I have a 50 lb. sulcata, he has a very nice heated apartment and free range of a fenced acre and a half. The weather is nice and today he has decided to burrow down under a table in a covered area outside my house. It's going to be 46 tonight, my question is can I just cover him up and let him sleep there tonight? I do hate lugging a 50 lb tortoise 100 yards and he seems quite content there.
Can I let my sulcata sleep around?
- Thread starter Ellie Mae
- Start date
I wouldn't. I've taught my big tortoises to either follow the strawberry on a skewer (carrot/stick method) or to move away from a tap with the rake on their butt (or however many taps it takes to get them there). If I find a big one not in his house in the evening, it's the strawberry/stick or the rake on the heinie until they've made it back into their shed.
I wondered how you moved yours! I had a situation with Charlie recently where I couldn't get him to move at all.
I wouldn't either. Too cold. Covering him up will do nothing. They can't generate their own heat. That's the reason we provide it with heat bulbs, ceramic heat emitters and heaters.
If you make him a heated tortoise house, within a week or two he will learn to use it and go back in on his own every night.
This is a tropical species. It doesn't get cold where they come from. They need to be kept warm. Sometimes some of them will survive cooler temps, but many die because people let them get too cold.
You need something like this:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/another-night-box-thread.88966/
The occasional cold night out is enough to make them get a respiratory infection. Even if they are able to survive it, it is not good for them. Remember that we live in a temperate climate. They come from a tropical climate. If you lived in Senegal or Sudan, I'd tell you to leave him outside every night.
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