African spur thighed tortose

[drgnfly829]

does anyone here have on of these?
not planning on getting one because of size and care needs, but I think they are the coolest things in the world.
someone had one at a place i worked before luckily she found him a good home when he started digging through the drywall of her basement
A local fish store herp breeder near me has a pair i couldn't figure out what the clunking noise was.
I looked and was like "oh excuse me sorry turtles carry on"
Anyway, just my opinion, a very neet, not for casual owners kind of pet

 

[chesterfieldzoo]

As a matter of fact - I have 2 males. One is about 7 years old and 45 pounds. The other is about 3 and 12 pounds. Together they eat 12 heads of romaine lettuce, 7 bananas, couple of cactus fruit things, half a cantalope and a handful of packaged food sticks every week. Plus grass. They live outside in the yard during the summer and they have free range of the house in the winter. I put baby diapers on them. They are careful and don't wreck things cause they have grown up here. Except for the one will go out of his way to knock over my gazing globe. If he sees I have stood it back up he makes a beeline for it to knock it down again. The older one also knows his name and will come when called. Still working on the little one. They can go down the deck stairs, but not up yet.

 

[drgnfly829]

I had a fascination with the one the lady at my job had,
from what you describe, pets of any kind are much smarter than non-animal people give them credit for being.
Diapers are an excellent solution i hadn't thought of kinda funny though

 

[wild caught]

my girlfriend used to have one, very cool and personable animals.

 

[coura]

As a matter of fact - I have 2 males. One is about 7 years old and 45 pounds. The other is about 3 and 12 pounds. Together they eat 12 heads of romaine lettuce, 7 bananas, couple of cactus fruit things, half a cantalope and a handful of packaged food sticks every week. Plus grass. They live outside in the yard during the summer and they have free range of the house in the winter. I put baby diapers on them. They are careful and don't wreck things cause they have grown up here. Except for the one will go out of his way to knock over my gazing globe. If he sees I have stood it back up he makes a beeline for it to knock it down again. The older one also knows his name and will come when called. Still working on the little one. They can go down the deck stairs, but not up yet.

Please dont feed them romaine lettuce so often. Aldought romaine is one of the best of all lettuces regarding minerals and vitamins, is still a very poor food item, low in fiber, hight in phosphorus, low in calcium and mostly water based. That is particulary bad because sulcatas are a desert species that need a high fiber and calcium diet in order to be healty (romaine is more aceptable as a food item for forest tortoises like red foots). By doing that you are making your tortoises vulnerable to metabolic bone disease and piramidism.Why dont you use insted some nice turnip greens, spineless Opuncia leaves, mustard greens, water cress, dandilions, hibiscus leaves and flours and the other vegetebles you mencioned along whit hay and grass has there´s main diet?Also I recomend that you restrict your tortoises to one room in the winter because that way its esier to mantain them in the proper range of temps .Also have you avaiable to your tortoises a UV lamp during the winter?

 

[chesterfieldzoo]

That was just a brief synopsis of what I feed them. I deal with a vet who specializes in them. In fact the little one is from him and he is so impressed with my bigger one he wanted me to take 4 more. They get calcium sprinkled on the lettuces, they get a variety of them. The little one eats hay, the big one refuses. I tried every trick in the book. He had been kept by someone who was feeding him a really bad diet. He was very pyramided. His shell is almost flat now. I had him xrayed last year and his bones are very good. They have several large enclosed dog crates to crawl into. Lights are on timers. I have UVB and basking lights and night warmer lights. My house is very warm anyway because of the naked birds I have. I raise my own hibiscus, dandelions, roses, violets and other foods. I do not use ANY chemicals in my yard. I researched tortoises for several years and talked to a few zoo vets before I got them. I really am pretty informed. I was just posting so people could get an idea of the amount of food these eating machines consume. They can be incredibly destructive and bull headed. Trying to manipulate a 150 block of cement is no picnic. I tried the 'confine to one room' deal. I ended up with a pile of nifty kindling wood. So much for copper bars and 2x2's. If they want to follow me, they are going to. What annoys me is when people irresponsibly buy a cute leetle bitty torty and 2 years later as it smashes through the glass of the aquarium they dash it off to the local animal shelter.
And the diapers were my idea as when they pee, they flood the kitchen.

 

[coura]

That was just a brief synopsis of what I feed them. I deal with a vet who specializes in them. In fact the little one is from him and he is so impressed with my bigger one he wanted me to take 4 more. They get calcium sprinkled on the lettuces, they get a variety of them. The little one eats hay, the big one refuses. I tried every trick in the book. He had been kept by someone who was feeding him a really bad diet. He was very pyramided. His shell is almost flat now. I had him xrayed last year and his bones are very good. They have several large enclosed dog crates to crawl into. Lights are on timers. I have UVB and basking lights and night warmer lights. My house is very warm anyway because of the naked birds I have. I raise my own hibiscus, dandelions, roses, violets and other foods. I do not use ANY chemicals in my yard. I researched tortoises for several years and talked to a few zoo vets before I got them. I really am pretty informed. I was just posting so people could get an idea of the amount of food these eating machines consume. They can be incredibly destructive and bull headed. Trying to manipulate a 150 block of cement is no picnic. I tried the 'confine to one room' deal. I ended up with a pile of nifty kindling wood. So much for copper bars and 2x2's. If they want to follow me, they are going to. What annoys me is when people irresponsibly buy a cute leetle bitty torty and 2 years later as it smashes through the glass of the aquarium they dash it off to the local animal shelter.
And the diapers were my idea as when they pee, they flood the kitchen.

It´s good to hear that

 

[cichlaguapote]

Alot of people keep these. Great tortoises and oh so cute when small.

 

[vivaladonald]

i have one. its a year and a half old now. its name is... MUFFIN!

 

[shells-n-scales]

Yup... they're fun.