Housing Sulcatas Together?

nootnootbu

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I'm working down in Senoia right now. Its cold, rainy and miserable at the moment here. We did have some nice days last week though...

I just built an outdoor box for some friends here. They have two adult sulcatas, so I made a box with a divider in it, very similar to this one:

This looks very nice. Their current enclosure has a box about like this, but it's not heated at all. I'm concerned as the previous owner had them no form of night heat and said she was cutting off all lights at night.

I have CHE's in the mail right now for them, and should have them here in a couple of days. Thankfully, our nights aren't too chilly right now, and they are in the house.
 

nootnootbu

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For the sulcatas, she had one basking bulb which is a combo heat lamp/UV light, and also a long tube UVB light, but that bulb is blown. It's a 40 inch long bulb too, and I can't seem to find a bulb of that size to replace it with. I have 4 fixtures and extra bulbs on the way also.

The red foots had a dual hood with a bright basking bulb and a compact reptisun uvb. I'm replacing these with CHE for heat and the long high output UVB lamp/bulb that are on their way.
 

Tom

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This looks very nice. Their current enclosure has a box about like this, but it's not heated at all. I'm concerned as the previous owner had them no form of night heat and said she was cutting off all lights at night.

I have CHE's in the mail right now for them, and should have them here in a couple of days. Thankfully, our nights aren't too chilly right now, and they are in the house.
Night boxes should be dark, but not cold. That is why the two different heating methods are recommended. Safe, effective, dark.

CHEs and heat lamps should not be use over larger tortoises. They will damage the carapace and they are not generally effective either. Use something safer and more effective.

Its too chilly in your house too without some supplemental heat. They need to be kept at least 80 year round. Ground temps, which is where they live in the Sahel region, underground, are 80-85 year round there. Plus they can bask every day at the mouth of their burrow since every day is near 100 degrees year round.
 

nootnootbu

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Night boxes should be dark, but not cold. That is why the two different heating methods are recommended. Safe, effective, dark.

CHEs and heat lamps should not be use over larger tortoises. They will damage the carapace and they are not generally effective either. Use something safer and more effective.

Its too chilly in your house too without some supplemental heat. They need to be kept at least 80 year round. Ground temps, which is where they live in the Sahel region, underground, are 80-85 year round there. Plus they can bask every day at the mouth of their burrow since every day is near 100 degrees year round.

What sort of heat do you recommend for their night box?
 

KarenSoCal

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I'm soaking every other day right now since I just got them, and I think former owner never did soaks and I know she kept no water in the enclosures.

In that case, this really is your chance to do wonders for these torts!

Try to soak daily for at least a couple months if you possibly can.

And you already know to put fresh water in! :)
 

nootnootbu

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In that case, this really is your chance to do wonders for these torts!

Try to soak daily for at least a couple months if you possibly can.

And you already know to put fresh water in! :)

Yeah, I got them a nice big shallow terracotta plant dish that's perfect for them. I change the water daily too. I also wash their salad dish, throw away all old salad, and make them new salad every night after they soak.

I also offer filtered water for them to drink and soak in rather than using chlorinated.
 

Tom

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What sort of heat do you recommend for their night box?
Here are two ways to do it:

 

nootnootbu

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Here are two ways to do it:


Thank you for the info again! So much great information on this forum. I will definitely be building me some of these to go outside for them when we move to our new house!

For now, with the indoor hide box, do you think just one of the heat pads would suffice to keep them cozy at night? If so, should it be side, bottom, or roof mounted?
 

Tom

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Thank you for the info again! So much great information on this forum. I will definitely be building me some of these to go outside for them when we move to our new house!

For now, with the indoor hide box, do you think just one of the heat pads would suffice to keep them cozy at night? If so, should it be side, bottom, or roof mounted?
Radiant heat panels work great indoors. They spread the heat out over a greater area. You'll have to experiment and test with your thermometer and thermostat to get the height and temperature set correctly. They are big enough to have a heat mat on the bottom too, but the box needs to be large enough for them to get off the heat mat, but still stay inside the dark heated box.
 

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