting sick or not feeling good. I have always believed in keeping them on a routine. The lights in Bob's shed are on a timer and they go on at 7:30 every morning. That wakes up both he and Queenie, then about 10:30 I take food out to them, Bob is generally still in his sleeping box but he has his face sticking out instead of his butt. When he goes to 'bed' to sleep he gets on his pig blanket with his face in the corner so I just see his butt and I know he is still sleeping. I open his doggie door and put his food down and I leave him to be. If it's warm spring or summer I don't feed him as he can graze, so he goes out to eat after I open the door. In the winter I feed him and he waits for a couple of hours before he goes out. Today he made one walk around the parameter which is just mud , he pushed on the blocks in a couple of different places to see if he could push them out and he could escape, created more mud trails, and went back in with giant mud clogs on his feet. Then in a couple of hours I go out there and scrape most of the mud off his feet. He hates it and I have to watch out because he bites at me thinking he can bite the air and a treat is just going to magically appear for him...He is spoiled rotten...
 

DonaTello's-Mom

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Ok this morning I haven't waken him up and it's 11:00am. But to them it's like 10:00am because of the time change. By now he would have been soaked and fed if I had woke him. I'm gonna see how long it takes him to 'get going', but it's sunday and he might want to sleep in! Maggie my lights come on at 7am to warm it up in his home. I love hearing about your Bob. Is he on 'facebook' yet? I'm sure he would have a huge following!!
 

TortieGal

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Herman's light comes on at 8:00 he always gets right up on his own. He likes to bask under the light and warm up awhile then he's ready for food he heads over to his rock to eat. While he's eating I moisten his substrate under the lights. I never wake him up. I would if I thought something was wrong.
 

DonaTello's-Mom

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TortieGal, how old is yours? Donnie never did get out of his hide. He was awake and scratching in the corners of his hide. At one time I looked in and he was staring back at me! It was a nice warm day here so I took him outside at noontime. He ran around the yard eating the weeds up. Tomorrow I'll see if he gets up on his own, guess I'll see....
 

TortieGal

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Herman's about a year old. Maybe he just wanted to enjoy sleeping in today and will do better tomorrow.
 

BethyB1022

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Ichabod (7 months) usually gets up and moving a few minutes after the day star gets turned on. On occasion he is awake and marching around before the food bringers arrive, but the majority of the time he is pretty predictable. I don't wake him up, but like others have said I would if I thought something was wrong.
 

Stephanie Logan

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Because Taco and I are both "new" to tortoise routine, and because I'm often headed out to teach, I wake my baby up in the morning. Her lighsts come on at 6:00 a.m., I get up around 6:15, prepare her Taco salad, scrape it onto her feeding tile. Then I open her hide and gently pick her up and hold her against my chest, talking to her gently. Then we have some "face-to-face time", rubbing noses and I tickle her shoulder cavity. Then I set her down under her basking lamp and walk away. She usually lays on that basking spot for 2-4 hours, stetching out and sleeping happily, before she toddles over to her food pile, takes her requisite 3-4 bites (sometimes more if I'm lucky), then ambles over to her sleeping area behind the fake plant, with her head on the now-definitely-dead frog moss, and she snoozes the day away. I do take her out on any halfway decent day and let her walk around...either in the sunporch, or outside in her pen, or sometimes just on the carpet so she can get some decent exercise. :p

I think you and Donnie will figure out together what schedule works best for him and for you, though I do believe that "nature's way" is probably the ideal. I make exception for Taco because of my personal pledge to spoil her rotten for the rest of her life, so she gets more "nurture" than she should...;)
 

DonaTello's-Mom

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Oh I love the 'face to face' time! Thanks for your input Stephanie. Again this morning he's not out of bed but I hear him scratching in the corners. Look in and again he's looking out at me. I think I'm gonna get him out of bed for his bath. Your right about the schedule. We did have a routine and then I started thinking maybe I was doing too much.
 

tortoisenerd

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My rule with my tort is that if he isn't up and out of bed and eating by the time I get home from work in the afternoon (or when my husband is home, by noon or so), we get him out of bed. He gets in funks every once in awhile with changing pressure/weather where he likes to stay in his burrow. As long as he gets up every day we like to let him be and interfere as little as possible, but at the same time it isn't good to let him stay cold (my tort will sleep burrowed away from heat) and without food. My torts light comes on at 6am and on a typical day he gets up between 9 and 11 am! I guess he takes after his mommy. :)
 
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