How To Take Care Of Your Sulcata Tortoise
The Sulcata tortoise is also known as the African spurred tortoise. They are huge creatures, in fact, they are the largest land turtle on the planet. Sulcatas can grow to weigh as much as two hundred pounds and have a carapace length of thirty inches or more. The massive reptiles have a brown and yellow carapace, or upper shell, with pointed scutes, or scales, and a creamy-yellow plastron, or lower shell.
Males and females look very similar. The only slight difference between the sexes is that males have longer and thicker tails, but even this difference is hard to spot if you are not an expert.
Their skin is golden brown and they have scaly legs with large spines, and big claws for digging. The spines give it its alternative name of African spurred tortoise. These spines may be used for defense against animals such as raccoons.
The Sulcata tortoise has the characteristic attractive tortoise expression, wise, friendly, and very appealing, and has bright brown eyes. They can be aggressive, but they are simply being protective as a rule. If you have your Sulcata tortoise from a young age and treat it with care, then it will not display aggression toward its owner.
These tortoises can live to be seventy years of age or more, so you must be prepared to be committed to the care of your pet for a long time.
Keeping A Sulcata Tortoise As A Pet
Sulcata tortoises are very popular pets, but there is more to keeping a pet tortoise than just putting them in a vivarium and throwing in a few lettuce leaves. If you are going to be a responsible pet owner, and have a happy and contented pet tortoise, then there are some simple but important things that you need to bear in mind.
The first thing you need to bear in mind is whether there are any local regulations that apply to keeping a Sulcata tortoise as a pet. Some states prohibited the keeping of tortoises and turtles completely. Others restrict the species that you can keep. The conservation status of the Sulcata tortoise is considered to be “vulnerable”. To find out more, you can check out Animal Diversity.
To stay on the right side of the law, and for the well-being of animals in general, you should of course follow your state’s regulations. You should never purchase a tortoise that has been captured from the wild, as a matter of principle. Buying a captive-bred tortoise means that the wild population has not been deprived of an important member!
The Sulcata Tortoise On Its Home Beat
Let’s take a look at the way this tortoise lives in its native habitat of the Sahel region of the Salcata area of Africa’s Sahara desert. (This tortoise can also be found in limited numbers in Chad, Mali, Ethiopia, Senegal, Mauritania, Niger, Sudan, and Eritrea.) This will help us understand what your tortoise will need in its captive environment.
They live in hot, sandy, scrubby places. During the very hottest times of the year, temperatures can soar into the hundreds. During the hottest times of day, these tortoises react by going into t state of low activity known as aestivation. This means that all their metabolic systems slow down, to enable them to cope with the stress of the heat.
To avoid the heat, they will burrow underground, where the temperatures will be markedly cooler and more agreeable. These burrows can evolve into a complex system of tunnels.
Being cold-blooded, the tunnels are also used to protect the tortoise from the cold desert nights, as they retain some of the warmth of the day. Sometimes these homes are shared by two or more tortoises. Sometimes, the burrows of other animals that are no longer being used are taken over by Sulcata tortoises.
Mating And Breeding
Sulcata tortoises are very noisy when they are romancing their ladies and when they have sex. They are the real Romeos of the tortoise world, making their feelings very clear for all to hear!
Mating takes place during the rainy season, and males will fight each other for the best and most desirable females. The eggs gestate for about sixty days, at which time the female will construct her nest. She will often make several nests until she has one which is just right. The tortoise will lay up to thirty eggs. She’ll cover her nest over, and then it is left for about eight months, at which point the hatchlings will emerge in response to rain.
This is the most dangerous time in the life of a tortoise, as hatchlings make a nice snack for just about every bird and animal. The hatchlings dig themselves out of their nest, a process that can take up to three days. They still have a yolk sac attached to their underside which provides them with nutrition for the first days of their lives until it shrinks away. The hatchlings are just two inches long and are yellow in color to camouflage them against the sand. They grow very rapidly.
What’s On The Menu?
This very large animal is a vegetarian and lives on grass, weeds, flowers, and even cacti. In its home environment, food can be very scarce, especially in the dry season, so the Sulcata tortoise is used to traveling for long distances to find the food it needs. If food is available they will eat very large amounts at a time, presumably to make up for times of scarcity.
Providing The House Beautiful For Your Pet Sulcata Tortoise
If you live in a cold climate, then a Sulcata tortoise is probably not the right pet for you. Eventually, these animals grow large and need to be housed outdoors.
When your tortoise is small, you can have great fun constructing an interesting and exciting environment for your pet. (Check out YouTube and Pinterest for some cool ideas.) Don’t be tempted to get a glass-sided enclosure, as this doesn’t suit the Sulcata. He will keep bumping into the glass, and get confused.
Instead, create a wooden-sided open-topped box with a variety of paths, hidey holes, and interesting places to explore. Give your tortoise clean rocks that he can climb, and maybe some tree branches. Before you put these things in his home, give them a good wash and dry them in the sun. You don’t want to introduce bugs and contaminants into your friend’s home.
What should go inside
It’s fine to put in toys, but plain untreated wooden toys or purpose-designed pet toys are best. He may like them, or may simply ignore them – every tortoise has its own personality.
Make sure he has a hideaway lined with sphagnum moss that should be kept a little damp. He will need a place to retreat if he gets too warm or stressed.
It’s a great idea to grow plants away from the tortoise home and change them around all the time. This makes life interesting for your friend. Pots of grass, wheat, peas, beans, herbs, lettuce, collard greens, radish, and more are easy and cheap to grow, they look nice and they provide a source of fresh food.
He is going to want to burrow, so you need a substrate of peat and sand mixed, at least nine inches deep to begin with when he is a little guy, but deeper as he grows bigger. Don’t use just sand because he might end up eating it with his food, which can create health issues. Make sure that the substrate is sterilized before you put it into your pet’s environment.
Some Like It Hot
And your Sulcata tortoise is one of them. Plan to have a hot area and a cooler area in your tortoise home. At night, use black lamps, and by day, use normal incandescent lamps. Make sure that he has a hot spot that is 95 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and the cooler part of his home should be a minimum of 890 degrees Fahrenheit.
Connect your lamps to a thermostat so that the temperature doesn’t get too hot or too cold. Coming from Africa, being warm is very significant for your pet’s health.
Let There Be Light!
Your tortoise needs a source of UV light for twelve hours a day to ensure that he gets enough calcium to develop strong bones and shell. You should place this light near to his hot-spot light. Remember to change the bulb every six months or so, because although it will seem that the light is still working, they lose their ultraviolet properties over time.
Feeding And Watering Your Sulcata Tortoise
Remember that your buddy is a vegetarian, so don’t give him things that he can’t eat, thinking they are a treat. His basic diet should consist of grass,, weeds, veggies, and the odd flower or bit of fruit is a good treat.
Tortoises need water, and they often enjoy having some of their food in their water bowl. Make sure the water bowl is shallow enough that your tortoise couldn’t possibly drown in it, and keep it very clean. Changing it twice a day isn’t too much. A little salad placed in the water bowl will be very tempting for your friend.
There is no need for a special bowl for your tortoise’s food. You can just put it on the floor of his home. He will eat it at his leisure and may drag some of it to his favorite feeding spots. Once he has done with his food, clear up any leftover bits and pieces.
Your Tortoise Needs A Good Soak
Yes, Sulcata tortoises need to be bathed, or soaked regularly. This enables them to defecate and urinate (poop and pee) correctly, to stay hydrated, and to keep clean. If you have an indoor tortoise, then twice a week is usually enough. If your tortoise lives outside (and as he grows bigger he will need to be moved outside in all probability) then three times a week or more is recommended.
A bath takes about thirty minutes. A shallow plastic bowl is fine for a smaller animal, the water should not be so deep that your pet could drown, but should be deep enough to allow him a good wallow. You should never leave your tortoise alone in the water, and if he is using something that humans will use afterward – for example, the bathtub – it should be disinfected afterward. The water that you use should be warm, but not hot. If somehow you suspect that your tortoise has become dehydrated, then soak him or her immediately in slightly warmer water than usual.
Your tortoise may put his head underwater for what seems like a worryingly long time. Don’t be alarmed – he is just having a lovely long drink. If your tortoise has gotten very dirty, you can clean him with a soft brush, but make sure you just use plain water, not soap.
Your torotoise will enjoy his baths, and will look about as excited as a tortoise ever gets when he knows bath time is near.
Pees And Poops
Your tortoise will very likely pee and poop when he is having his bath. The poop should be soft and greenish with grass in it. Their pee is a bit alarming – it contains urates, that are rather thick and clotted, like sour cream, and grey in color. If they seem rather large and hard, your tortoise could be dehydrated, in which case, consult your vet, and up the bathing regime.
Naturally, all this should be cleaned away (pour it on the compost heap) and the container thoroughly disinfected.
Inside Versus Outside
It’s a good idea to let him live in an outdoor enclosure for at least half of the year. A large tortoise needs a lot of space, and it’s unkind to keep a Sulcata tortoise confined in a small pen. He is designed to live a much freer and happier life outdoors.
Health Issues For Sulcata Tortoises
If you purchase a healthy tortoise from a responsible dealer, take good care of it. Ensure it has enough UV and doesn’t get too hot or cold. Give it those all important soaks, and feed and water it correctly. If you do this, your tortoise should have no health problems at all. Closely observe your tortoise so that you pick it up quickly if he is a bit off color.
If you are worried about your friend, take him or her to a vet as soon as possible. For information on Sulcata tortoise health issues, this is a good source of useful information.
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