u/Chezzabe

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/tortoise/s/r5COMA9MNf

Today we got an update. He/she is now named Shade. If you ever played the Borderlands games in 2 there was a person named Shade in a town called Oasis where everybody definitely didn't die of dehydration.

Now that the little guy is doing better and a lot more strength his tub wasn't doing it anymore. We got a new temporary set up today with a lot more room and better spot for heating and moving around.

He is looking a lot better, a lot more alert and super active. He is already having some food favorites like palo verde flower. I was also worried he wouldn't eat hay as he was purely fed romaine but is chowing down on it mostly almost instantly.

I got a lot of comments to not have an opaque enclose and with needing so much humidity and how temporary this one will be too a kiddy pool seemed like a good option. Later when he gets to be an outside tortoise it can be reused anyway.

Any critiques are welcome...

This girl is Wasabi and she doesn't understand cork bark. She is always chilling out in the open,

I could not even finish it, it had such a weird fake taste to it. Nutty root beer was not a good choice.

How does a 40g gecko make such a mess? I honestly thought he pooped on me. I started looking everywhere for the source of the smell. Then looked at the wall. 🤢

My husband had been talking about getting a desert tortoise/sulkata for a while now. A coworker kept telling us his sister has a turtle they were trying to get rid of. After showing my husband a picture it wasn't a turtle it was a sulkata. Told us it was 2 years old and pictures were quite deceiving. We live in Phoenix-ish and have a big backyard thought we were going to quickly put together an outdoor space and it would be fine. It came with all the supplies for now.

I haven't had reptiles long(November) but when we went to pick it up my heart sank. They were pretty adamant that it is 2 years old, but have been only feeding it lettuce and nothing else. Back looks pretty pyramided. Asked if it came with a UVB and was pointed towards the 65w heat bulb and told it was running low on substance.

After we left I kind of panicked as I realized nothing they have us was going to work. I had a Arcadia desert 12% UVB but rushed out to buy everything else pictured.

He/she seems pretty weak, maybe some MBD because the bottom shell is pretty soft and seems to have issues standing.

Substitute I did eco earth, reptisoil, reptibark, few cork flats. Kind of wondering if I should take those out until it's stronger?

First thing we did was give it a good soak. From pictures of the undercarriage I don't think they been soaking it at all. Soaked it again today and used a tooth brush and warm wet q-tips to get out some butt junk.

I figured if it has been eating nothing but lettuce I should buy some in case it won't eat anything else. Took the orchard Grass and cut it up into tiny bite-sized pieces and soaked it in water with some flower petals. Dusted the lettuce and calcium/D3. I'm guessing the tortoise food might just be too big for now. Would y'all suggest cutting it up and soaking it in water or just hold off for now?

Anything here I am doing critically wrong?

Even if it is 2 years old, I'm thinking I should do protocol for a hatchling and keep the humidity high. The lid I poked a ton of air holes in so I can cover it at night to hold the warmth and humidity in. The hide I sprayed down really well to keep it humid.

I am pretty sure it hasn't been kept warm enough either which might the explain the size. The 65w bulb needed to be about 6-8 inches to reach 95/100. If it was just sitting on top of that gecko tank I am not sure it was doing much at all.

Also I have switched out water bowls, I was not sure that was going to be safe enough, I got a 6in terracotta saucer from home depot today. I wanted to make sure it could safely get back out.

I won this on an auction as a open box fixture for $3, I thought I was going to be able to put a Shade Dweller but from my understanding is that it has to be another 24w bulb and the shade dweller is only 14w. When looking up Leachi's on the guide on Arcadia's website it says you can use the 24w Forest one which is 6% UVB. The leachi Wasabi spends most of her time basking out in the open so I don't want to roast her with something too strong.

This is my second leachi and she fears nothing. In the few weeks I had her she has always been chill hanging out in the open where my other one is always hiding. When I went to build a tank I went much bigger since she seems not as shy and more branches as I have never seen her even touch her cork hollow. I was a little nervous moving her in but the last hour I have been watching her make laps exploring every spot of her new tank.

I got my own built in jungle vines

Sat there for 20 minutes and never figured it out, neither did my manager or husband. Thought it was slips, trips and falls and metal edges, no... Maybe poor lighting with only string lights visible no, nobody's welding in this so I don't think that's it, I guess the spills could be chemicals also no, no nails on the ground visible. It can be a combination of things but what combination??!

My husband got a crested gecko a bit more than a month ago, we got her tank all done and starting to do a slow introduction to move her. This is her getting to touch moss for the first time.

She seemed ok, didn't move for the whole hour but was moving her head around and tasting the air. So it's a start,

How did I do? My husband wanted to save this sad little crested he saw at PetSmart.(We are both delivery drivers for FedEx so we have no choice but to go in, I try and not look) I been spending the last few weeks gathering plants and supplies and tonight we finally got to build it. Hard to see but there is a long cork bark tube with multiple holes across the back. Made some jungle vines, foamed in one of the branches. For plants we got Spanish moss, some air plants, sansecieria, trandescantia, peperonia obitusifolia, rumohra adiantiformis, hoya, pothos and philodendron. In a week or two I will add some Cubaris sp. Cappuccino and pink springtails. Hopefully she can move in, in the next few weeks. We are keeping her in a tub while we get her back into good shape. I can't wait to see how it fills out after the plants settle.

How did I do? My husband wanted to save this sad little crested he saw at PetSmart.(We are both delivery drivers for FedEx so we have no choice but to go in, I try and not look) I been spending the last few weeks gathering plants and supplies and tonight we finally got to build it. Hard to see but there is a long cork bark tube with multiple holes across the back. Made some jungle vines, foamed in one of the branches. For plants we got Spanish moss, some air plants, sansecieria, trandescantia, peperonia obitusifolia, rumohra adiantiformis, hoya, pothos and philodendron. In a week or two I will add some Cubaris sp. Cappuccino and pink springtails. Hopefully she can move in, in the next few weeks. We are keeping her in a tub while we get her back into good shape. I can't wait to see how it fills out after the plants settle.

We got Mochi a while back and fell in love with him, the care, bioactives, isopods and everything in-between. After an expo a few weeks ago we got a 25% off coupon for a new shop in town so we went by and looked. They had two pine Island females and with the coupon she was only a little over $300. I thought about her for weeks, finally caved and went back for her.

Got to hold her for a few moments and she is jumpy but thankfully not spicy... Yet, hopefully she won't live up to her name. Lol

Feel like getting a good crotch shot is really hard. Are those pores above the flabby spot half way up from the legs?

Last month my husband kept talking about the sad crested gecko he saw at PetSmart. We both work as delivery drivers with FedEx so we have no choice but to go in there to deliver their packages. I try my best not to look at the reptiles but sometimes it's hard. He kept talking about one that he saw all week. Finally, on Thursday I said let's go get her. I never seen a crested acting as she did. The humidity inside the tank was below 40 %. She was curled up in a ball on the floor of the enclosure. They put her in a deli cup with a wet paper towel and she spent over 2 hours trying to lick up any moisture she cut off of it. We already have a leachi, so we kind of knew what we were doing. We got her in a 6q for now and that night went to our normal reptile store and bought the tank and all the supplies.

I don't think I realized how rough a shape she was in. I feel like in the few weeks we had her she has really filled out. I thought she just looked thin from being a baby. I think she was severely dehydrated. The last picture was the night we took her home, the first picture was last night. She was 11g when we got her and is already 13g in 3 weeks?

I been loving working on this tank. So far I only got to do a grow out 12x12x18 for the leachi. This one I actually got to foam in some of the background. Made some jungle Vines and processed and sanitized all the plants we've collected over the last month. It's still far from done but it's a work in progress.

My only question is how prone to eating the cleanup crew are crested? I got a healthy culture of Cappuccino Cubaris and pink springtails. I was planning on doing a really thick layer of leaf litter in the bottom.