Any Tortoise Owners? - Page 3

HHI944 · 02-28-2011, 06:21 PM

Here he is, all alone in a 97 gallon terrarium, grubbing on a few baby collard leaves.

JFK, I'll keep that in mind if I run into a question/ issue, thanks! That Galap is gorgeous! Not many of 'em near me, other than a few for sale in FL. Sadly, I don't have a spare $15k+ to spend on a tortoise and I'm pretty sure the HOA would go ballistic!

Evans, Marv · 02-28-2011, 08:41 PM

HH, have you researched their diet, or did whoever you bought him from give you some info? Collard greens are super high in iron.

Evans, Marv · 02-28-2011, 08:42 PM

By the way, he's a really nice looking tortoise. Hope you enjoy him.

HHI944 · 02-28-2011, 09:09 PM

I've done a bit of research on diet. Collards aren't ideal, but not as bad as spinach and kale. Obviously, I have all three of those growing in the side yard right now......
I plan to pick up a hibiscus and some turnips tomorrow to put in the ground. Aside from that and calcium carbonate powder, I keep everything he'll need on hand anyway.

I gave him a good 1.5g chunk of fresh strawberry as well. I thought he was going to choke! He ate the whole thing in one bite.

He seems to be adapting pretty well. I may have to kill the dam cat though...

JFK713 · JFK713's Garage

I've been at the Zoo for 22 years now, started as a keeper, now I am the collection manager for the Herpetology Department.

Hey Jim, come on by, we can get a current shot of you on one of the Galapagos Tortoise, I'll trade you for a ride in the F car!

Evans, Marv · 03-01-2011, 08:36 AM

You might want to pick up some "Tortoise Dust" by T-Rex. It is a vitamin & mineral supplement. It's around $6 for 1 3/4 oz. The directions say to use it with every feeding, but I sprinkle it on 2 or 3 times a week. It's amazing how large of chunks they an swallow. Turbo bites off huge chunks of sweet potato & swallows them. I'm amazed he doesn't choke on them, but he seems to do OK.

Jim Bremner · 03-01-2011, 08:39 AM

Neighbor has a couple of California desert tortoises. One escaped!

Our Australian Cattle Dog Founf it and he went into full on psycho cattle dog action.

Damn turdle didn't know what to do. he would move, the dog would heard him! if he stayed still the dog would nudge and bark at 14o db!

I wish I would have filmed it.

HHI944 · 03-03-2011, 05:33 PM

Marv, the diet I'm following for him uses calcium carbonate as the exclusive supplement and makes a point of excluding others. RF's apparently synthesize D3 pretty well on this diet and don't need all the extra stuff. I've got his terrarium pretty well situated. I'm going to rig up an ultrasonic humidifier to 'mist' the cage through a PVC pipe. A few pics:
One to show the little guy and size

He's burrowed behind the piece of driftwood in this pic

Showing the Pothos I 'planted' in the terrarium and the 'waterfall' (It was on sale at petsmart)

carlosR · 03-03-2011, 06:12 PM

We took care of an employee's sulcata, what a handful. He kept escaping by digging out and really got quite far, a mile one time and he could run fast. These buggers can really run and dig.

Evans, Marv · 03-03-2011, 07:45 PM

I'm glad you are getting up to speed on feeding and care. But then you are a responsible adult and not a kid getting one on a whim. I've heard horror stories of people with animals like this. One story I was told by a guy was about a tortoise owned by a girl in her early twenties. He was looking at the torioise and noticed the shell was pliable when you pressed on it. He asked her what she fed it, and she said she fed it lettuce exclusively. Apparently she was under the misconception that was all they ate.

HHI944 · 03-03-2011, 08:28 PM

In my researching prior to purchase, I came across several horror stories like that. I'm only 25, but I just don't get the mentality of a lot of people my age. I won't even buy small appliances without doing some research.
It was a greens day for the little bugger. He got a mess of turnip greens today. Ok, 6 grams probably doesn't qualify as a mess....

Evans, Marv · 03-03-2011, 08:42 PM

Your terrarium looks really nice. It would have been a mess in 5 minutes when my wife first gothers. He was very active and spent all day plowing around and around his enclosure. One thing I had to do pretty soon after she got it was take it to a vet. I was going to do that anyway for a check up, but what was coming out of the back end didn't seem quite right. The vet determined it had round worms and giardia - a hell of a combination. It was OK after the treatment from the vet. Now days it's so big, I doubt they would be able to give it anything orally or by injection. What made me mad was I called the place we bought it from to let them know it had the worms and giardia, and they couldn't have cared less.

HHI944 · 03-03-2011, 09:18 PM

Thanks! I've spent way too much time messing with the terrarium over the last few days. I'm pretty sure the only reason it still looks tidy is because he's to small to cause any massive damage. I've looked in to see only a quarter size bit of carapace visible a few times, but those holes are pretty easy to fill back in.

That sucks, at the least, they should have been thankful to find out they had a problem before it got to big. I've heard that most wild caught tortoises have worms. The place where I got this little bugger breeds them on site. The have a small herd of RF's that all look incredibly healthy/happy and they have a pretty good reputation from what I found on line.

Henry Schmidt · Henry Schmidt's Garage

This weekend on the farm we embarked on a science project .
We are trying to breed Torzards. We may have a small problem, I think they're gay.
No judgment here, just a recognition of gender.

Evans, Marv · 03-15-2011, 07:42 AM

Henry, our Salcata always has lizard friends too. I saw one in our tortoise's house yesterday. Alligator lizards aren't the best of friends to have though - nasty temperment and sharp teeth.

HHI944 · 03-15-2011, 07:11 PM

I was in the pet shop picking up a heat bulb today and they had a year and a half old Sulcata that someone had bought from them and was trying to get rid of now. He was a cute little tort, but I just don't have the kind of room he'd need in just a few short years. Besides, the only lizard friends he'd have around here are these guys

Evans, Marv · 03-16-2011, 08:29 AM

HH, I prefer to use the ceramic heat emitters for heating the enclosure. They come in 100W & 150W and are expensive, but supposed to last 25K hours. The last one I replaced lasted 2 or 3 years.

HHI944 · 03-31-2011, 08:13 PM

I have a few ceramics that came with the enclosure. I've been switching between those and the MVB and just can't figure out which I like. It's pretty obvious that he doesn't care for the light from the MVB, but the ceramic dries things out as fast as the humidifier can humidify. I'll probably switch back to the ceramic though, some of the new plants aren't quite as fond of the diffuse heat/light from the MVB and the ceramic always seemed to produce a more directed beam of heat.
Here's his terrarium as of today:

porsche4life · porsche4life's Garage

If I lived in a more temperate climate I would have to have one of those big guys....

Henry Schmidt · Henry Schmidt's Garage

Picking up a new tort tomorrow. He's 12" in diameter and from Africa but that's all the information I have. Leopard or Salcata maybe?
Rescue sometimes means you venture into the unknown. I'll post more when I have more.
Cheers