So I have 2 sulcata I just adopted over the summer about 2 yrs as the person who gave them to me normally stay out side I live in south Texas I have made them an indoor enclosure due to temps dropping trying to figure out how to set up a ceramic heat emitter to keep the temp at 75 at night what would be the best option there in a sterilite tote these are also the items I’m Looking into buying any ideas or tips I don’t want to melt the tote either or my babies
Heating
- Thread starter Gcat1989
- Start date
Hello and welcome. The first thing we need to get across to you is that for decades we've been caring for this species all wrong. In the last 10 years through much study, experimentation and collaboration, we've figured out what the right way to take care of them is, and why. You don't have to learn the hard way.
You say they are 2 years old? At 2 years old they should be somewhere around 10 pounds. If you are talking about housing them in a tote, they must be significantly smaller than 10 pounds, so refer to the first paragraph. Housing them incorrectly leads to stunted growth, pyramiding, and sometimes poor health. What size are they?
The second big premise to convince you of is that tortoises should NEVER live in pairs. Groups of juveniles can sometimes work, but not pairs. The constant low grade stress of being paired is another growth hamperer. They need to be separated. Now you are going to say, "but they've been together their whole lives and they are siblings, or "I don't see any fighting and they seem to like each other, or "they pretty much ignore each other". We hear all of these almost daily. It IS a problem even if you aren't seeing obvious attacks. They are solitary and don't want other tortoises around. They are communicating this to each other in ways the most people don't recognize. No one wants to set up a second enclosure, so we always get lots of resistance to this point. DO a search here on the forum for pairs and you can read the arguments for days. Or, you can go the easy and best route and simply separate them.
The overall ambient temp in the coolest part of the enclosure should not drop below 80. 75 is too cool for this tropical species. The CHE and fixture you linked are fine, but you can get better fixtures for less money at Home Depot. You'll also need a thermostat to run it.
Next problem to help you correct. Babies should not be outside all day. This is bad for them. I've done multiple side-by-side comparisons with multiple species, including sulcatas, to reach this conclusion. Climate and weather don't matter either. They do better inside. My general rule of thumb is an hour of outside time in a safe enclosure per inch of tortoise. By the time they are 5-6 inches, I leave them outside all day, weather permitting, but still bring them in to their warm humid closed chambers at night.
That brings up the last point I'll make: They need a closed chamber, not an open topped tote. You can't maintain the correct conditions in an open topped enclosure.
Here is the most current and correct care info. Read this and then come back with all your questions:
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
thank you so much for the info the person I got them from was going to let them loose so I took them in I do have 4 acres of land for when they do get larger an I plan on separating them but I do have a 8x 8 enclosure outside an planing on expanding it when they get bigger with a wall in between it not exactly sure of the age just going off of what the person told me I want to try to give them the best life they can have I don’t think they had proper care when I received them they were living in a rabbit cage with no bedding an quite small but since I have had them since mid August They have grown quite a lot
What size are they?
