Tortoise Table!

[Jabbathetortiose]

Hi everybody I am thinking about making a tortoise table for my new pal Jabba, a baby sulcata tortoise. Inside of my house we usually keep it around 70 degrees, obviously I would include a heat lamp that he or she can bask in is enclosure but is that hit enough for it to live in?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Since you're making it, make it with a glass or plexiglass top.
Do a search for "closed chamber" enclosures.
Your Sulcata baby will need high humidity

 

[KarenSoCal]

The short answer is "no".

A baby tortoise needs to live in a closed chamber, not an open topped table. It is the only way to be able to control and maintain the temps and humidity he requires. 70° is not warm enough...no part of the enclosure should drop below 80° at any time, and the humidity should not go below 80%.

He also needs to have a UVB light...a fluorescent tube type T5 HO.

I'm linking a care sheet and several other threads for you to read. Then please come back with any questions or concerns that you have. We'll help you with what you need to buy.

Please don't ask pet shops for advice. Most employees have no idea how to care for a tortoise and only want to sell you something. Plus, there is so much old outdated info disguised as "advice". A lot of improvements have been made in tortoise husbandry in the last 10 years or so, but getting people to change their ways is difficult even when the proof of a better way is right in front of them.

We know those better ways, and they are in these care sheets. They are probably somewhat different than any others you've seen, but the methods are tried and true.

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Beginner Mistakes

To comment on Tom's article, go here: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-split-Beginner-Mistakes#axzz1tG8s05M5 Over the years many of us, myself included, have made many of these mistakes, and we have certainly seen them made many times by others. With springtime upon us and many new...

www.tortoiseforum.org

For Those Who Have a Young Sulcata...

Over and over I type up and answer diet questions and try to get people feeding the right stuff, but I find that the "norm" is grocery store food. Grocery store food is expensive, a hassle to obtain, and very low on the list of what is best for sulcatas. These tortoises are GRASS eaters. From...

tortoiseforum.org

Closed "Chambers"

Been meaning to do this one for a while now... Over the years I have kept a lot of reptiles in a lot of different ways. I've learned a lot of stuff about a lot of species. Since finding and joining this forum almost two years ago, I've learned a TON more. Now I'm not just stumbling around...

www.tortoiseforum.org

4 elements of heating: By Tom There are four elements to heating and lighting: Basking bulb. I use 65 watt floods from the hardware store. I run them on a timer and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT. Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html

 

[Jabbathetortiose]

Since you're making it, make it with a glass or plexiglass top.
Do a search for "closed chamber" enclosures.
Your Sulcata baby will need high humidity

Just as I thought, will be sure to include that. Thanks so much!