Residents | Sanctuary
Kids > Itty & Bitty
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Bitty close-up
Photo credit: Jose Caruso
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Tortoise tracks to hole
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Itty close-up
Photo credit: Jose Caruso
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Itty & Bitty: The Cool Brothers
Itty & Bitty are two of the coolest African Sulcata Tortoises
you’ll ever want to meet. They are brothers; and Executive
Director Laura Bradshaw has had them since their
shells were just one inch in diameter and they weighed next to
nothing. Now their shells are roughly 22” long; Itty weighs
75 pounds and Bitty is 50 pounds. They are still considered babies as
these tortoises can live 50-100 years. When fully grown; they
can weigh in at 200 pounds each.
Itty & Bitty have totally different personalities. Itty
is more shy, less social ,and can have quite a ‘tude when
he wants to; Bitty is more friendly and outgoing unless he encounters
his brother. When that happens, all bets are off. We’ve
had to separate them due to their natural fighting instinct with
other males as they get older. The action is more like jousting;
they ram each other and hard! Sulcatas have more testosterone
than any other tortoise on the planet and these boys seem to
have even more than the norm when they get together.
They both suffer from not getting the correct ratio of protein,
calcium, and sunlight when they were very young. They had what
is referred to as “pyramiding” going on where the
plastrons of the shell are in a more pyramid shape instead of
flat and smooth. Four of Bitty’s plastrons actually fell
off exposing the bone his shell. He’s apparently okay;
we brought them to a reptile vet specialist in Los
Angeles. Laura
has been told that they are now getting all that they need, which
the vet could see by the new growth of their shells. It’s
a good lesson for pet owners to get information from more than
one source as they embark on raising an animal or reptile that
they haven’t had experience with. Bitty’s
plastrons will grow back according to the vet, in 20 years or
so.
Bitty also has some respiratory issues that flare from time
to time from; it comes from getting flipped over on his back by his
brother too many times which is why they had to be separated
as they got older. Bitty’s now quite a bit smaller than
Itty; it’s possible his compromised lungs have stunted
his growth. He is now on a new supplement, Limu,
which has improved his lungs greatly.
Bitty is thriving now; Itty watch out!
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