Building enclosure...a few questions

Hi,

I live in Southern California where the weather is generally warm to hot most of the time. We are going to build our tortoise enclosure and I'm wondering do you need to have a source of powered heat in the hide for night time or those random days that it gets chilly. I've read people have dog houses and put straw in there or cold frames. Would that be good enough? The tortoise is an adult so not a fragile hatchling. I would like him to live outside on a full time basis.

Also Do people in Southern Cal hibernate/brumate their tortoises?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Depends on what type of tortoise you have. But yes southern California winter nights can be too cold for some species. A night hide box is what most people use. A dog house with straw won't cut it. Need something insulated and will hold heat. Others will share photos and ideas. What type of tortoise do you have ?

Kyle

tgirl23 said:

Hi, Also, Do people in Southern Cal hibernate/brumate their tortoises?
Any advice would be much appreciated.

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Howdy TGirl23.
Yes people brumate tortoises in Southern California. As a rule though, they only brumate tortoises that require brumation to be healthy. Many tortoises in the pet trade do not require brumation, and can actually become very ill and in some cases the tortoise can ultimately die as a result. Even tortoises that can brumate do not need to be brumated. What type of tortoise do you have? I ask because a very common tortoise in the pet trade is a sulcata tortoise, also known as an African spur thigh tortoise. These tortoises do not brumate and will suffer very unhealthy ramifications from being brumated. In the “wild”, what I call the “real world”, they do not brumate at all. This then answers a second question of yours, do they need a heat source in the outdoor night box, yes they do very much so, to keep your tortoise healthy. These outdoor houses are typically called “heated houses” and we have some very thorough threads written on building these heated houses right down there in Riverside to help keep sulcata and leopard tortoises healthy when temperatures drop lower that healthy.
I live up in the Western middle of Oregon, and my 70lbs. sulcata house is currently reading 94.8°f and it’s 49°f outside. Daytime temperatures are higher in the house, up to 115°-125°f and it’s all good. I use an electric, oil-filled radiator heater in his house with a computer fan blowing on it to help keep the heat evenly distributed throughout the heated house.
If you do have a sulcata or leopard tortoise, head over to the species specific sectioning the forum and you will find some very complete, posts regarding the building of a heated house for tortoises. Have you filled out an introduction in the, “introduction section” yet? If not, bounce on over and do that then shimmy on over to the threads that Tom has created concerning the building of heated houses for tortoises.
All of that and welcome to TheTortoiseForum TGirl23 ! Don’t be shy, ask questions, if it’s confusing, ask for clarification. Soon you will be answering others questions yourself.
Cowboy Ken [emoji217]

Millerlite said:

Depends on what type of tortoise you have. But yes southern California winter nights can be too cold for some species. A night hide box is what most people use. A dog house with straw won't cut it. Need something insulated and will hold heat. Others will share photos and ideas. What type of tortoise do you have ?

Kyle

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Hi Kyle,
We don't have him yet, but we are getting a older Hermann tortoise. We are going to begin building his enclosure today and I've been trying to do as much research as possible so we can make everything right for this little guy.

Cowboy_Ken said:

Howdy TGirl23.
Yes people brumate tortoises in Southern California. As a rule though, they only brumate tortoises that require brumation to be healthy. Many tortoises in the pet trade do not require brumation, and can actually become very ill and in some cases the tortoise can ultimately die as a result. Even tortoises that can brumate do not need to be brumated. What type of tortoise do you have? I ask because a very common tortoise in the pet trade is a sulcata tortoise, also known as an African spur thigh tortoise. These tortoises do not brumate and will suffer very unhealthy ramifications from being brumated. In the “wild”, what I call the “real world”, they do not brumate at all. This then answers a second question of yours, do they need a heat source in the outdoor night box, yes they do very much so, to keep your tortoise healthy. These outdoor houses are typically called “heated houses” and we have some very thorough threads written on building these heated houses right down there in Riverside to help keep sulcata and leopard tortoises healthy when temperatures drop lower that healthy.
I live up in the Western middle of Oregon, and my 70lbs. sulcata house is currently reading 94.8°f and it’s 49°f outside. Daytime temperatures are higher in the house, up to 115°-125°f and it’s all good. I use an electric, oil-filled radiator heater in his house with a computer fan blowing on it to help keep the heat evenly distributed throughout the heated house.
If you do have a sulcata or leopard tortoise, head over to the species specific sectioning the forum and you will find some very complete, posts regarding the building of a heated house for tortoises. Have you filled out an introduction in the, “introduction section” yet? If not, bounce on over and do that then shimmy on over to the threads that Tom has created concerning the building of heated houses for tortoises.
All of that and welcome to TheTortoiseForum TGirl23 ! Don’t be shy, ask questions, if it’s confusing, ask for clarification. Soon you will be answering others questions yourself.
Cowboy Ken [emoji217]

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Thank you Cowboy Ken for the warm welcome. The tortoise we are getting is a rescued male Hermann whose about 40-50.

I will go check out the heated houses threads. I guess I didn't know that's what they were called. Lol.
I will head over to the introduction section as well. I was a little hesitant because not on this forum but some Facebook tortoise groups I'm in, people can be quite rude if they deem your question to be stupid.

A very warm welcome to the forum, @tgirl23 !

Please allow me to point out that these cute little animals are cold-blooded. Therefore they need a lot of warmth.

Read the "Beginners Mistakes" Thread. There's a lot of useful info there. And please do not forget to post pics of your tort once you adopt him/her.

Good luck!

Herman's are not burrowers like the native desert tortoise. They are from a Mediterranean climate much like southern California. The "need" for a heated house could be debated to no firm end result answer. One matter that there is little doubt on is that winter time rain and colder temperatures do in fact challenge their immune system and if there is any thing that they might get (respiratory disease) they will get it.

A few successful keepers along the coast in SLO county have Herman's out side year round with a night-house that is heated, but enough so that a serious cold snap won't be a problem. Heated to high 40's F to mid 50's F. That way those occasional sunny days they may come out and be active, but those occasional cold snaps where we get a hard frost will not damage the tortoise or challenge the immune system.

That a hide is not wet is very important for Mediterranean species.

Daily monitoring is important no matter how you set it up. At least the first few years, so you can learn the individual.

Also keep in mind older tortoises have made a hard map of where everything is from their former enclosure. With no guide and no maps the tortoise will have to learn the new map of your enclosure. To put a tortoise into a new enclosure this time of year requires much more vigilance to make sure they don't becomes disillusioned about where stuff is and just go into a decline and pass away.

A least a few people, myself included would suggest keeping the tortoise awake and indoors for this winter and getting them acclimated to outside once the days are getting longer. Right now day length is getting shorter and this will inform the tortoise to wind down. It is best put them out once day length is getting longer but before summer equinox.

I know this could all sound metaphysical, but it's based on many long term observations. They don't have clocks and calendars, can't read road signs or ask a new local neighbor where anything is. They got the sun, temps, and a map in their mind.