Big? Old? Hmmmmm (lots more)

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Posted by Karl H. Betz on August 15, 2001 at 12:39:27:

In Reply to: How big/old are your babies? Looks great! n/p posted by Lisa and Virgil on August 13, 2001 at 23:21:53:

Our torts are 6 years old (for the small one - Daphne) and 5 years old (for the larger - Niles). When we bought them, the things that were being spread among the pet trade about sulcatas were drastically different than the common knowledge available now. Even though we researched our torts BEFORE we bought them, we were told that keeping them on a diet of monkey biscuits and grocery greens was just fine and that they made fine indoor pets as long as they had several hours per day of full spectrum lighting.
(cringe at the silent roar of disapproval)
So, obviously there is a reason for their slow growth. After years of hunting and sifting through often conflicting information, and trial and error, we have come to where we are today:
Two, outdoor-oriented, hibiscus-loving, weed-mowing, grass-grazing, machines. They have drastically increased in size during this past year in the full sunlight nearly every day and weigh about 400 and 600 grams, respectively.
(word to the wise)
We spend at least some time EVERY DAY trying to learn new pertinent data on properly keeping these tortoises. You can never know everything and new things are being found out about their needs even as I type this. Nobody has ALL OF THE ANSWERS, they only have what has worked for them. So we strive to learn as much as we can. We learned as much as we could 6 years ago and look how much "conventional wisdom" has changed since then!
One of the things we are seeing that was unexpected is that as our sulcatas grow, the dark brown (or mahogany) color in their patterns is increasing. We were expecting that to fade to the common tan coloration of larger adults that we have seen. Perhaps it still will, in time. That is one thing we expect to have plenty of with our torts ... time.
Thanks for asking,
Karl & Cyndi Betz

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: Our torts are 6 years old (for the small one - Daphne) and 5 years old (for the larger - Niles). When we bought them, the things that were being spread among the pet trade about sulcatas were drastically different than the common knowledge available now. Even though we researched our torts BEFORE we bought them, we were told that keeping them on a diet of monkey biscuits and grocery greens was just fine and that they made fine indoor pets as long as they had several hours per day of full spectrum lighting. : (cringe at the silent roar of disapproval) : So, obviously there is a reason for their slow growth. After years of hunting and sifting through often conflicting information, and trial and error, we have come to where we are today: : Two, outdoor-oriented, hibiscus-loving, weed-mowing, grass-grazing, machines. They have drastically increased in size during this past year in the full sunlight nearly every day and weigh about 400 and 600 grams, respectively. : (word to the wise) : We spend at least some time EVERY DAY trying to learn new pertinent data on properly keeping these tortoises. You can never know everything and new things are being found out about their needs even as I type this. Nobody has ALL OF THE ANSWERS, they only have what has worked for them. So we strive to learn as much as we can. We learned as much as we could 6 years ago and look how much "conventional wisdom" has changed since then! : One of the things we are seeing that was unexpected is that as our sulcatas grow, the dark brown (or mahogany) color in their patterns is increasing. We were expecting that to fade to the common tan coloration of larger adults that we have seen. Perhaps it still will, in time. That is one thing we expect to have plenty of with our torts ... time. : Thanks for asking, : Karl & Cyndi Betz

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