At What Age Does A CDT Cease To Be A Baby And Become A Juvenile?

mylittlecholla

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My little Cholla is about 5.5 inches from nose to tail, and 4.5 inches across the carapace. She's three years old and outgrown her indoor enclosure. (She's soon to outgrow her outdoor enclosure as well, so we're making plans to enlarge it this spring).

Regarding the indoor enclosure, is she still young and small enough to need one? Or is she ready to spend the year outside with a heated tortoise house for our (rare) cold weather.

To be honest I've got strong maternal feelings about her ?and do not yet want her living full time outside all year. What I want is to bring into the house at night, where she lives atop my bedroom dresser, where I can check on her and the temperatures etc, in the enclosure,

But if she's past the stage of "babyhood" and should be housed outside at asap I need to know.

On the other hand, is if it's okay for her to continue to stay inside with us at night, I'll need to buy a larger terrarium for her, so that "Mommy" can see that she's safe and warm during the dark winter hours.

Thanks in advance for any advice that comes in.
 

Tom

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Its fine to have both an indoor enclosure and an outdoor for fair weather. The indoor enclosure will need to be 4x8' as a minimum. It will no longer fit on top of your dresser. If that doesn't work for you, then outdoors with a temperature controlled shelter will work too.

I call them juveniles once they are over a year old.
 

mylittlecholla

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Fillmore, California
Its fine to have both an indoor enclosure and an outdoor for fair weather. The indoor enclosure will need to be 4x8' as a minimum. It will no longer fit on top of your dresser. If that doesn't work for you, then outdoors with a temperature controlled shelter will work too.

I call them juveniles once they are over a year old.
 

Yvonne G

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I call them yearlings when they get to be a year old, and juveniles when they're two.
 

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