Leopard tortoise outdoor habitat

[Sulli1423]

I have 2 leopard tortoises and I feel they are big enough to keep outdoors now so I made this “tortoise table” habitat for them and I was looking for some more advice.
I live in Orange County Southern California so temperature ranges from 70s-90s in spring and high 70s to 90s most of summer. I am currently only putting them out in the morning and bringing them to an indoor setup at night that has a ceramic heat emitter to keep temperatures up at night. My biggest concern is the humidity here stays pretty low most of the year any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Tom]

They are much too small to live outside full time yet. My general rule of thumb is one hour of outside time per inch of tortoise. You are correct that humidity is much too low for small growing babies like these.

The temps you quote are average highs. Its much cooler than that most of the day.

They should never be housed as a pair. Groups can sometimes work but not pairs.

I wouldn't use the pine leaves for bedding, and the perlite in that soil will kill them if they ever gain access to it.

These tortoises need to be housed mostly indoor in their own large closed chamber enclosures. They are already pyramiding and this is due to the incorrect housing. Most of the care advice you get for this species will be old and all wrong. We did it wrong for decades, and most people are still doing it wrong. This includes breeders, vets, and pet stores. Here is the correct care advice:

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

This may not be what you wanted to hear, but its what your torts needed you to hear. Questions are welcome.