Hello, we’ve recently moved, and I was just wondering if there was any way to encourage our sulcata to dig somewhere specific? He had some pretty large burrows where we previously lived, and I’d like for him to not dig against the new house or in the freshly turned over dirt over our septic system. If we can put a large pile of dirt in the middle of the yard and he’ll dig there, I’d like to do something like that!
Sulcata Digging
- Thread starter KatJ
- Start date
First, they should only be living in a burrow for the hottest part of the year. We are around 100 degrees every day here from the end of June to mid October most years. Outside of that, they sleep in their heated night boxes. How hot does it get there in summer? What are the typical overnight lows in summer? You may want to just discourage digging and teach the tortoise to use its heated shelter instead. You have a heated, insulated night box, right?
To encourage burrowing where I want it, I just start a hole with a sloped entrance, and usually, they will take over.
Oh yes! He has a heated night box, that was one of the first things that got built when we bought the house. He uses it every day and night, all year, but he definitely enjoys digging and making mud pits too. It can get in the upper 90s and very humid where we are during the day in the summer, and 70s at night.
