Maberkin
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2017
- Messages
- 2
Hi - I've been lurking for a while, but this is my first post. We were given a sulcata about 4 months ago from a work friend of my husband's who was moving to a cold climate. We live in the Phoenix, AZ area. He said the tortoise (we renamed him Gordy) was about 1 year old. I recently weighed him, and he weighed 12 oz. I didn't measure him, but I'd guess he's about 6-7 inches.
Since it's summer here now, and getting pretty hot, we're trying to figure out whether it's ok for him to stay outside all day/night. He was outside for about a week straight, and I would only bring him in if it went below 70 at night. He has a good sized area of our yard fenced off and had a little shaded house made from a few bricks and a wooden roof for shade. But, since it's routinely above 100 these days, and will get above 110 eventually, I started worrying that even that shade wouldn't be enough for him. Also, I've been concerned about how dry it is here and what we can for humidity for him outside. So, my husband dug a burrow for him. He has shown no signs of digging himself, yet. We were hoping he would sleep in there at night and get cooled off during the day. However, the first problem we encountered was ants. They were everywhere! So, I read the forum and used the Terro liquid ant bait for several days. Finally, tonight we have put him back outside! (He seemed to be going crazy inside so much these last few days, so I don't know how he is feeling about things.) We tried putting him in the entrance of the burrow twice, and he kept coming out. Then, my husband found him sleeping out in the open in a corner by the wall. So, he put him even deeper in the burrow, thinking that since he was already asleep he would just stay in there. Well, he didn't. He's right back in that same corner. I'm just letting him sleep there tonight and hoping it's fine since the low will be 76 tonight.
My question is, is this normal? Is there something wrong with the burrow we built? What should we do to keep Gordy safe from the heat?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Since it's summer here now, and getting pretty hot, we're trying to figure out whether it's ok for him to stay outside all day/night. He was outside for about a week straight, and I would only bring him in if it went below 70 at night. He has a good sized area of our yard fenced off and had a little shaded house made from a few bricks and a wooden roof for shade. But, since it's routinely above 100 these days, and will get above 110 eventually, I started worrying that even that shade wouldn't be enough for him. Also, I've been concerned about how dry it is here and what we can for humidity for him outside. So, my husband dug a burrow for him. He has shown no signs of digging himself, yet. We were hoping he would sleep in there at night and get cooled off during the day. However, the first problem we encountered was ants. They were everywhere! So, I read the forum and used the Terro liquid ant bait for several days. Finally, tonight we have put him back outside! (He seemed to be going crazy inside so much these last few days, so I don't know how he is feeling about things.) We tried putting him in the entrance of the burrow twice, and he kept coming out. Then, my husband found him sleeping out in the open in a corner by the wall. So, he put him even deeper in the burrow, thinking that since he was already asleep he would just stay in there. Well, he didn't. He's right back in that same corner. I'm just letting him sleep there tonight and hoping it's fine since the low will be 76 tonight.
My question is, is this normal? Is there something wrong with the burrow we built? What should we do to keep Gordy safe from the heat?
Thanks in advance for your help!