Need help planning ahead with my Sulcata move

[nguyenda]

It's been over 2 weeks with my new sulcata, about 3.5 inches. I currently have him in a temporary closed indoor chamber made of two of the same plastic tubs, 3 feet by 1 feet, 6 inches.
We plan to move him soon, in a month or so. My father is against a wooden enclosure, which I said could be a lot more flexible to build for and we have space for him in a certain room, but he disagrees. He rather have it in between two couches sitting in a corner of the living room in a glass terrarium. He has a friend who can build a quality tank with thick glass. He is planning to have him make one that is 4 by 2.5 ft.

Questions:
- Is a 4 by 2.5 ft glass terrarium with closed top, be enough room for my 3.5-4.0 inch Sulcata? (I can possibly convince him to move the couches to have a 4 by 3 feet glass terrarium)
- Is there anything wrong with a glass enclosure? I can only think of positives since it will retain humidity and heat.
- If you were to guess by average Sulcata growth, how long will it take until he has to be moved into something bigger?
- At what size/age is the closed chamber aspect of an enclosure not needed, specifically to control humidity?
- How much time do you think until he is 8 inches and moved outdoors?

 

[vladimir]

I'm still new so I'll defer to the experts, but some thoughts:

* if he can see out it will cause him to pace the perimeter of the enclosure looking for a way out.
* that size may be enough for now, but i suspect within a year it will no longer be big enough.

I'll let others answer about the humidity / closed chamber stuff. I believe the growth rate all depends. For example, we adopted our sulcata when it was about 4 pounds a little over a year ago. He was probably 8" or so then. When we got him he was in a glass enclosure that was about the size of a 40 gallon aquarium. We upgraded him to a 110 gallon stock tank, then to a 300 gallon stock tank within 6 months. I'm not in the process of building him an 8x16 indoor enclosure, as he just broke 15 pounds and is getting too big for the 300 gallon stock tank. That tank is about 4x6 feet for comparison.

I hope this helps. I can only recommend you go as big as possible, as early as possible.