Aldabra yard expectations

xirxes

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I am aiming to bring home 13-14" aldabra at the turn of the year to Southern CA. I have a nice large 4x4x2' heated enclosure for overnights and cold/rainy days in the welcome home season.

My question is that it is coming from a 5x8' cypress mulch outside enclosure, i will have 6x20' fully penned and full tortoise edible grass for it to forage in. Just how long/to what size should i expect this yard to last as the main area for the tortoise?

I have a much larger area (additional 40x30) that is free ranged by two pygmy feinting goats and a 14" sulcata. Im not planning on keeping the tow out together, unless space demands it, and if then only when the aldab is much larger than the sulcata and under direct supervision.

Thank you for any advice ahead of time.
 

Yvonne G

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In my opinion, having raised two Aldabran tortoises from hatchlings up to about 200lbs, your 6'x20' yard should be ok for about a year.

The idea of your sulcata having to forage around and eat grass that has been pooped and pee'd on by goats isn't pleasing to me. I don't think grazing animals should share a pasture with other species. And as the Aldabran and Sulcata come from different geographical areas of the world, they should never be allowed in the same yard. You'll be courting illness or even the death of one or the other of them.
 

xirxes

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Thank you on space/growth estimate.

as far as the goats go, that’s the way our yard is. However, the sulcata does not eat the waste and the grass is thoroughly rinsed through irrigation 3x daily. I consider the goat pellets one of the most natural and mild forms of fertilizer I can use (remember SoCal here, grass is hard won) goats are ruminants and are only eating hay.

lastly on the interaction of species, there is a bit of a difference between interacting and housing with another species, and I do share concern of cross-contamination as it were, but I am not sold on the line of high likelihood of issue due to geographical susceptibility in This case.

These are not wild animals and both will have been separated from wild animals and their natural environments since birth in the Aldabras case and generations in the case of the sulcata.

The environment they will be interacting within has all the same environmental/pathogenic/viral components, so this variable can be removed as an issue.

So if they are healthy and don’t have anything affecting them actively, then we can only be concerned with what they may be vectors for to pass along, and I have seen zero information or research showing that healthy, growing tortoises, with none of their native geographical microfauna on them, experiencing the same microfauna in the interactional environment with different species, are a cause for concern, merely based on potential evolutionary/geographical susceptibility.
 

Trojan_48

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Just curious how your outside enclosure is and how the Aldabra is doing? I myself just built out a similar 24x8 enclosure for my 2yr old. I haven’t transitioned it yet as I’m waiting for the plants to grow a bit.

did you put a roof or top cover? Any worry about coyotes or wildlife?
 

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Tom

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Thank you on space/growth estimate.

as far as the goats go, that’s the way our yard is. However, the sulcata does not eat the waste and the grass is thoroughly rinsed through irrigation 3x daily. I consider the goat pellets one of the most natural and mild forms of fertilizer I can use (remember SoCal here, grass is hard won) goats are ruminants and are only eating hay.

lastly on the interaction of species, there is a bit of a difference between interacting and housing with another species, and I do share concern of cross-contamination as it were, but I am not sold on the line of high likelihood of issue due to geographical susceptibility in This case.

These are not wild animals and both will have been separated from wild animals and their natural environments since birth in the Aldabras case and generations in the case of the sulcata.

The environment they will be interacting within has all the same environmental/pathogenic/viral components, so this variable can be removed as an issue.

So if they are healthy and don’t have anything affecting them actively, then we can only be concerned with what they may be vectors for to pass along, and I have seen zero information or research showing that healthy, growing tortoises, with none of their native geographical microfauna on them, experiencing the same microfauna in the interactional environment with different species, are a cause for concern, merely based on potential evolutionary/geographical susceptibility.
You are wrong, and you are going to learn the hard way. Are your tortoises still alive?
 

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