Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi, i just bought a baby sulcata this past weekend and i have a few questions but first let me explain what i have it in..i am keeping it in a 3 x 4 wooden box with 6in walls...the substrate i am using is alfalfa pellets i think (aka rabbit pellets)..i am feeding it a salad mixture of lettuce and carrots strings...i have a shallow dish with water in it for it also...i also have a 7.0 UVB light laying across the top of the walls..and i have regular 60watt bulb as the basking bulb..depending on which way i angle the light, i can either have a temperature of 80 degrees or 95 degrees...this is one of my questions..what is the best daytime temperature and the best nighttime temperature? and would it be helpful to put either a black or infrared light at night because the temperature in my room gets down to about 70 degrees..and about soaking, how often is enough, everyday or every few days? just wondering whats best..another question i have is about supplementing...i am assuming that i just sprinkle it on top of its food but i was wondering if there was a better way or different way to do it..and is the pet store brand good enough (it supposedly makes whatever you put it on a complete diet)..and if anyone has any tips i would greatly appreciate..thanks for all the help everyone and i look foward to reading future posts...
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4 baby sunburst orange veileds
1 baby sunburst turquoise veiled (RIP:JoJo)
2 regular columbian boas (m&f)
1 100% het for albino boa male
1 miami red phase cornsnake
1 snow corn

Lettuce & carrots basically don't have any nutritional value. A sulcata is a grassland tortoise so it's diet should be about 70% grass/grass hay such as timothy. Alfalfa has too much protein for them to eat on a regular basis.
The other 30% of the diet aside from grasses should be nutritious greens such as dandelion, turnip greens & some collard greens.
Here's a great info sheet on feeding them:
http://www.sulcstatn.addr.com/diet.html
Withpout the right foods they end up looking like mine. She was found after having been thrown away out in the country, she's terribly pyramided & that could've been avoided if whoever threw her away had taken better care of her.

Your day time temps should be between about 75 & 85 & then at night don't let it drop down below 70.. but in my personal opinion a hatchling should probably be kept a little warmer than that, 75-80 at night so should be ok for a baby.
Personally, for night time heating I prefer the ceramic heat emitters, they last a whole heck of a lot longer than light bulbs of any type. I have an indoor box turtle set up with a 100 watt CHE, that thing has been going & going for over almost 5 years now. They're expensive but when they last this long they're cheaper than bulbs.
Good luck with your new baby.. what's it's name?

PHRatz

hey his/her name is van gogh....thanks for the info..but the website you put didnt let me click on it..ill try typing it in myself..have you heard of feeding it squash cause i have a lot of yellow squash from a garden so i was thinking of using that...im willing to try differnt things..and oh how is that you keep the sulcata from pyramiding?...just curious..thanks for all your help...
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4 baby sunburst orange veileds
1 baby sunburst turquoise veiled (RIP:JoJo)
2 regular columbian boas (m&f)
1 100% het for albino boa male
1 miami red phase cornsnake
1 snow corn

one more thing, when you say ceramic heat emiter..do you mean a heat rock...and where do you get the CHE from.....thanks...
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4 baby sunburst orange veileds
1 baby sunburst turquoise veiled (RIP:JoJo)
2 regular columbian boas (m&f)
1 100% het for albino boa male
1 miami red phase cornsnake
1 snow corn

Sounds like you need to do some research, and quickly, about your new little friend. Sulcata's need grass and high fiber, with only about 5% protein... Veggies such as squash and lettuce are junk food, and will do nothing but make your tort grow irregurally and have runny stools. Try buying some grass seed from a local feed store and MAKE SURE IT HAS NOT BEEN PRE TREATED WITH CHEMICALS. Plant it in a couple of small planter boxes (real cheep from home depot) in ORGANIC non treated top soil or dirt. Grass grows quick, and this is an easy way to feed a small sized tort. Also, stay away from tort diets, they offer way too much protein (18% ) and are made for other species and not grassland torts. As for substrate, alfalfa pellets have WAY Too much protein in case your little guy decides he like to eat them. They make other pelleted litter out of grasses.. such as "Critter Litter". And to answer your pyrimiding question, lack of Ca, Lack of UV, and too much Protein can lead to pyrimiding. This isn't just a funny looking shell, it actually effects their renal and other internal systems and can lead to long term problems and death. Hatchings should be soaked every day in warm water for at least 10 minutes... every other day once they are a little older (i waited till one year to space them out).

When concidering to buy a pet, ALWAYS do your research FIRST! Ask all the questions, find ALL the answers. Because what you dont know only hurts your new pet...

thanks for the info...i have been reading up on these tortoises and i have learned a lot..yesterday i bought some spaghum moss and some topsoil and i plan on changing my tortoise table a lot...i also bought some bermuda grass seeds and i waiting for it to grow...and i bought some pure calcium to supplement with...again thanks for the info and i look forward to future posts...
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4 baby sunburst orange veileds
1 baby sunburst turquoise veiled (RIP:JoJo)
2 regular columbian boas (m&f)
1 100% het for albino boa male
1 miami red phase cornsnake
1 snow corn