Do Sulcata Tortoises Need Water
![Sulcata Tortoise With Carapace Deformity Pyramiding Keep Fresh Water Available For Them To Crawl In If And When They Sulcata Tortoise Tortoise Tortoise Care](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/49/1f/42/491f42493aaca3ca7b9e1242394ae9bc.jpg)
Tortoises are programmed not to use water in the bladder to eliminate these unlessreplenishment is available.
Do sulcata tortoises need water. Grasses and grass hay are the best diet for the tortoises. All tortoises need water available to them at all times. The semi solid white deposits of expelled urates. All captive tortoises need to be soaked.
You need to make sure they can easily access the water but that it is not any deeper than the tortoise s bridge the section of shell that joins the carapace top shell and plastron bottom shell. Read the care sheets for sulcatas found on this forum. While you are feeding hay to your tortoise make sure that you provide fresh clean water at all times for your tortoise to drink. Humidity from a water bowl or moist bedding can cause respiratory infections in sulcata tortoises.
Therefore do not keep a water bowl in the tank with your tortoise unless for brief periods to take a drink. Sulcata tortoises don t need to drink much water as they get their water intake through their food however they will drink water like a dog if you provide it to them. Tortoises do not swim and can drown easily. For the baby sulcata tortoise for sale daily soaking in 82 degree warm shallow water is necessary.
Dust the greens with a multivitamin powder for reptiles once a week. Some people think that they can go long periods of time without water but that s just not true. Providing water access for a baby sulcata tortoise is optional so long as you are soaking them daily since they can flip or drown. Food and water sulcata tortoises are herbivorous grazing tortoises that need a high fiber low protein diet.
This should be changed daily. This can be provided by feeding a variety of grasses and hays comprising at least 75 percent of their diet along with some edible weeds and flowers such as dandelions clover endive and cactus pads. This pictures show an almost empty water dish that gets filled daily and sometimes multiple times a day. Sulcata are very good at extracting water from any fresh grasses and leafy greens they eat but there is little to no extractable water available from dry grass hay.
They will tell you the best way to care for your tort. For babies a very shallow dish of water should be made available. While housed indoors it is good to soak them in a shallow water bath to their chin for 15 30 minutes once a week. Not having enough water can cause kidney failure and stones which can be deadly.
Adult sulcata tortoises will soak themselves sometimes for hours in their water dish. Dust the greens with a calcium without vitamin d3 powder a twice a week.