Hey!
My name is Alex, and I'm from Lisbon, Portugal.
I currently have two river cooter turtles, one has 6 years (Guigas) and the other one 4 (Sonasol).
For the past 2 years, I wanted to get a tortoise for some time and since we moved to an appartment with some available space last year, the gf suprised me and got me one.
She got me a baby sulcata (she really should've made some research before picking one of the biggest types) and it was love at first sight, I named him Lenny, he measures around 8cm and his weight is 70g.
He's currently on a 1,2m x 0.8m storage box, with a 150w ceramic heater,a UV light, where i keep the lid on, to better control temperature and humidity.
Now here comes the worriying part.
I do not own a yard, I plan on moving to a house with one in the future but that will take a couple of years, I can get/build him a bigger space for now though, but for how long can i keep him healthy and happy living indoors? My mom's house is a five minute drive, so i can go there with him on the weekends to get some natural light.
The second question is the one that keeps me up at night, I don't have kids (yet, I'm 27 so there's still time ) or anyone that would be willing to take care of him if anything were to happen to us and if everything goes fine, he should outlive me, right? Then what?
I'm really on the fence about keeping him because of my current condition, I've had animals my whole life and all of them were always treated like part of the family (maybe even better), but I'm a "worrier" by nature and and I want this little guy to have the best life he can get.
Please give me some good advice.
Thank you! and I apologize in advance for my english.
[Will post some pics later]
My name is Alex, and I'm from Lisbon, Portugal.
I currently have two river cooter turtles, one has 6 years (Guigas) and the other one 4 (Sonasol).
For the past 2 years, I wanted to get a tortoise for some time and since we moved to an appartment with some available space last year, the gf suprised me and got me one.
She got me a baby sulcata (she really should've made some research before picking one of the biggest types) and it was love at first sight, I named him Lenny, he measures around 8cm and his weight is 70g.
He's currently on a 1,2m x 0.8m storage box, with a 150w ceramic heater,a UV light, where i keep the lid on, to better control temperature and humidity.
Now here comes the worriying part.
I do not own a yard, I plan on moving to a house with one in the future but that will take a couple of years, I can get/build him a bigger space for now though, but for how long can i keep him healthy and happy living indoors? My mom's house is a five minute drive, so i can go there with him on the weekends to get some natural light.
The second question is the one that keeps me up at night, I don't have kids (yet, I'm 27 so there's still time ) or anyone that would be willing to take care of him if anything were to happen to us and if everything goes fine, he should outlive me, right? Then what?
I'm really on the fence about keeping him because of my current condition, I've had animals my whole life and all of them were always treated like part of the family (maybe even better), but I'm a "worrier" by nature and and I want this little guy to have the best life he can get.
Please give me some good advice.
Thank you! and I apologize in advance for my english.
[Will post some pics later]