Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok i finally was able to find a sulcata at a good price so i got it and love it. but i want to make sure it is as healthy as possible from the start. i currently am feeding it timothy hay and have it on apsen bedding(want to switch to something better)i am using a heat lamp and a uvb light also and i have it a hide box also to go into. i was wondering is there anything else that needs to be done or changed any help will be greatly appreciated.

I would reccomend removing the aspen bedding. You can use the hay, as bedding, I do half with the grasses and the other half i just started to use the bricks of cocanut fur, hold humdity great, and my little one loves it.

where can i get bricks of coconut fur?

o yeah also if i use the timothy hay as bedding should i just let the tortoise just feed off the bedding cause ive noticed it eating the aspen a little and eating the timothy hay mostly. so i assume it would still try to eat the bedding since thats what it has been eating. should i offer a different food since i could use the tim. hay as bedding? alot of question i know any help will be greatly appreciated
thanks

Vet2010,

You should definitely NOT let the tortoise eat the Aspen shavings. It can cause intestinal blockages from which the animal could die. I kept sulcatas for many years and successfully housed them on a straw and hay mixture. When hungry, the adult sulcatas would routinely eat the straw and hay if they had finished eating everything else that was available, especially if the substrate had just been put into their pens and smelled fresh.

I have had a couple of very nice Star Tortoises die from eating Aspen shavings even when I thought the tortoises were too small to ingest it (4". It seems that some of them like the taste of it for some reason. It might not hurt a really large sulcata (iron stomachs), but I would still avoid letting one eat Aspen shavings just because of my experience with the Stars.

Bill Z

I think your best bet for a substrate is cypress mulch. Sulcata tortoises do need slight level of humidity and it can be achieved by using cypress mulch. I had taken in a severely deformed sulcata through the reptile club I run and had to learn a lot about keeping them. I have been told the best diet for sulcata's are a variety of mixed dark greens (kale, dandelion, chicory, collard greens, etc.), orchard grass, bermuda hay and cactus pads & flowers. A good place to find food sources for tortoises is www.carolinapetsupply.com. As far as the aspen bedding goes, it is not a good substrate because it is dusty and too dry. While the sulcata tortoise is not a tropical species such as redfooted tortoises, it still needs some humidity. This is the girl I took and recently had the help of Long Island Turtle Rescue to find her a good home. She will soon be residing in San Antonio, Texas.

I am from long island NY and a petstore called selmers petland had a sulcata that I believe is that one. They had him in a 29 gallon tank with pond stones as a substrate. I was disgusted when i saw him like that in a reputable pet store that i grew up going to. Do you know where that tort came from?
>>

turtlcafe.com is a good place to find a good diet
mazuri tortoise diet is good choice as well
best would be to eventually get the tortoise on a natural grazing diet
their is a good diet listed in the care and maintenence of turtles and tortises book
this is a great book to read
russ gurley also has a very good book out about the sulcata
the bedding can be found at Lowes home improvement stores
it is called premere peat moss
this works great for the microhabitat
split the cage with a piece of redwood to make your hay side and your microhabitat
sweaterboxes made by sterilite work well
or a glass gage or a tortoise table,or a horse trough
all will accomidate the tortoise well
chelonia.org is a good source for in depth caresheets
hope this is helpful
jeff
planet reptiles

ok i changed i got rid of the aspen bedding i put down a nice layer of the timothy hay. now my sulcata is grazing on the new bedding and looks pretty happy. would this cause any problems? i know to clean up any of the soiled hay but anything else that should be done for the little guy(or girl)?
thanks in advance for any info

Eating timothy hay is OK and should not cause problems. The hay is much more digestible for tortoises than are wood shavings. The sulcata also like pumpkins, green and yellow squash, cucumbers, apples, tomatoes, and all types of greens. My adults could completely devour large pumpkins and huge heads of cabbage in minutes. I had to break open the pumpkins for them, but they ate every bit of them after that; seeds, rinds, and insides. Of course, all tortoises will gothrough stages where they will eat one type of food more than another. I always try to give a variety of foods over the course of a week so they can get a good sampling of different items.

any info on the bricks of coconut fur? i was going to mix this with the timothy hay and use this as the main substrate

I have not used the coconut shell product personally, but a number of zoos use it and I haven't heard anything bad about it. I believe it is made from freeze-dried, pulverized coconut shells compressed into a brick sized mass. It has to be rehydrated with water before use. I think the brick takes one gallon of water to rehydrate. I do think it would be very expensive if used in the size pen which you should have for that sulcata though. Have you checked on the price? Also if used in the entire area, it would provide too much humidity for a sulcata in my opinion.

I am sure others out there have used it. What do they have to say?

I just started using it, Just in the past few days i have notice a huge difference, He is way more active and the humidity is hold great, I spray it down once a day and it stays moist but not wet, He does not look as dry In fact his skin looks better than it ever has. I also switched his housing from a 20 long tank to a 30 gallon tub that is clear but foggy. He has not tried once to climb the sides, I used half of the floor space with the cocnut and the other half with grasses that he eats, two hides. The tub is great it is not high but it is long. I got the bricks from a local petstore I paid 2.99 for three bricks , I used 1 for him. I highly reccomend it. You can order it online but hinestly you will pay alot more..

Coconut husk (brick) is a great substrate, you can control humidity very easily. I wouldnt use it to mix with hay. Hay tends to mold when wet/damp for a period of time. You can seperate them and that would work. I use coconut brick sand mixture (50/50) for my 2 sulcatas and it works extremely well. Its easy to clean up after them, and you can grow grasses and plants in it (with proper lighting). I feed fresh grasses that I grow, and I also grow them inside the tort table on a certain rotation.

I just bought seeds and was going to plant them in the side with the coconut brick, I figured with the uvb light and the moistness they should grow no problem.I am also going to plant some outside the enclosure because i m sure that they will not last long inside..

can you take a picture of your tortises table and post it? thanks!

i definitely plan on switching to the coconut brick as a main substate i planned on taking an area of enclosure and putting a layer of timothy hay and other various feed items down so my sulcata could go over and eat when wanted. should i worry about the tortoise over eating or anything? i figured not cause i take him out daily to run around for exercise, things pretty fast.

As long as he moves around I am sure it will be fine. They are grazers so the move and eat ..