Keep in current covered enclosure or own room?

[bananaphone]

Hi, so I currently have my sulcata in a kiddie pool in my kitchen by a big window. Only thing is its covered by those white plastic egg crates due to my cats wanting to **** in the substrate. The good thing is my sulcata gets pretty much a full days worth of natural direct sunlight where she is now, the bad thing is there is just a few inches of space between her and the covers and she is constantly trying to get out of the tank, and I know how lame low ceilings can be for humans so I'm sure shes not the most thrilled.

Now, another issue is, I think she might be getting too big for the pool as well, so I can either try to make a slightly bigger area for her, like 4x6 and covered/surrounded by the white crates and I could make them higher this time, but it would look like i have a big *** white cage in my kitchen.

Or, I could put her in a spare room, make a much bigger area for her, possibly as big as 4ftwidex8ftlong, by a window that gets some sunlight but not much(get uvb) but she would be by herself 85% of the time. I would just be going in to feed and when I occasionally use the room for work stuff.

what would be better?

Or if anyone has any other suggestion as to what I should do please let me know.

 

[Gillian M]

Hi, so I currently have my sulcata in a kiddie pool in my kitchen by a big window. Only thing is its covered by those white plastic egg crates due to my cats wanting to **** in the substrate. The good thing is my sulcata gets pretty much a full days worth of natural direct sunlight where she is now, the bad thing is there is just a few inches of space between her and the covers and she is constantly trying to get out of the tank, and I know how lame low ceilings can be for humans so I'm sure shes not the most thrilled.

Now, another issue is, I think she might be getting too big for the pool as well, so I can either try to make a slightly bigger area for her, like 4x6 and covered/surrounded by the white crates and I could make them higher this time, but it would look like i have a big *** white cage in my kitchen.

Or, I could put her in a spare room, make a much bigger area for her, possibly as big as 4ftwidex8ftlong, by a window that gets some sunlight but not much(get uvb) but she would be by herself 85% of the time. I would just be going in to feed and when I occasionally use the room for work stuff.

what would be better?

Or if anyone has any other suggestion as to what I should do please let me know.

Welcome to the forum!

Please post pics of your tort and her enclosure. This will enable us to help you more easily. And keep in mind that the bigger the enclosure the better: torts are used to living in the wild where they roam around without borders/boundaries.

Please read the "Beginners Mistakes" Thread and the care sheets, and give your tort daily soaks in warm water, so as to avoid dehydration and pyramiding.

 

[JoesMum]

Hi there

UVB does not pass through window glass. If your tort does not get outside then you must have a UVB lamp. The light through a window is nice to see by, but contributes nothing to a tort's health. Indeed the greenhouse effect of sunlight through a window means a tort can overheat there as it's impossible to control temperature like you can with a basking lamp.

How big is your sullie? What is the Straight Carapace Length (SCL)?

4'x8' is the minimum recommended for a smaller tort. Sullies don't stay small for long and need outdoor space.

 

[bananaphone]

I will take pics in the morning. But its a pretty easy decision, I'm going to put her in the spare room with as big of an area as I can. I figure some sort of setup from here would work great, and I can't believe I didn't think of it before considering I fostered a guinea pig for like 6 months.

http://www.guineapigcagesstore.com/

 

[Tom]

I will take pics in the morning. But its a pretty easy decision, I'm going to put her in the spare room with as big of an area as I can. I figure some sort of setup from here would work great, and I can't believe I didn't think of it before considering I fostered a guinea pig for like 6 months.

http://www.guineapigcagesstore.com/

Those cages are not designed and not suitable for a tortoise.

Where are you and what size is your tortoise?

 

[HuskyDaneMom]

Tom,

Those cages were clearly not designed for tortoises but I have seen many that were designed for tortoises and many would say they aren't suitable.

Looking at these cages, what makes them unsuitable? I am not trying to be argumentative, just want to see if I am getting better at understanding tortoise needs.

I would say the walls may not be high enough at 6 inches and the folded corners may leak when the substrate is wetted down for humidity. But those issues may be able to be overcome.

What are your concerns with using them?

 

[BrianWI]

I think the cart is ahead of the horse a bit here. To get the best answer, it would be best to know age, size, location of this tortoise.

 

[Yvonne G]

Tom,

Those cages were clearly not designed for tortoises but I have seen many that were designed for tortoises and many would say they aren't suitable.

Looking at these cages, what makes them unsuitable? I am not trying to be argumentative, just want to see if I am getting better at understanding tortoise needs.

I would say the walls may not be high enough at 6 inches and the folded corners may leak when the substrate is wetted down for humidity. But those issues may be able to be overcome.

What are your concerns with using them?

My concerns would be that the tortoise can see out and would be trying to climb or burrow through to get out.

Is it at all possible to get this tortoise outside for the rest of the summer? This gives you a few more weeks to figure out the indoor problem for when the weather turns.