ok a need help BAD

[joey62172]

hello help please I hava a africa sulcata tortoise named speedy
and he is gettin too big for his glass cage, I want to put him outside I live in western arizona although the summers are hot, the winters are cold like mid 50's 60's 70's and everything that i have read says they cant be colder than 70 degrees?? and we dont have a bunch of $$ for elaborate heating stuff, so any help would be great..
thank you

 

[katesgoey]

There are several ways you can supply a heated outdoor enclosure. You can check out the enclosures thread and see different set ups for an outside heated shelter. I have Leopard tortoises which have similar needs to the sulcata. I try to keep the heat at 60 degrees or above inside the sheds by the lamps I use. It is usually around 65 to 68 degrees inside. I use a Rubbermaid shed that has been insulated with plywood and insulation in between the shed wall and the plywood. I use two types of heating - a black light and a ceramic heat emitter. You can use something less expensive - a used dog house or dog igloo for example or you can make your own from plywood. Depending on the size of your sulcata, you can also use a turned over wooden box or something similar. You can also use a pig blanket if your sulcata isn't too small - so what size is your sulcata now?

 

[Yvonne G]

I have taken in abandoned (then found) sulcatas that have made it through our cold winters here in Central Calif. One in particular comes to mind:

I received a call from a lady who found a little sulcata in the back yard of the house next door. She had been commissioned to clean up the house and yard, which had been vacant for three years. When she was cleaning up the back yard she found a little soft-ball sized sulcata...my guess was probably about 4 or 5 years old. There had been no one living in the house for three years. The baby was probably lost in the back yard when they moved. The tortoise had a burrow under the cement foundation of the house and survived three winters with no heat besides the sun.

When you have fairly mild winters, such as you have in Arizona, one thing that you can do is buy one of those deVilbis (I think that's how you spell it) oil filled electric heaters. They have two settings, one for economy. If you build the outdoor house over bare dirt and allow the tortoise to start a burrow inside the house, then the heater will keep the air in the house warm, and no cold air will go down into the burrow. Its always warmer underground anyway. And those heaters only cost about $40. Very economical to run too, when set on the economy setting.

Your little sulcata might be better kept indoors this winter because its too late in the season for him to acclimate. Try to find a plastic tote that is larger than his current housing, just to tide you over until you can get him outside next spring. If your winters are only down in the 50's, he'll do quite ok outside next year. And whoever told you to keep them 70 or above didn't really know what they were talking about. As long as the night temp outside isn't below 55 or 60 degrees, he'll be fine. But he has to be acclimated to living outside before you allow him to get that cold.

Yvonne

 

[DAC8671]

We live in Southern CA (San Diego) so it sounds like our temps are about the same right now. Though, this morning when I walked out it was 47 degrees.

I've had my sulcata outside 24/7 since last summer. I have an extra large dogloo that I bought off craigs list (not bad for $25). We fixed a heat lamp inside of it (I'll try to find the post where I showed pictures). His substrate is only timothy hay. I cut a plastic shower curtain liner into strips, then double/triple them. During the winter I put it up on the door to the dogloo, putting a heavy towel over that at night. The towel comes off during the day, but not the shower curtain liner.

His enclosure is about 15 feet long, 6 feet wide. It's partially on cement, most of it on the grass. I have a patio umbrella for shade, as well as some boards that make a crude "table" if you will, so he can go under it for shade. Also this year I've added large potted plants (dwarf orange tree, rose bush, hibiscus) in LARGE pots so he can sit in the shade. The pots are large enough he can't get to the plant (but he'd love to try and get at the hibiscus).

Last year when he was put out all the time, he was 4 yrs old and about 12-15 pounds. He was approximately 10-12 inches in length.

Last winter we got more rain and COLD temps than normal so I brought him the garage with a heater. It really worried me because he wouldn't move too much or eat. I gave him some good soakings and he was eating again.

This year we are supposed to have a "bad" winter with heavy rains and wind. We are in the process of building an A-Frame out of pvc pipe and putting clear plastic over it. Somewhat like a green house. So it can break the winds and will not allow the rains to completely soak him. We are also considering building him a bigger shed-type house so he can have more room. I'd like to add a "porch" for days when it's not completely sunny, so he doesn't have to sit in a dark shed. He can come sit on the "patio" with a heat lamp and UVB lamp when he eats.

 

[dmmj]

Cheap enclosures. you can always advertise on freecycle or Craiglist for people who no longer want thier old bookcases.