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Posted by ben on September 25, 2000 at 17:48:54:

In Reply to: HELP posted by c.m. on September 25, 2000 at 12:25:01:

it's a common misbelief that romaine lettuce has everything to offer that iceberg doesn't, and i imagine this has claimed the nutritional stability (lives, in short) of many iguanas. in my opinion it is not different enough from iceberg to even warrant feeding it to tortoises. sulcattas grow remarkably fast in captivity (up to 4"+ in the first year) and because of these rates they need very sound nutritional provisions. yes, greens should make up the largest portion of the diet (usually eighty+ percent in the species i feed), but greens that meet certain requirements. kale, collard greens, mustard greens, and bok choy are good (i'm sure i left out some). vegetables make up around fifteen percent of the diet i feed and include zucchini, squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, and so forth. the rest i feed is either more of the above or fruit (i think it's unnecessary to even worry about fruit for the youngsters though--i never have). the most important thing is providing a VARIED diet--not the same kind of plants every feeding. if the diet is varied you shouldn't have to worry much about vitamin supplementation--once a week is okay. i prefer the Herptivite brand; you can just dust a little onto the food. more important in my opinion is providing a calcium source. i advocate HerpCal; this likewise is a powder that can be dusted onto the food once a week. it is important that protien is not allowed to get into these guys though. it will cause unsightly "pyramiding" in the shell (each scute, or plate, will grow pointed instead of flat like it's supposed to). feeding them too much of the right stuff can cause this too. just feed allow them to eat as much as they want every other day (not every day). you needn't keep a water bowl in w/ them, just soak them in half an inch of tepid water every couple of days. as far as cage substrate goes, there's more than one option. i generally use newspaper, but cypress mulch and ReptiBark also seem fine. make sure they have something to bury in/hide under. temperatures can be regulated with a regular lightbulb of 75-100 watts, depending on how much space needs to be heated. even though this species is native to the hot savannahs of sub-saharan africa, the optimum active temperature, based on wild studies, seems to be 80. so, part of the cage should be 74-75, and the other part should be a little warmer. babies are more heat-sensitive than the adults, so i never create a basking temp warmer than 84, and this should not cover much of the cage. in the summer they should be allowed (supervised) outdoors to aquire the natural sunlight that seems critical for most tortoises' well-being. temperatures can safely drop a little at night when the lights go off. well, there's my "OFFICIAL" care sheet, pant, pant. please make the most use of it, since i don't usually do this cummulative work. there are a number of decent care sites out on the net. just remember, you bought the third largest species of tortoise in the WORLD. they're going to need a LOT of space in the near future (2-3 yrs), so be ready to provide it. by the way, the third biggest is not shoddy--right now i'm waiting on eggs to hatch fathered by a 137 lb animal, and this is by no means the heaviest one i'm aware of. they're fun...good luck!
ben.


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