I have been using the mini oil radiator heater, but my 60 lb.er has grown so that it's a tight fit in his 2' x 4' insulated night box. Not in a position to make a new box at the moment, wondering if a radiant panel (same as Kane heating mat?) would keep it warm enough in So Cal winters. Or how...
So in keeping with not letting my tort camp out at night in the winter, I'm wondering what exactly the long term consequences of cold nights are on a tortoise? As I said in a previous post, there are many people here in SoCal who never heat their tortoises, and they claim they are just fine...
My 60 lb.er free ranges on my acre and a half fenced property. He has a very nice heated and insulated house he sleeps in in the winter, but in the summer he likes to camp out in an outbuilding that I can close him in securely. The last few nights he has chosen to sleep there, and though the...
I think I posted this last year, and didn't really seem to get anyone who has had the same experience but...it seems this time of year my sulcata has an insane urge to escape. He normally tests the boundaries of my large fenced property but lately he is obsessivly trying to bulldoze his way out...
In other words, can one identify tortoises by their shell? I found a large one a few years back and now someone is claiming that it is theirs (I advertised extensively) The pic they have shows different plate patterns, not radically, but the marginal scutes do not line up in the same pattern...
I have a 50 lb. sulcata, he has a very nice heated apartment and free range of a fenced acre and a half. The weather is nice and today he has decided to burrow down under a table in a covered area outside my house. It's going to be 46 tonight, my question is can I just cover him up and let him...
Regarding the 50 lb. Sulcata that was found in my neighborhood; there is someone who is insisting that it is theirs that they lost when he was "little" 10 years ago. They don't have pictures of course and I doubt that it is theirs, but just curious, think it would be possible for a tortoise to...
I have a 50 lb. male sulcata. I am fostering another male of the same size; he was found locally and we have been trying to locate his owner but with no luck so far. I would like to keep him but only if it doesn't create any chaos or extra work (such as separate quarters). My tort has a pen but...
Have searched the forum and I now see that it is advised to soak adults as well? Didn't realize that but just soaked my 50 lb.er in shallow lukewarm water and he splished and splashed so I think he liked it. Hope I haven't done harm by not soaking before; he seems very healthy. Anyone care to...
Is there something about this time of year that motivates tortoises to move on? I became the owner of my sulcatta last year at this time when he was found wandering the streets and we never found his owner. He free ranges over a fenced acre and a half and has gotten out twice in the last few...
My Sulcata has been sleeping in a dogloo in a stall for the summer but I will be encouraging him back into his heated night box when winter approaches. It's an old dog house, about 4 x 4 x 2, with a mini oil heater inside. It has a wood floor that I would stuff with straw and hay but my idea...
So, it's been almost a year since a 45 lb. (and growing) Sulcata walked into my life. Have learned a lot, and he has had a wonderful summer free ranging daily around my acre and a half fenced property (and sometimes into the house...) I had a heated insulated dog house for him last winter, but...
I keep my 50 lb. sulcata by the barn where there are lots of flies, despite my best efforts. They seem to love his shell (nice warm spot) but are really honing in on his eyes, to the point that the eyes are watering. I have a fly spray that I use on myself, any reason I couldn't carefully use it...
OK, have heated night box, have vinyl door strips (thanks for the tips) so he can come and go and I leave the night box heated during the day. BUT, he comes out, hangs out, and then goes into the goat pen and burrows into the straw in an igloo. So, is he allowed to choose to be chilly during the...
So, as some of you know, I'm a new sulcata owner and still trying to figure this what I thought to be (ha!) low maintenance animal out. I have the heated night box, which I lock him in at night. I guess as soon as I get the vinyl door strips I will open his trap door in the AM and let him come...
I'm a new Sulcata owner (40 lbs. 20 yrs old?) and was told they liked colored food. I really didn't think much of it until I brought out a bag of leftover red and yellow pepper strips and he practically trampled me in his frenzy to get to the bag (the bag wasn't opened so it was purely visual)...
Have converted a dog house into a night box but would like to put those clear plastic strips on the door for daytime, I checked at Home Depot and couldn't find anything like it, any other ideas?
A friend found a sulcata in the road, and we haven't been able to locate his owner, so he has been gifted to me! (he's about 18 inches and 40 lbs.) I have a lot of other animals, horses, pig, donkeys, goat, fowl but this is my first tortoise. I have given the goat's dogloo to the tortoise for...