Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It seems like me and PHRatz are the only ones chatting these days. Does anyone else have any thing special they are doing for their Sulcatas this spring, or any new Pics they would like to share? I'm always up for a good story.

>>It seems like me and PHRatz are the only ones chatting these days. Does anyone else have any thing special they are doing for their Sulcatas this spring, or any new Pics they would like to share? I'm always up for a good story.

I'll ditto that. It's not that I don't enjoy posting with you LOL but it would be fun to have more people join us here.

My latest news is that finally a week or so ago we got some rain & ALL OF A SUDDEN I noticed that this week the Bermuda grass is turning green. Also my carefully cared for weeds are popping up ALL over the lawn.
It's spring here, not officially but close enough. Our tortoise is a very happy girl right now.
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PHRatz

Yea, I need to get buisy and plant inside that new pen, It's warming up here and I have been lazy! I just traded a ball python for a female Eastern Box turtle and my buddy gave me a male Eastern box turtle, So I am going to take a corner of the new pen and block it off for Box Turtles. Yea, I really need to get buisy planting! I will post pics of the Box turtles and the additions to the pen as soon as I can.

It's funny about planting.. for years before we had the tortoise we fought the weeds but it was always a losing battle. We live in a rural looking area but it is inside the city limits.
For years we had nothing on all 4 sides of our house except open pasture that used to get cut down once a year or so. We didn't cut what's outside our lawn because it's not our property.

With all the weeds blowing into our yard from all directions fighting the weeds was absolutely a losing battle.

Today we have uncut open pasture on 1 side of our house but we still have plenty of weeds that grow in naturally.. we just don't try to kill them with pre-emergents or broadleafed weed killers. So our tortoise has a lot of variety to choose from.

Today my only weed problem is making sure that I yank out anything that's poisonous and the painful stickers. Today when I see weeds I am happy, it's funny how a tortoise can change your life LOL!

Congrats on the box turtles.
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PHRatz

Hello, I have been reading the posts here but I couldn't remember my password so I havent been posting.
We are in the process of buying a house so this spring will be busy getting to work on the new garden and making plans for the little guy, less than a year old now. I estimate he will be one year in June/July.

>>Hello, I have been reading the posts here but I couldn't remember my password so I havent been posting.
>>We are in the process of buying a house so this spring will be busy getting to work on the new garden and making plans for the little guy, less than a year old now. I estimate he will be one year in June/July.

OH that old lost the password thing happened. I tend to have that problem with online stores that want you to log in. Finally I made the password the same for all of them so I'd never forget it, then of course I can't remember the answers to the reminder questions some of them have lol.

So you have a tiny little baby. They are so darn cute when they're little but you know even when they're bigger, I still think they're cute. They can do things that aren't so cute but they're just being what they are.
Good luck with the new house, sounds exciting.
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PHRatz

Thanks, I hope we get the place, we are having the home inspection done on Monday. I am so excited to get started on the garden. The Sulcata "Riley" has grown a bit, but still very small compared to adults. I am looking forward to the sunny weather so he can have some time in the sun. I would like some time in the sun also.

Honestly, some of us are reading these but this time of year its just not too exciting. My sulcata is still a baby so its inside munching like crazy, stomping around the enclosure and pretending to be a "big" tortoise. We actually had snow the last three days and since "here" is the central Oregon Coast thats unusual! Better weather for Huskies than Sulcatas! I am looking forward to warm weather and getting my little one outside for some fun in the sun. I want to building an outdoor enclosure that we can use during the "Dry" days. In the mean time I will take inspiration from the fact that there is spring out there somewhere even if its avoiding us at the moment. Cheers.
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3.4.0 Beardies
1.1.0 Crested Geckos
1.0.0 marbled salamander
1.1.0 Box Turtles
0.1.0 Sulcata
0.1.0 Ball Python
1.0.0 corn snake
0.1.0 great plains rat snake
0.2.0 Blue Beauty Snakes
1.0.0 tangerine Hondo snake
1.0.0 Banana King snake
1.0.0 Desert King snake
0.1.0 jungle carpet python
2.7.0 Guinea Piggies
3.6.0 Dumbo rats
1.0.0 Blue Front Amazon Parrot
0.1.0 Congo African Grey Parrot
1.1.0 house cats
2.0.0 Maine Coon Cats
1.0.0 Boxer

Hey, I am in the Willamette valley! We have had some snow the last couple of days off and on, but too warm to stay on the ground. I am definatly looking forward to warmer weather.

Hello to fellow Oregonian. Kinda neat to find out there are readers in the neighborhood. I don't get as jealous of your weather as I do of those folks in the warm and balmy areas! LOL
Hopefully we'll get our spring soon.
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3.4.0 Beardies
1.1.0 Crested Geckos
1.0.0 marbled salamander
1.1.0 Box Turtles
0.1.0 Sulcata
0.1.0 Ball Python
1.0.0 corn snake
0.1.0 great plains rat snake
0.2.0 Blue Beauty Snakes
1.0.0 tangerine Hondo snake
1.0.0 Banana King snake
1.0.0 Desert King snake
0.1.0 jungle carpet python
2.7.0 Guinea Piggies
3.6.0 Dumbo rats
1.0.0 Blue Front Amazon Parrot
0.1.0 Congo African Grey Parrot
1.1.0 house cats
2.0.0 Maine Coon Cats
1.0.0 Boxer

Hey, It's great to hear from everyone! I am also glad that summer is coming! We had the nicest day of the year so far today here in Charleston SC. I had a Bass tournament, only cought two, but it was well worth just being out there! Yesterday I planted Bermuda grass inside of the Tortoise pen and after it was too late I noticed that the seeds were coated with an insectacide and a growth hormoan for the seeds. So, Now I am not going to put the Torts back in there for a month or so until the grass is growing and I have wattered and rinced and washed all of the insectacide and chemicals away.

Yes, I did the same thing I bought a bag of grass seed and then noticed on the back it said not for forage use, because the seeds are coated. I think I will go to a feed store and get some pasture mixes.

Yes, I am wondering what happened to spring!! It would be nice for the tort to be in a southern warm sunny state.
It looks like you have a zoo going on there. I have
1 leopard gecko
1 Whites tree frog
2 cats and of course the sulcata.

Hello every body

I am here in Hong Kong. In these few day the day time temperature is around 70. So I switched off the heater lamp but my baby sulcata then became much less active. So I have to turn the heater on again. Hope it would not have got cold !

Wow it got busy all of a sudden & we have someone from Hong Kong even how cool is that? I'm glad to see more sulcata people here!

It's 8:40PM here & still 68 degrees, I'm not sure what the high was but it was over 70 today. It's nice to have short winters, & warm temps but living here has it's drawbacks too. We have huge dust storms which begin right about this time of year.
When sand hits you blowing 50 MPH or more it stings! I think no matter where you live you'll find good & bad about it.

It was such a nice day today that I took my box turtles outside to dig up earthworms & grubs for them, they had a huge feast.
While I was digging it was very quiet around me so I jumped about 3 feet when I heard this loud strange sound right behind me.
LOL I turned around & saw that it was Destiny the sulcata, she'd been grazing & was clearing her throat. She's so quiet when she walks I didn't hear her walking up behind me.
That's one of her cute things she does. Dancing when she gets a shell rub is another cute thing.. she's just plain cute & nearing 60lbs now.
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PHRatz

It is after 7pm here and it is 40 outside. I have a fire going intside and getting ready to go outside and grab some more wood for the fire. It is funny that your tort does that, she is well over 60 times the weight of our tort!! I am looking forward to our little one developing its personality over the years.

60 times larger than your baby! Gosh it's hard to picture that lol.
Last year my vet had to operate on some breeder's female sulcata & she took 30 something eggs out of the female during the surgery. The breeder took half the eggs, left my vet with other half so she incubated them. Only one egg out of all of them was fertile & it hatched at the vet's hospital. I don't know what happened with the breeder, the vet didn't say.

Right after that one egg hatched I got to see it, that was the first time I've ever seen a newborn tiny sulcata. CUTE doesn't even describe it but I was blown away by how bold the baby is.
I saw a lot of behavior in the baby that is the same as our big girl's but all in miniature.
We don't know where our girl came from because she was found.. someone had dumped her in the middle of no where. When we got her she was already 9 pounds & pretty large compared to a box turtle. I wish I knew where she came from, how old she is & could've seen her when she was a baby.
Babies are just too cute!

All of you should try to post photos here. I love to see people's photos.
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PHRatz

Ok we have pictures!! Here is Riley. These were taken a couple months after we brought him home.

That is a very cute hatchling! I'm sure that everyone has seen my Tortoises by now, but just incase, here they are again. Ha Ha Ha... It is great to see so many people here chatting and sharing! This is what a message board is all about! I have learned so much from reading posts on this site, and have recomended this site to so many new tortoise owners. I sell Mazuri on E-bay and I am always getting qiestions, so I always send them here along with any helpful advice I may have.

>> It is great to see so many people here chatting and sharing! This is what a message board is all about!

Ditto on that! Thanks to you for getting a nice conversation started.

Thanks for posting your pics too.
I'll do it again too, I don't have any new ones since last time I posted pictures but one of my favorites was taken last summer, I'll post that one.

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PHRatz

>>Ok we have pictures!! Here is Riley. These were taken a couple months after we brought him home.

Too cute! It's seems unreal that such a teensy baby can grow up to be such huge animal.
They are awesome critters.
Thanks for posting the pics.
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PHRatz

I know it is amazing that they start out so small and grow so big. I am looking forward to having a giant monster cruising the yard. He should still be around when I'm 95 if he lives to 60 years. Or should I say that the other way around.

>>I know it is amazing that they start out so small and grow so big. I am looking forward to having a giant monster cruising the yard. He should still be around when I'm 95 if he lives to 60 years. Or should I say that the other way around.

I like having the giant monster cruising the yard. We call her our organic lawn mower lol.
We've had some problems because of her roaming though. The first one was with fencing, we had to get a new one.

After we did get the new fence we've found that during fall & now spring when the temperatures are changing we've had problems with her not going home when she should.
The biggest problem is that we watch the weather channel but she can't understand it, we know when it's going to be cold at night but she doesn't know.
When she's out during the warm part of the day sometimes it's difficult to get her to go home for the night because she doesn't know how cold it's going to be in an hour or two.

I've had to lure her home by using food, sometimes my DH has just picked her up & carried her home but like he said.. what are we going to do when she gets even heavier & he gets older? We've just about decided that we're going to have to fence off the backyard & not let her into the front when the weather is like this. If she's blocked off in the backyard only then she'll have no choice but to go home at night.
I don't consider that to be a huge problem it's just an annoyance for us.
It is neat most of the time to have this giant grazing critter roaming around.
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PHRatz

I have given some thought to moving a large tort in and out. I was thinking a wagon or some sort of cart. Plus I work out and hope to still be in good shape by the time he is full grown.
I would like to have a nice greenhouse that would have a section for him that would have an entrance to his own yard that he could come and go as he wanted. But that is all a dream at the moment.

>>I have given some thought to moving a large tort in and out. I was thinking a wagon or some sort of cart. Plus I work out and hope to still be in good shape by the time he is full grown.

I read somewhere once about a guy who'd built a tortoise cart by attaching a car jack to some sort of wagon or garden cart, it sounded like a really good idea.

>>I would like to have a nice greenhouse that would have a section for him that would have an entrance to his own yard that he could come and go as he wanted. But that is all a dream at the moment.

Our girl has her home set up so that she can come & go as she pleases. She does do that it's just that when the seasons are changing, she sometimes gets a little confused & won't go home. Most of the year though she uses her home the way we want her to. She knows it's her home too! When my DH was building it she tried to move in before he was finished with it. He'd go out & work on it in the evening & when it'd be almost dark she'd come in & hiss at him because she wanted him out of there. LOL
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PHRatz

Here are some of the pictures I've been saying I would post.

Below are my two new Box Turtles, Oscar and Betty. "Betty is the smaller one" I cant wait until they decide to have babies!!!

Well, thats about it until I get the grass growing in the large outdoors pen. The Big Torts are back inside in the baby pool until I can get the grass growing and the fertalizer washed away from the yard. I am so glad that so many people are chatting now! Thanks and Keep it up! Lets see how long we can keep this chain going.
S.D.

0.1.0 Beautiful Wife, (Now with child)
2.3.2 Sulcatas
1.1.0 Box Turtle
0.2.0 Pom / wawa Mixes (dogs)
1.0.0 Pomeranian Full (dog)
1.0.0 wild tom cat (outside)
1.1.30 African Ciclids (fish)
0.0.1 Pac-man frog

Great photos! Thanks for posting them, the baby sulcata are just too cute! Of course the box are too.

My pac-man named Sunny looks very much like yours. I need to get a new photo of him, all I have are very old ones.
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PHRatz

Testing on how to post pictures on the Forum.
Picture of my sulcata and russian tortoise.

kgl

It worked! You have very nice Torts! I have always liked Russians, but for the price, I have always ended up with box Turtles. And now that I have room and time, I have fallen in love with Sulcatas! Thanks for postnig your pictures! I hope you stay around and chat with us here. There is so very much good information that I have recieved from this site. S.D.

Very pretty tortoises! Thanks for posting their pictures and please do stick around to post with us.
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PHRatz

I will stay around, I have been reading the Forum for over a year now and you guys are great, I learned lots of useful info about keeping tortoise and turtle here.
I'm having fun posting picturs! Here are a few more picture of my pets.
kgl

>>I will stay around, I have been reading the Forum for over a year now and you guys are great, I learned lots of useful info about keeping tortoise and turtle here.
>>I'm having fun posting picturs! Here are a few more picture of my pets.

Great! I know what you mean about the pictures. I started a PetHobbyist photo album & I always feel like I can't wait to get another shot so I can add it in. It's addicting LOL!
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PHRatz

Well, While we are on a picture rant, Here is Abner, He was my first Sulcata, I got him over two years ago from a local pet shop for $90.00 when he was a hatchling. and last year I was talking to my buddy, "Hey Donnie", and we were talking about our torts, and once I told him about abner, he told me who had Abners parents and then took me to meet the huge Sulcatas and their owner! It was very cool to see those Giants and know that my little tort came from them! Well, that inspired me to breed my torts, now I cant wait till mine lay eggs! I now have a female (Abney) that is the same age as Abner. and a Trio - two yearling females and a yearling male, and two hatchlings. I cant wait till we move to our 10 acres out in Cottageville and have a huge Sulcata area! Ialso cant wait until my box's lay eggs!

Ok then lol on pictures I'll just post the link to the whole darn thing.
I have more pics sitting on the camera today. I'll have to get them off & resized before I can post them though.
It really is addicting.
PetHobbyist photo gallery

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PHRatz

I guess It's just you and I again, PHRats, It looked like we were going for a forum record there for a minute, I wonder what the record for longest chain of post is? I think we are up to around 35 or so... Well, I went to the Charleston reptile show here in SC last weekend. There were thousands and thousands of snakes, but not many Torts. There were two older Sulcatas that were in pretty bad shape, a box of hatchlings, and one very large sulcata walking around with balloons tied to him so that he wouldnt get lost. There were plenty of venders offering good prices, but our trip got cut short when my wife got her finger bit by a sugar glider....

Somebody will pop in soon.. it's getting warmer, it's spring.. somebody has to come out of the woodwork. lol

How's your wife's finger? No infection I hope!!
EEEK
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PHRatz

Her finger is fine, It was small bite, but it was enough to make her forget about buying that sugar glider! Ha Ha, Its a nice day outside today, Its a little chilly but I am going to haul my boat up to the lake and try to find some really big pieces of driftwood for the outside tortoise pen! Im trying to keep the pen easily movable, becaues I still have my heart set on those 10 acres in Cottageville SC

I've never had a sugar glider but I've known a few people who bought them then tried to get me to take them off their hands. I don't know what they're like as pets but I always turned them down because I have enough pets of my own already. I don't need any more that are high maintenance.

As for pens.. did you see the photo someone posted on the kingsnake general tortoise board this week? They made a pen out of the outside part of an above ground swimming pool for their sulcatas. That thing looks nice!
I wonder now which would be cheaper? Find someone selling an old swimming pool or paying someone to do my brick work for the box turtle pen I need soon. We have the bricks left over from building the fence that are going to used for the pen but we could always use them for something else if I could find a good price on a used pool. lol

I wanted work to begin on the pen now then I realized that Hobo my wild male box turtle is hibernating right on the line where they need to dig to pour the foundation for the bricks. arrgghh
Can't do this until he comes out of the ground.
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PHRatz

Yea, I really liked that swimming pool idea! I sectioned off a 4X8 section of Sulcata pen for my two box turtles, and then I sectioned off another 4x8 and planted lettus and collards in it for the sulcatas, as soon as it gets growing good i will remove the pen so they can get to it. I will add pics of this as soon as I get a break for work to take them.