I had a captive-bred bell's hingeback for awhile and it was a great little tortoise.

All hingebacks are omnivores. They need fruit, veggies and animal protein. Worms, crickets, maybe some turtle pellets.

If your hingeback is wild-caught, and it sounds like it is, you need to be very careful about handling it and your new sulcata. Wild-caught torts can carry a lot of parasites and diseases, and these could wipe out your little sulcata. Treat them as two patients with highly contagious diseases. Wash your hands after handling each one, don't soak them together, don't let them be together at all, and don't share utensils, bowls etc without washing everything.

This may sound a little drastic, but it will help protect your baby sulcata. If the hingeback were captive-bred, you would probably be safer.

Below is a link to general care of hingeback torts. Just keep looking for info on Kinixys species.

And with time and patience, the hingeback might relax and be OK. A trip to the vet is probably a good idea. Feed him, keep him at the right temps and humidity, and don't smother him with attention for now.

www.tortoisetrust.org/care/ckinixys.html

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• baffled--help - cutesyturtle, Thu Feb 16 17:55:02 2006
• RE: baffled--help - bradtort, Thu Feb 16 18:31:52 2006
• RE: baffled--help - cutesyturtle, Thu Feb 16 18:41:41 2006
• RE: baffled--help - bradtort, Thu Feb 16 18:54:51 2006
• RE: baffled--help - cutesyturtle, Thu Feb 16 19:02:16 2006
• RE: baffled--help - steffke, Thu Feb 16 18:40:01 2006
• RE: baffled--help - cutesyturtle, Thu Feb 16 18:55:25 2006