How big do I need of an enclosure.
- Thread starter Harish
- Start date
Age means little with tortoises. Depending upon how they were cared for, the size can vary from 5" and 1 lb to 20" and 35 lbs at 2-1/2 years old with a sulcata.
So normally a healthy 2-1/2 year old needs to live outdoors in a large yard with heated night box. If indoors, it would need a full room at least 12 x 12 feet. But that should just be temporary as they need more room than that to move around. A healthy sulcata is a very active tortoise. In a large 1/4 acre enclosure they will spend a good deal of their time wandering around pacing the entire enclosure. They will use the entire area. They like to move and walk! It is good for them for digestion and gut motility and for proper bone and muscle development.
Would 6 by 6 be fine
Our even smaller and how to heat that big of a area
No. 6x4 would work for a night box. But for an enclosure to live in, I would want at least 500 sq ft. And that is really too small. They are active and destructive. The will overgraze anything at even 500 sq ft. Active grazing throughout the day is an important activity an should be a goal of designing an enclosure for a sulcata.
You are realizing the reality of trying to house a large, tropical tortoise in a much colder climate.
Here is the way it should be done with access to a large yard when weather permits...
Indoor room for my large torts
Mulch is in. The area by the door will be framed with rock , so you don’t open the door and the torts will be in the way. The area in the middle will be a soaking pond I wish I could give my leopard a home like that.
www.tortoiseforum.org
