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Kathleen Castaneda

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Hello, my name is Kathleen from Florida. My mother has given me custody of her tortoise, Hatch. She's 8 years old and beautiful. Her home with Mom was in California, she was flown to me over night and is adjusting it seems well here in FL. Our weather is much warmer during the year, and during the summer quite humid. I don't want her to over-heat and was hoping I could get advice, other than the usual, "she loves her showers", and making sure she has adequate shade. She will and does live outside at the present, other accommodations will be made if/when we have colder weather, which isn't often. Is a fan ok for constant air flow, or misters, any advice is most helpful, thank you.
 

wellington

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Hello and Welcome:D Take a look at Toms thread for his night box designs. He lives in Cali with Sulcatas and uses these boxes for the colder nights too. Some of his threads are below in my post.
 

Dizisdalife

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Welcome to the forum. Hatch will do just fine in Florida. Even in warm weather a secure sleeping area is advisable. Mine has a 4'x8'x2' high insulated box that also has a heater controlled by thermostat. My night time temps are still 60ish, so the heat does come on a bit still. It is located in the shadiest part of the yard so that the sun doesn't over heat it during the day. Here is a link to how to construct such a house and a few more details: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/my-best-night-box-design-yet.66867/

Many of our sulcata keepers have adopted this design and modified it to meet their needs. Fun project.
 

bouaboua

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Hello and Welcome Kathleen from Florida. Good to have you here and care to share some photo of Hatch??

Good to have you here.
 

mary t

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Welcome. I am also in florida. Central between Tampa and Orlando. I have a 10 year old male named Willie. We constructed a house for him. It has an oil filled heater for winter. I try not to let his temps get below 65 during our winters. Tom has excellent info. I wouldn't have made it through my first two years after I adopted Willie without Tom and others of course!
 

Grandpa Turtle 144

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Hello Kathleen welcome to the TFO from AZ .


Sent from my iPhone using TortForum
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Kathleen, and welcome to the forum!

I'm assuming, from your avatar picture, that Hatch is a sulcata? He should be just fine in Florida. We have many Florida members. Like what was said above, Tom has some good threads on keeping sulcatas and on enclosures and houses for them. You can find most of Tom's threads at the top of the Sulcata section here on the Forum.
 
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