link for temps?

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Jenley

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Can someone post the link for all the temps and humidity levels for a sulcata? Thanks!:)
 

Tom

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There's no link for this. There are lots of websites, books vets, breeders and experts. For about 20 years they have been giving out the wrong info that was, and still is, based on incorrect assumptions and guesses. I know. I was one of them. The problem was that no matter how strictly I followed their advice, or whose advice I followed, every tortoise I attempted to raise was pyramided. I knew something was wrong, but it took a long time to put together all the pieces of the puzzle. I met and talked to many people over the years and witnessed first hand tortoises in a variety of situations, including the wild. With lots of help and input from others, as well as my own little experiments over the years, I was able to figure out what works, but there is still more to learn.

Wild sulcata babies hatch into the rainy season. It's hot, humid, rainy, marshy and there is green food growing everywhere. So much food that within two weeks after the rains come, you can't even find a baby sulcata. For some reason it has always been assumed that they should be kept hot and dry, but that is HIGHLY unnatural for them. People point out that the rainy season only lasts 3-4 months, and then it IS hot and dry in sulcata land, BUT the tortoises are underground in cooler, damp burrows for that entire time. They don't come above ground at all during the dry season. This info is mostly from my friend Tomas Diagne from Senegal who founded and runs the African Chelonian Institute. He's been studying wild sulcatas since he was a boy. He gave me a lot of the missing pieces to this puzzle.

So for a hatchling sulcata I like to keep a background ambient of no lower than 80 ever, even at night, and as high as the mid 90s during the day. This is most easily maintained in a closed chamber with a ceramic heating element set on a thermostat. I also offer a basking spot of around 100 during the day. I keep humidity around 80%, and offer a humid hide where humidity is near 100%. They have drinking water always available, get soaked and sunned daily, and I spray their shells with water several times a day. The above conditions simulate the natural conditions that wild sulcata babies hatch into. And it only took me 20 years to figure it out. :)
 

wellington

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You got one of the best answers from Tom. His threads are in my post by my signature and of course there are some in his post. Read them and follow them and you will have a healthy, smooth sulcata.
 
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