Hey all! My wife, 2 daughters and I live in the northern panhandle of WV and have owned many different herps in our lifetime. We have been sharing our home with a dog and an eastern painted turtle for the last few years and are interested in welcoming a tortoise into our home. We are looking for a tortoise that will grow to a larger size so it can roam our home freely and enjoy an outside pen during the warm summer days. We are currently looking at the sulcata species but are open to suggestions. We do want a breed we can litter train and will be large and bold enough to stand up to our dog, he is a nose box and is super curious of our painted when we let her roam our home but ignores her otherwise. We have a 120 gallon tank free to house a young tortoise until he or she is large enough to roam the house unsupervised and we are buying child safety gates to keep him or her out of danger from falling down the stairs. So, any suggestions on other breeds that may suit our wants and needs? Thanks!
New to this forum and looking to welcome a tortoise into our home!
- Thread starter Vampy609
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- Feb 21, 2013
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Hiya I am new to this but after doing a lot of research i have found that tortoises better kept in a table and not a tank
Tanks are not suitable homes for tortoises but a table is relativley cheap to buy/make
xx
Tanks are not suitable homes for tortoises but a table is relativley cheap to buy/make
xx
Hi Vampy, and welcome to the Forum!!
In my opinion, tortoises do not belong on the floor of the house. There are many reasons, I'll just give you a couple.
The first reason, and most important TO ME is that the tortoise is very curious and, only thinking of its stomach, will try to eat anything it finds on the floor. This includes dust bunnies, small bits of plastic, wires, etc. and included in this first reason is the fact that the floor is cold. A cold blooded animal requires a place to sit in the "sun" (or sun facimile) to warm his body up to at least 90F degrees.
The second reason is the poop and pee. You can't paper/litter train a tortoise. And believe me when I say, a sulcata pees A LOT!!! I have a winter-time house on my car port for a sulcata with access for the tortoise to go out into the back yard on warm days. When he pees inside his house it runs out under the wall of the house across the double car car port and into the flower bed.
Tortoises are much happier when you give them a habitat that belongs just to them. Their own space. They are creatures of habit and enjoy living in their own territory. So, a tort table in the house for inclement weather, and a nice, safe, fenced yard for good days outside.
In my opinion, tortoises do not belong on the floor of the house. There are many reasons, I'll just give you a couple.
The first reason, and most important TO ME is that the tortoise is very curious and, only thinking of its stomach, will try to eat anything it finds on the floor. This includes dust bunnies, small bits of plastic, wires, etc. and included in this first reason is the fact that the floor is cold. A cold blooded animal requires a place to sit in the "sun" (or sun facimile) to warm his body up to at least 90F degrees.
The second reason is the poop and pee. You can't paper/litter train a tortoise. And believe me when I say, a sulcata pees A LOT!!! I have a winter-time house on my car port for a sulcata with access for the tortoise to go out into the back yard on warm days. When he pees inside his house it runs out under the wall of the house across the double car car port and into the flower bed.
Tortoises are much happier when you give them a habitat that belongs just to them. Their own space. They are creatures of habit and enjoy living in their own territory. So, a tort table in the house for inclement weather, and a nice, safe, fenced yard for good days outside.
rachael mac said:
Sorry. The opposite is true. Especially if we are talking about a small sulcata.
Vampy609 said:
Welcome to the forum. I applaud your effort to learn and get advice ahead of time. Here is mine:
1. I agree with Yvonne. I have seen too many tortoises get sick or injured or impacted by free roaming inside a house. Its just not a good situation. Add to that, my 70-80 pound sulcatas poop more than my 145 pound great dane. I like to have an indoor enclosure for nights and cold weather, and an outdoor enclosure for fair weather, for a young sulcata. Once they reach 8-10", I move them outside permanently with a temp controlled "dog house" kind of a situation.
2. No tortoise is going to "stand up" to a dog. Keep your dog and tortoise separate unless you are there every single second to supervise. This forum is full of tragic stories of nice, well behaved, family dogs chewing up tortoises. Even large tortoises can be chewed on by a dog. Please don't put a tortoise in that situation.
3. Your 120 will work fine for a few months, but then you will likely need a bigger enclosure indoors for a while until you are ready to make the jump to outside full time. They grow fast if cared for well.
Good luck and I hope this helps.
Hi Rachael...just to expand a bit on what Tom said:
It's pretty hard to keep the humidity and heat up where it needs to be for a baby sulcata (or any baby for that matter), in a tort table. So in my opinion, babies do much better in a tank or small plastic tote. One of the reasons we used to say (in the olden days) that aquariums are not good for tortoises, is because they can see out and keep trying to go through the glass. A paper wrapped around the outside fixes that problem. Another reason was that there was no air exchange. So what? Just lift the lid occasionally for some fresh air.
It's pretty hard to keep the humidity and heat up where it needs to be for a baby sulcata (or any baby for that matter), in a tort table. So in my opinion, babies do much better in a tank or small plastic tote. One of the reasons we used to say (in the olden days) that aquariums are not good for tortoises, is because they can see out and keep trying to go through the glass. A paper wrapped around the outside fixes that problem. Another reason was that there was no air exchange. So what? Just lift the lid occasionally for some fresh air.
emysemys said:
Thank you for adding some much needed tact and your usual grace..
Thank you all for your input thus far; would you suggest something smaller, a leopard tort perhaps, be more suitable to my situation? During the summer keeping a tort outside will be no problem, but I am in the mountains and it often reaches sub zero temps here. The tort would never be fully unsupervised as I am a stay at home dad. or house monster as we like to call it. I just want whatever species we finally come to choose to be happy in our situation and able to be housed in the 120 if need be, and allow it to roam the house during the day. Thanks for the heads up with the dog issue, I will make sure to never leave them to their own devices although I am sure my dog would adjust to the presence of the tort over time, he is curious and young but listens well to training. I really do appreciate all of your advice and ask that you please continue to do so. Thanks!
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