Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here are some new pictures of my tortoises at play. I have had the larger two for about two years and the three smaller ones are just over a year old. They love to eat clovers and cactus pad and turnip greens and brumuda hay and whatever they can find growing in the yard. The second picture is of Abner, he is the biggest. I havent named the triplets yet because they look just alike! The third picture is of the new enclosure I built yesterday. There are no decorations yet, but I will make it beautiful for them soon. I just wanted to share these pics with you guys and gals. Be safe, and have a great day.

Sorry, Here are the other Pictures.

Great pics thanks for posting them.
Is that clover growing in the pen? We don't have clover naturally growing here I wonder if it can live in sandy soil or not?
If my neighbors who try to kill their weeds had any idea of how carefully I cultivate the weeds, they'd freak! LOL
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PHRatz

Actually that clover is growing at The old Navy base here in North Charleston, SC. The soil there is very sandy and at times the salt marsh even floods over the field, so those clovers must be pretty hardy! I just hope that no one steals these guys like they did my herd of box turtles a few years ago.

Very great pictures.

I am surprised to see the sizes of your Sulcatas. I have kept one for half a year. It is about one year old. However it weighs only 144 grams and the carapace is about 8 cm long.

Is mine abnormal? Any advice please?

The two larger Torts in the pic are from the same clutch of eggs, and the smaller one stayed smaller alot longer than the bigger male. I also have two hatchlings that are about 6 months old and they dont seem to be growing at all. So, I guess that some torts just grow faster than others. I think I did feed the larger male to many turnip greens when he was small, that may be the reason for the pyramiding and the rapid growth. Now I try to give them better foods and no so much at a time. I have read that in the wild they go months and months with little or no green food to eat at all. Thanks for reading and replying. SD

>>The two larger Torts in the pic are from the same clutch of eggs, and the smaller one stayed smaller alot longer than the bigger male. I also have two hatchlings that are about 6 months old and they dont seem to be growing at all. So, I guess that some torts just grow faster than others. I think I did feed the larger male to many turnip greens when he was small, that may be the reason for the pyramiding and the rapid growth. Now I try to give them better foods and no so much at a time. I have read that in the wild they go months and months with little or no green food to eat at all. Thanks for reading and replying. SD

I've read the same things you have I'll bet. When our girl got here, we didn't expect a sulcata it was just a phone call.. can you keep this unidentified shelled animal for a few days until a home can be found? Sure bring her over..
She got here & never left lol so I read everything I could find online about them & then joined some online tortoise groups.
They all said then & still say now that sulcatas never grow at the same rate so there is no "normal growth rate" for them.
Some grow very quickly others very slowly & if in either case it's healthy growth then how fast or slow doesn't matter.

About the clover, I think since there are a lot of people in this region who keep horses.. I'm going to check with a feed/seed store & see if they sell clover mixes for horses. It'd be worth a shot to see if we can find something else to grow in the lawn for her.
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PHRatz

We are going to dig up some smaller areas of the clover patches at the Navy Base and transplant them into the new Tortoise pen, I hope that they will live. We have some small clover patches living in the front yard but I dont want the people around here to see my torts in the front yard, I cant replace them if they get stolen.