Oh where do I start???
A few months ago my friend kept spotting a tortoise in his backyard and eventually I found it one night. I decided to take him home and give him shelter and food as his backyard was quite barren aside for a nice patch of grass where the kids' playset was. I did a little research and discovered he was a sulcata. I set him up with a large footprint sterlite sweater tub, some Eco earth, random piles of orchard grass to munch on and a basking lamp with uv. I chop him up a fat salad everyday and sprinkle it with Repashy Crested Gecko diet( I have an abundance).
Shellbert(my tortoise) has grown quite well in the past few months. His shell looks amazing compared to it's drab, flat, and chipped up former self and seems to be filling out quite well. He seems stronger, more active and attentive to everything.
Now for the problems(which is mostly me not him). I get annoyed of his digging and pushing the corners incessantly. His basking spot gets up to 100 degrees and the cool side 77. He does this at random corners even at the hot side. From my experience with other reptiles this means he is not happy. So have started taking him and leaving him in the backyard for a few hours a day so he can explore and what not, then bring him as night falls. I live in Phoenix, Arizona and summer is nearing. My bedroom where his mainstay is gets to 82 degrees and I switch off all my other infra red lamps and heat pads used for the other critters but his because he needs that uv but with the temperature climbing his best lamp boosts my room temperature and his light gets too hot. It would be awesome if he could live in the backyard but Phoenix summer temps top out at 120 with a norm of 90s. I'm getting frustrated and don't think I can handle caring for him until I die as he will surely out live me. I love the little punk but I want him to be in a better situation and I want to free up some responsibility on my plate as he is the only one that needs daily care besides my fish. What do I do??
Almost forgot he is about 5" from vent to snout.
A few months ago my friend kept spotting a tortoise in his backyard and eventually I found it one night. I decided to take him home and give him shelter and food as his backyard was quite barren aside for a nice patch of grass where the kids' playset was. I did a little research and discovered he was a sulcata. I set him up with a large footprint sterlite sweater tub, some Eco earth, random piles of orchard grass to munch on and a basking lamp with uv. I chop him up a fat salad everyday and sprinkle it with Repashy Crested Gecko diet( I have an abundance).
Shellbert(my tortoise) has grown quite well in the past few months. His shell looks amazing compared to it's drab, flat, and chipped up former self and seems to be filling out quite well. He seems stronger, more active and attentive to everything.
Now for the problems(which is mostly me not him). I get annoyed of his digging and pushing the corners incessantly. His basking spot gets up to 100 degrees and the cool side 77. He does this at random corners even at the hot side. From my experience with other reptiles this means he is not happy. So have started taking him and leaving him in the backyard for a few hours a day so he can explore and what not, then bring him as night falls. I live in Phoenix, Arizona and summer is nearing. My bedroom where his mainstay is gets to 82 degrees and I switch off all my other infra red lamps and heat pads used for the other critters but his because he needs that uv but with the temperature climbing his best lamp boosts my room temperature and his light gets too hot. It would be awesome if he could live in the backyard but Phoenix summer temps top out at 120 with a norm of 90s. I'm getting frustrated and don't think I can handle caring for him until I die as he will surely out live me. I love the little punk but I want him to be in a better situation and I want to free up some responsibility on my plate as he is the only one that needs daily care besides my fish. What do I do??
Almost forgot he is about 5" from vent to snout.