Water Dish

[Sulcata Lover]

Hello,
I have a 5 year old female, about 5-6 LBS. and she loves to soak and play in the water. My problem is she dumps the water dish as soon as she steps in it. Does anyone have any suggestions for a more stable dish, without digging a mudpit..

Thanks
Jeff

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Jeff: You don't say how you are keeping the tortoise, but if you were to dig the dish down into the substrate, it couldn't tip when the tortoise steps on the side. For my smaller animals, I use a plant saucer. Just scrape away some of the substrate, place the saucer then move the substrate back to the sides of the saucer. Impossible to tip it.

Yvonne

 

[janiedough]

I don't know if this would be feasible - but what about placing a river slate or tile in the bottom to weigh it down - the slate should be flat enough not to keep the sulcata from soaking.

 

[aka2tal]

What i found that works best, is the clay saucers that go under flower pots. Get a 16 inch and a 14 inch. Put the 16 inch in the ground, buried even with the substrate. Place the 14 inch inside the 16 inch saucer. The 16 inch saucer helps to hold the 14 inch saucer from tipping over. When you clean out the water dish, you lift the 14 inch saucer out, but leave the 16 inch. You will find that the bottom saucer does get water trapped in it, but I have found this process to be the best and easiest water dish for my Sulcatas.

If you go to the ENCLOSURES secton of this website, you can see pictures of my enclosure. I believe the chat is called "My Enclosure in Los Angeles"

Hope this helps.

David

 

[Sulcata Lover]

Her substrate is organic soil with a playsand mixture. I have her outside in a large pen she shares with our other sulcata "Rocky".. Rocky is quite a bit smaller than Peek-a-Boo, so I haven't had the water dish issue with him yet.
I will try sinking a clay pot in the substrate and see if that works.

Jeff

2 sulcata's: Rocky and Peek-A Boo

 

[Laura]

For the bigger ones.. I have a garbage can lid..and the Real big ones.. I concreted a larger area witha slight concave to it..

 

[Itort]

Another option for a tort that size is a catch basin for a water heater. They are large, shallow, and come in metal or heavy plastic.

 

[Crazy1]

Thank you Itort. I have a very large plastic plant saucer. After one year outside (CA summers) the plastic has become brittle. A metal catch basin for a water heater will work perfectly. Mine are outside and sunk into the dirt. the rim just slightly above the dirt line. Never had one tip dug in like that and mine are about 25 inches around for my large adult DTs.