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  1. #1
    Registered User dylanjwicklund's Avatar
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    Sulcata tortoise

    I have a baby sulcata tortoise about 9 months old and just super cute and was wondering if anybody else has any? Would love to see pics of them and their enclosures for ideas when he or she is bigger also how can I sex a tortoise
    Btw his or hers name is sully lol sully the sulcata


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    Sometimes It Hurts... PitOnTheProwl's Avatar
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    Registered User GitaBooks's Avatar
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    That is an adorable little tortoise! And I love the name too!

    Our local petstore has a tortoise as a mascot. He roams around the store but prefers to either be in his heated box or back in the reptile area where it is quieter and warm. He's pretty big, his heated box is actually more of a dog house.

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    BPnet Senior Member JoshSloane's Avatar
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    I have a baby sulcata as well. I would recommend getting him into a closed chamber enclosure to get your humidity correct. These babies need to be at 70-80% humidity as babies. Head over to tortoiseforum.org, they have tortoise experts that can guide you every step of the way. You would be surprised at the disinformation on the internet about raising torts.

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    dylanjwicklund (01-26-2016)

  6. #5
    BPnet Royalty John1982's Avatar
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    Re: Sulcata tortoise

    Quote Originally Posted by dylanjwicklund View Post
    also how can I sex a tortoise
    At that size, your only accurate option of sexing is having someone qualified endoscope the tortoise. You could take a pretty good guess if you had other sulcatas of the same size to compare but it's not 100% until they're large enough to sex independently anyway. As they mature, males are distinguished by having longer tails with the cloacal opening situated further away from the plastron than females. The plastron in many tortoises, sulcatas included, is also more concave in mature males to help prevent them from sliding off the female during courtship. The anal scutes are different between the sexes too. If you think of it in terms of angles, a female is more in the "acute" to "right" range and a male close to "obtuse" if that helps. The gular scutes in mature males are much more pronounced in sulcatas - used in battle to ram and tip other males. Males get a great deal larger than females so this isn't really useful for sexing as either gender is apparent well before they reach adult size. Just like in crocodilians, temperatures during incubation help determine the sex of hatchlings in tortoises. Towards the higher end of the spectrum you will get more females, the lower end will produce more males. Not a lot of breeders utilize this method though as to be accurate you need to be on the extreme ends and this can often lead to issues - especially when going for females(more desirable in many species) and baking eggs too hot.

    Males will often display their sex organs while eliminating waste - pretty darn common in many tortoise and lizard species. Soaking your tortoise in tepid water is a good way to get them to release their load thus giving you a shot at seeing(if they have them) everted hemipenes. Keep in mind, not all males do this and certainly not every time they go to the bathroom. Not seeing hemipenes doesn't mean anything really but once you see them you don't have to wonder about the gender of your tortoise anymore.

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    PitOnTheProwl (01-26-2016)

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    Registered User alexis's Avatar
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    Re: Sulcata tortoise

    does anyone have a good care sheet for sulcatas, friend of mine has one and wanted additional info.

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