Indoor Tortoise Table

[Danielle95045]

I currently have a 6 month old Sulcata in a 10 gallon aquarium (he also has an outdoor pen 2'x3' for warm days.) I am planning on building him a tortoise table but I have a couple questions.

1.)I saw someone use a paint roller pan as a water dish and thought this was a great idea cause its slanted for easy access in and our with a sort of ramp. anyone disagree with using this?

2.)Also I currently I am using grass hay as his substrate is this bad? should I try something else?

3.) am worried if I make my table as large as I would like to(2'X3') that I will have trouble keeping the whole thing at the correct temparture. Is it bad for a portion of the table to drop below 75degrees and be more closer to room tempature @ 60-65? I dont want to have to have more than 2 lamps. 1 uvb and 1 heat. Thoughts on this issue?

4.)Finally should his hut be on the cool side or the warm side of his enclosure?

Thanks

 

[Danielle95045]

No one has any advise or answers for the questions that I have? Please any help is better than nothing! Thanks

 

[Kalgodric]

Im kinda new here so please take that into account with my advice, there are alot of people here with alot more exp than I have so hopefully they will read this and give their opinions too...taking that in mind hehe here is my advice.

1. I think the slanted water dish is a great idea, it seems like it would avoid some of the danger of the tort flipping over and not being able to flip back over. I added a piece of slate rock thats kinda stepped so Bodhi can get into and out of his big water dish for just that purpose.

2.From what I have read here, I think the hay is wrong for him. Its to dry for the young torts, they need humidity. I saw told dry was good for them when I got Bodhi at the pet store so started with dry pellets as his substrate, but when i started doing research I found that the humidity was super important to young torts so I switched to Coco Corr (Coconut husks). It is easy to work with, Bodhi loves digging in it and it keeps the humidity up in his room (we pour water on it once every couple of days). The higher the humidity the less stress on the young tort, I guess that changes later on in their life but Im not sure when.

3. you should look at a hot side and a cool side of his room. so you should be able to concentrate your heat on one end and hopefully solve some of your problems there. If you ant to go with a table that big (seems like a good idea seeing that the tort will grow that big eventually any way) you might look at a heat pad or ceramic heater to help up the temp without adding lights.

4.I dont know what everyone else thinks about this, but we put Bodhi's hide closer to his hot side so that his night time temps dont get to low.

I hope this helps and I would love to hear what everyone else thinks.

 

[Danielle95045]

THank you so much this was all very helpful. Where do you buy coco Corr? pet stores sell it? like petsmart? Again thanks you for your wonderful response.

 

[acrantophis]

I would worry that grass/hay would be too dry For your sulcata. Also I have only seen large paint trays. In a 2x3 table the water dish would take up too large a portion. Try a round base from a plant pot. Not terra cotta, as it may not hold the water. I used topsoil and orchid bark mixed for my sulcata when it was indoors and it worked great. A cool area is fine as long as there is a larger portion of warmth. One heat lamp is all I ever use for one animal. If you could make the cage bigger it would be best. Your tortoise will outgrow it so fast it will amaze you. I had to build 3 tables before I put her outside permanently

 

[dmarcus]

You can get coco coir from pets mart. Hay is not good as substrate because you need a substrate that will stay moist to keep the humidity up, this is important for a hatchling.

The paint roller pan will work, I have used it before. Just make sure it's not over slanted because they can be slippery.

mantaining the heat and humidity can be done in a big indoor enclosure, it just takes a little work to get everything adjusted to where you want, but it is possible.

 

[Blakem]

I don't know where you are from, but I found coco coir for 13$ at a hardware store and it made plenty for my 3x3 tank.