Any and all advice welcome

ChristineB · Jun 6, 2021

Hi my daughter and I are looking into our first tortoise. We are looking into getting a Giant South African. We live in New Jersey and have cold winters so will need an indoor and an outdoor habitat.

We have researched lots of info but looking for some first hand knowledge.

Any information on types of enclosures ie: types sizes , substrates, food, soaks how often? Any and all advice is greatly welcomed and appreciated

Lyn W · Jun 6, 2021

Hi and welcome,
You are very wise to research before getting your tort and you'll find lots of help here to hep you get started.

Is a Giant SA tort the same as a sulcata?
If so this is the most up to date caresheet you'll need

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

As for space, hatchlings can be started off in large vivs but but as they grow you will need a very big outdoor space with strong boundaries because they are very strong torts and will bulldoze their way through normal fences.

I have a leopard who is about 14 inches long but he has had his own adapted heated room for the 7 years I've had him because he is too big for a table or viv. He lives in all year because of our cold, wet climate, with access to the outdoors in the summer but even then our nights can be too cold to leave him out.
If you search for heated night boxes Tom has a good design.

MEEJogja · Jun 6, 2021

ChristineB said:
Hi my daughter and I are looking into our first tortoise. We are looking into getting a Giant South African. We live in New Jersey and have cold winters so will need an indoor and an outdoor habitat.

We have researched lots of info but looking for some first hand knowledge.

Any information on types of enclosures ie: types sizes , substrates, food, soaks how often? Any and all advice is greatly welcomed and appreciated

How are you going to deal with your 200lb sulcata when it gets cold and he needs to come inside? People do it successfully on this forum but they will tell you it's not easy and it costs a fortune. There are probably much more suitable species for you. Garden state tortoise (@hermanichris) is in your state and has tortoises which brumate outdoors in the winter. Give some of garden state tortoises' videos a watch on YouTube for ideas.

Maggie3fan · Jun 6, 2021

ChristineB said:
Hi my daughter and I are looking into our first tortoise. We are looking into getting a Giant South African. We live in New Jersey and have cold winters so will need an indoor and an outdoor habitat.

We have researched lots of info but looking for some first hand knowledge.

Any information on types of enclosures ie: types sizes , substrates, food, soaks how often? Any and all advice is greatly welcomed and appreciated

You in New Jersey? Do you have any idea what it takes to raise a big tortoise? Wait, do you mean African Sulcata or Giant African Leopard?

ChristineB · Jun 6, 2021

maggie3fan said:
You in New Jersey? Do you have any idea what it takes to raise a big tortoise? Wait, do you mean African Sulcata or Giant African Leopard?

OOOhhh. Leopard i do love the Sulcata but thats not a good fit for us

ChristineB · Jun 6, 2021

MEEJogja said:
How are you going to deal with your 200lb sulcata when it gets cold and he needs to come inside? People do it successfully on this forum but they will tell you it's not easy and it costs a fortune. There are probably much more suitable species for you. Garden state tortoise (@hermanichris) is in your state and has tortoises which brumate outdoors in the winter. Give some of garden state tortoises' videos a watch on YouTube for ideas.

So sorry a leopard not Sulcata

ChristineB · Jun 6, 2021

ChristineB said:
Hi my daughter and I are looking into our first tortoise. We are looking into getting a Giant South African. We live in New Jersey and have cold winters so will need an indoor and an outdoor habitat.

We have researched lots of info but looking for some first hand knowledge.

Any information on types of enclosures ie: types sizes , substrates, food, soaks how often? Any and all advice is greatly welcomed and appreciated

Leopard not Sulcata

ZenHerper · Jun 6, 2021

MEEJogja said:
How are you going to deal with your 200lb sulcata when it gets cold and he needs to come inside? People do it successfully on this forum but they will tell you it's not easy and it costs a fortune. There are probably much more suitable species for you. Garden state tortoise (@hermanichris) is in your state and has tortoises which brumate outdoors in the winter. Give some of garden state tortoises' videos a watch on YouTube for ideas.

Weird legal note: you may own, breed, and sell tortoises in New Jersey, but you may not buy one from a breeder located within New Jersey (or sell one to another NJ resident)...

It's weird...

Yvonne G · Jun 6, 2021

I imagine it could be done, but it's not going to be cheap or easy. Tortoises depend upon being able to walk great distances in order to help their digestive systems. So when your tortoise gets too big to be kept in a plastic tub or vivarium, he's going to need a whole room or the equivalent. And the SA leopards don't brumate, which means you have to keep them warm in the winter. I'm going to alert @Tom to this thread. He breeds the SA leopards and he may have some words of wisdom about keeping a SA leopard in New Jersey.

MEEJogja · Jun 6, 2021

ZenHerper said:
Weird legal note: you may own, breed, and sell tortoises in New Jersey, but you may not buy one from a breeder located within New Jersey (or sell one to another NJ resident)...

It's weird..

Bonkers!

Gleamy · Jun 6, 2021

ChristineB said:
Hi my daughter and I are looking into our first tortoise. We are looking into getting a Giant South African. We live in New Jersey and have cold winters so will need an indoor and an outdoor habitat.

We have researched lots of info but looking for some first hand knowledge.

Any information on types of enclosures ie: types sizes , substrates, food, soaks how often? Any and all advice is greatly welcomed and appreciated

I have a super sweet 80 to 100 pound tortoise. He does need to rehome. Although

Tom · Jun 6, 2021

ChristineB said:
Hi my daughter and I are looking into our first tortoise. We are looking into getting a Giant South African. We live in New Jersey and have cold winters so will need an indoor and an outdoor habitat.

We have researched lots of info but looking for some first hand knowledge.

Any information on types of enclosures ie: types sizes , substrates, food, soaks how often? Any and all advice is greatly welcomed and appreciated

That you are calling it a "Giant South African" tells me you have found the wrong source for a baby and info. That is a sensational marketing term and the ones I've seen using it are selling mixes. I've complained to the management of the sites where these fakes are advertised, and the reply was essentially; "Tough luck. Too bad so sad. Buyer beware." Many people are breeding and selling mixes. Almost everyone breeding the realies or the fakies does not start babies correctly and if they even survive, they don't grow well in most cases from the dry starting breeders. Other than me, the only safe place to get a healthy well started baby that is the genuine article is from @Rodriguez Chelonians

If anyone else knows of someone breeding real ones AND starting babies with humidity and daily soaks, I would love to know about them and add them to my list. Me and my aforementioned friends cannot meet the demand for this awesome locale specific variation of this species.

Keeping them indoors in winter in New Jersey? You'd need a large heated warehouse. Something around 50x50 feet with heated floors, redundant overlapping heating systems, and an automatic, self-starting back-up generator system for the inevitable winter power outages. If any or all of that sounds daunting, I'd pick an easier species to deal with in a frozen winter climate. Or move to a warmer area.

Questions are welcome!

Jan A · Jun 6, 2021

Tom said:
That you are calling it a "Giant South African" tells me you have found the wrong source for a baby and info. That is a sensational marketing term and the ones I've seen using it are selling mixes. I've complained to the management of the sites where these fakes are advertised, and the reply was essentially; "Tough luck. Too bad so sad. Buyer beware." Many people are breeding and selling mixes. Almost everyone breeding the realies or the fakies does not start babies correctly and if they even survive, they don't grow well in most cases from the dry starting breeders. Other than me, the only safe place to get a healthy well started baby that is the genuine article is from @Rodriguez Chelonians

If anyone else knows of someone breeding real ones AND starting babies with humidity and daily soaks, I would love to know about them and add them to my list. Me and my aforementioned friends cannot meet the demand for this awesome locale specific variation of this species.

Keeping them indoors in winter in New Jersey? You'd need a large heated warehouse. Something around 50x50 feet with heated floors, redundant overlapping heating systems, and an automatic, self-starting back-up generator system for the inevitable winter power outages. If any or all of that sounds daunting, I'd pick an easier species to deal with in a frozen winter climate. Or move to a warmer area.

Questions are welcome!

OMG, when did owning a tort on the East Coast become so "in".... errrr never mind...putting myself in the timeout corner again...

daniellenc · Jun 7, 2021

I love Leopards but living in Maryland and not being independently wealthy went with a Red foot tortoise who stay a lot smaller in most cases. As already mentioned you need a lot of room for these guys. Most people keep them wrong because of educational ignorance, or because they wanted a big tort but then realized the expense and space needed were not in their reach. Not good for the owner or the tort. My guy spends winters indoors in a 10x4 custom built cage which was around $2,000 and will need an addition here in the next two years. Spring and summer are spent outside in another custom enclosure that is much bigger and holds a custom night box for hiding and humidity needs. I don't want to assume the kind of space or money you're able to provide though just being honest. Housing costs with the larger species are not cheap or small

Any and all advice welcome

ChristineB

New Member

Lyn W

Well-Known Member

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

MEEJogja

Active Member

Maggie3fan

Well-Known Member

ChristineB

New Member

ChristineB

New Member

ChristineB

New Member

ZenHerper

Well-Known Member

Yvonne G

Old Timer

MEEJogja

Active Member

Gleamy

New Member

Tom

The Dog Trainer

Jan A

Well-Known Member

daniellenc

Well-Known Member

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