Soon to be new Sulcata mom...Help!

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ShreksMom

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Hello Everyone,
My wife and I are adopting our cousins 16yo, 60lb Sulcata since she is moving from CA to PA and we are going back to our home in FL from NY. We have been going crazy on the web trying to suck in all the info we can on Sulcatas before we get him. Any info to perhaps ease our minds would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!! :shy:
 

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Yvonne G

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Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Provide a large outdoor space, preferably the whole back yard, with a safe fence that the tortoise can't see through or dig under. Make sure the gates close and that no one leaves them open accidentally. Figure out a large waterer that he is able to climb into and out of on his own. Hopefully there will be plenty of grass and weeds for the tortoise to graze on. If your night time temps get much below 50F degrees, you may need to provide a heated house for those nights.
 

wellington

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Hello and Welcome and Congrats. :). Check out some of Maggie3fan threads about Bob. Cemmons12 threads about his young biggen, Cooper. For housing ideas, check out some of Toms enclosure, hide box threads. Others will be on to add their experiences.
 

ShreksMom

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Yvonne G said:
Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Provide a large outdoor space, preferably the whole back yard, with a safe fence that the tortoise can't see through or dig under. Make sure the gates close and that no one leaves them open accidentally. Figure out a large waterer that he is able to climb into and out of on his own. Hopefully there will be plenty of grass and weeds for the tortoise to graze on. If your night time temps get much below 50F degrees, you may need to provide a heated house for those nights.
Thanks Yvonne! We are planning on making him a very nice large enclosure when we get back to FL in a few weeks. Is an 8'x8' ok for him here in NY for the next few weeks? We do have a huge yard here but I don't want to go building his perm home until we get to FL.
 

wellington

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Your 8x8 will be fine for a few weeks. Be sure to post pics of him and his new enclosure when you get back to Florida.


Oh, and I have heard that they always poop in a car ride, so be very prepared for that long car ride to Florida:D
 

ShreksMom

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GREAT!! Thanks Wellington.... oh and I'm so looking forward to that car ride. LOL... Thanks for the heads up. Should I put him in something for the trip or just the back of my sportage? (covered in plastic of course :(
 

mainey34

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Hello....do you know the size of this big boy? An 8x8 might be too small for him. How are you planning on traveling with him? That is going to be a long drive, it will need some thought. I know there are some members here that have experience here that will help. Taking him to Florida is a big change, but it will be a good one...
 

ShreksMom

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According to my cousin he is 22" head to back of shell, 14" wide and from ventral to dorsal 10". The 8x8 is only for 2 weeks until we leave for FL. I've added a picture of what we want to build for him in FL minus the sand.
 

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wellington

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mainey34 said:
Hello....do you know the size of this big boy? An 8x8 might be too small for him. How are you planning on traveling with him? That is going to be a long drive, it will need some thought. I know there are some members here that have experience here that will help. Taking him to Florida is a big change, but it will be a good one...

The 8x8 is only a temp enclosure until they move to Florida in a couple weeks.


The Florida enclosure may be too small. At least it looks too small in the pic.
 

ShreksMom

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wellington I was thinking of making it wider... maybe 20'long by 8-10' wide, what do you think?
 

AnnV

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I'm kind of curious about the type of housing he has been raised in. Sorry I have no experience or advice.

Ann from CT
 

ShreksMom

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Aw that's ok Ann.... I'm not sure as a hatchling but he is currently in my cousins yard in CA. She was living in PA when she got him. So I'm going to say a tank. Then her aunt had him for 3 years in NJ, prob still in a tank. Then she took him to CA where he has been in a yard. From what I know so far he really grew once he was in CA. Go figure
 

Levi the Leopard

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Re: RE: Soon to be new Sulcata mom...Help!

ShreksMom said:
wellington I was thinking of making it wider... maybe 20'long by 8-10' wide, what do you think?

To compare, my 4 Russians live in an outdoor pen that is 20'long by 6'wide. That size works great for them but I can't imagine a sulcata in there..even if it was a few feet wider.

That size of a sully really will need lots more room than that.

Do you already know where you will be living in FL? Is the entire yard an option?

Heather
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Tom

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Hello and welcome. Just a few pointers:
1. Find a source for grass hay. Its a great food for the big ones when you start to run short on real grass and weeds. Also look into planting some spineless opuntia cactus pads once you get to FL. Mulberry leaves are another good one.
2. You will need a much larger enclosure than that one one in the pic, and ideally it will be heavily planted and have trees for shade and cover. That one is far too out in the open. I like to wrap my enclosures around buildings or structures, so they can always find sun or shade.
You'll need to build him a night box for sleeping and winter time. Something like this:
rk546c.jpg

Here's another idea: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-66867.html
3. For water you can use a very large plant saucer or a plastic trash can lid semi-buried into the ground. I found a source for pizza dough trays that work very well.
4. For the drive I'd use a big cement mixing tub. They cost about $12 at Home Depot. Bring a hose with a nozzle too. You'll need to stop and rinse several times during your trip.
 

ShreksMom

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Heather,
We do have a house already in FL unfortunately the whole yard is not an option. We have 3 small dogs that need a portion of the yard for their business and a huge in ground pool in the middle of it. 20x10 may be the biggest we can give him. I will know better once we get down there. I've been in NY for a few years and don't remember the exact measurements of the yard.
 

wellington

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Of course bigger is always better, but not always an option for a lot of us. I would think, if you can't really do a whole large yard, a 10 or if you could do 12x20 would be fine. I don't have a sully, so I am just going on what I have seen on here. Some have larger, some smaller. I almost got a sully, before I decided on my leopard instead. S/he would have been housed in a 8x12 shed for winter and have a 24x ruffly 30 foot yard once he got to be adult size. Some of that 30 is unusable by a tort. Give it the biggest you can and I'm sure he will adjust and be happy. You can always let him out into your part of the yard, supervised of course, to get some new terrain to explore:D
 
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