Baby desert tortoise care tips anyone?

Okay so tonight i picked up a baby female desert tortoise from someone who no longer wanted it. I have own tortoises way in the past so i know their basic care requirements. Im currently doing a lot refreshing by looking up caresheets and things like that to find any other things i might of missed last time, but sometimes caresheets arent very helpful or accurate.
Basically i wanted to know if anyone has any helpful hints or personal husbandary tips that you find benfits the animal more than what might be menchoned in common care sheets.
Thank you in advance for helping me raise this little girl right :)

I haven't raised them but I have seen folks around here from time to time and they are real hearty torts. Best of luck with her. Take some pics for us:)

thank you! :) ill definitely take some pics tomarrow

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Melody

thank you! :) ill definitely take some pics tomarrow

---

i have a desert tortoise for 17yrs they r very hardy just make sure u keep them very warm and have the right lights they will eat almost any kind of greens but mine prefers romaine lettuce and cucumbers, and prickly pears. send me some pics lockness@hotmail.com

Babies are certainly more delicate than adults. I think the trick is protecting them from predators for the first couple years, and then they're good to go. It's worth building them a pen with good burrows and chicken wire screen over the top to keep out cats and hawks.

A guy I know up in Oro Valley hibernated them in his garage, to give them a little extra protection from the hard freezes.

The Desert Museum has some good guidelines:

http://www.desertmuseum.org/programs/tap.php

I'd actually contact either them, or the Phoenix Herpetological Society for baby-specific tips.

Note that technically Pima county has a one-tortoise per homeowner rule. Very few people seem to follow it, but it may come up in conversation if you mention "babies".

Another person worth talking to is Dr. Jarchow at Orange Grove Animal Hospital:

http://tucson.citysearch.com/profile..._hospital.html

He does the herp vet work at Reid Park Zoo and for the Desert Museum, and I know he has a whole backyard full of hard-luck tortoises that are either injured, or in rehabilitation, or are otherwise too delicate for the tortoise adoption program.

If you have some money, it's worth taking the babies in for a check-up/ parasite check. He'll give you good advice.