Wow... great job! I wish you lived near me so we can swap stories and ideas. I live in/near Houston Texas.
I am lucky to have the main Houston Zoo vet as my back up to help care for Buddy. He has 2 aldabras and was involved with Lonesome George, the galapagos that passed away last year.
I've always wondered about the white sand in the aldabra huts. Why is that substrate chosen for this species? Just curiosity causing me to ask
Me too, I have sulcata and leopard baby's and it's recommended not to use sand. I plan on getting an Aldabra 1st of year (from Aldabraman) and would really like all the info I can get about the aldabra's. So any advise, suggestions, anything at all would be very appreciated.
Wow, you are placing a lot of foresight and planning into this and I applaud you for that!
I haven't had to use closed chambers before so someone else will have to field that part.
As far as covering a cage outdoors with plastic, I strongly advise against that for risk of baking him as HolyCow stated. If your point is to increase humidity, I would rather soak the tortoise 2 to 3 times weekly.
My experience with repti bark is that the small chips do not provide much traction, and can only imagine the little guy "swimming" in little orchard bark chips. Traction is key for building strong muscles that will one day hoist 400 plus pounds of Aldabra. An alternative for hard ground in indoor enclosures isn't coming to mind. Maybe another indoor keeper will chime in.
[QUOTE="Amanda81, post: 944284, me******* Post shortened to save space***********. Thnks!!
Great question! View attachment 95860
The answer is that sand is not the problem, it is a natural substrate for tortoises to bed down in. // Keeping our tortoises as natural as possible, keeps our tortoises healthy and happy. I believe natural sunshine and grazing is key. Starting off with a hatchling aldabra I recommend building a grazing box like the ones Aldabraman uses for his hatchlings