Outdoors in Arizona
- Thread starter M&C
- Start date
The more space the better. I usually transition them to living outside full time once they are around 8-10 inches, and I use a 30x30 foot pen for this size. Right now is the best time of year to do it. If your tortoise is still under that size, I would wait until next year at this time. Use a 4x8 foot closed chamber indoors, and put the tortoise outdoors in its pen during favorable weather, but bring it inside to sleep until it is the right size.
Once the tortoise is the right size, you will need an insulated and heated night box for it to sleep in very night. It usually only takes a week or two of putting it in its night box for it to learn the routine. Close it in EVERY night. Open the door every morning, so that the tortoise can come out and start its day when it wants to. Here are two examples:
Single Tortoise Night Box
I like my larger tortoises to live outside full time. My climate permits this year round with a little help. For people who live where it snows all winter, this type of box is still good for warmer weather, getting them out earlier in Spring, and keeping them out a bit later into fall. You'll...
tortoiseforum.org
Double Door Night Box
As the years have gone by and I build more of these boxes, I learn more and more each time. This one is the latest and I incorporated everything I've learned over the years. I also tried to take lots of pics so I can explain in more detail some of what is going on. It will take multiple posts to...
tortoiseforum.org
Once it starts to get near or over 100 degrees every day, get a shovel and start a burrow where you want the tortoise to dig. It's best if they live in their burrow over our hot scorching summers. Underground is the only way to escape the intense heat above ground. Then, in fall, usually late October for me, I catch them above ground and cover the burrow entrance with a sheet of plywood, and make them use their heated house over fall and winter until the heat returns the next year. They make this transition easily and I usually only have to put them away a time or two until they are doing it themselves again.
For enclosure size, I like 30x30ish for juveniles, and 50x50' as a minimum for adults. 50x50 is 2500 square feet, but my adult enclosure was 8000 sq. feet and they used every inch of it every day. The more room you can give them the better.
