Can a young tortoise live outside in a covered enclosure with a burrow?

[asampson760]

So the question is in the title. I have a young sulcata, I was told he was a year old when I got him at the end of last August. I know now he was much younger, maybe more like 6 months. So he is probably around a year and a half now?? Give or take. Anyway he has an outdoor enclosure that is completely covered. He spends time out there every day but I always bring him back inside after a few hours. My husband dug him a little burrow at the edge of the enclosure to give him another shade option. It took our tort some time to warm up to it but he eventually used it a lot and even started digging down deeper/further. It has now become very difficult to get him out of the burrow and back inside because of how far he has dug. My husband thinks we should just let him live out there permanently. I think he may still be too young?

We live in the high deserts of Southern California, our weather currently is in the 90's during the day and 70's at night. No humidity really.

My husband is quite upset at me because I did remove the tortoise from the burrow today and make him come inside. Husband thinks I am making the tortoise feel unsafe and violating his sense of security/privacy...is this a thing???

 

[Tom]

So the question is in the title. I have a young sulcata, I was told he was a year old when I got him at the end of last August. I know now he was much younger, maybe more like 6 months. So he is probably around a year and a half now?? Give or take. Anyway he has an outdoor enclosure that is completely covered. He spends time out there every day but I always bring him back inside after a few hours. My husband dug him a little burrow at the edge of the enclosure to give him another shade option. It took our tort some time to warm up to it but he eventually used it a lot and even started digging down deeper/further. It has now become very difficult to get him out of the burrow and back inside because of how far he has dug. My husband thinks we should just let him live out there permanently. I think he may still be too young?

We live in the high deserts of Southern California, our weather currently is in the 90's during the day and 70's at night. No humidity really.

My husband is quite upset at me because I did remove the tortoise from the burrow today and make him come inside. Husband thinks I am making the tortoise feel unsafe and violating his sense of security/privacy...is this a thing???

What size is your tortoise. They grow at vastly different rates, and for a wide variety of reasons, so the age doesn't tell us what we need to know.

Your husband is attributing human emotions to a tortoise. This is called anthropomorphism. You need to do whatever is necessary to keep the tortoise healthy and safe. If this means pulling him out of the burrow on a cold night, then so be it. This will NOT hurt your tortoises feelings or damage your relationship. Once the tortoise is 3-4 years old, it will follow you like a puppy, regardless of what has gone on in the past.

Your tortoise is not native to your area. It comes from a tropical area that is always hot. Every day. There is no winter. Ground temps are 80-85 all year there and that is where sulcatas live. Under ground. Daytime highs are usually around 100, and occasionally drop to the high 80s on a "cold" winter day. Keep this in mind when making husbandry decisions going forward.

Your summer climate is like their winter climate, and it suits them well. I'm in Santa Clarita, and my climate is similar to yours. They can live in a burrow in the summer months as an adult, but you have to be careful with smaller ones. Bring him in tonight and put a digital thermometer down the hole as far as your arm can reach. Leave a second digital thermometer above ground. Get the type of hardware store thermometer that records the high and low daily. About $12 at Home Depot or Walmart. I use the Accurate brand. Ground temps tend to be too cold for a small one, and we've had a couple of cooler days recently. If your ground temps 3 feet down the burrow are staying in the mid to high 70s at night, then he can stay outside, assuming he is over 8-10 inches long now. Colder than that, and you'll need to wait a while longer into summer until ground temps come up a bit more to leave him outside overnight.

In fall, you will need to catch him above ground, BEFORE the weather cools, usually late October for me, and block the burrow entrance. From that point on, he will need to sleep in a heated, insulated, night box until this time next year. Here is an example:

Single Tortoise Night Box

I like my larger tortoises to live outside full time. My climate permits this year round with a little help. For people who live where it snows all winter, this type of box is still good for warmer weather, getting them out earlier in Spring, and keeping them out a bit later into fall. You'll...

tortoiseforum.org

When you leave him outside, watch for red ant, coyote, raccoon and rat activity. All of these can kill him at night. Watch for ground squirrels during the day. Snakes, roaches, rabbits, birds and spiders won't bother him. once he's over 8 inches.

More care info here:

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

 

[asampson760]

What size is your tortoise. They grow at vastly different rates, and for a wide variety of reasons, so the age doesn't tell us what we need to know.

Your husband is attributing human emotions to a tortoise. This is called anthropomorphism. You need to do whatever is necessary to keep the tortoise healthy and safe. If this means pulling him out of the burrow on a cold night, then so be it. This will NOT hurt your tortoises feelings or damage your relationship. Once the tortoise is 3-4 years old, it will follow you like a puppy, regardless of what has gone on in the past.

Your tortoise is not native to your area. It comes from a tropical area that is always hot. Every day. There is no winter. Ground temps are 80-85 all year there and that is where sulcatas live. Under ground. Daytime highs are usually around 100, and occasionally drop to the high 80s on a "cold" winter day. Keep this in mind when making husbandry decisions going forward.

Your summer climate is like their winter climate, and it suits them well. I'm in Santa Clarita, and my climate is similar to yours. They can live in a burrow in the summer months as an adult, but you have to be careful with smaller ones. Bring him in tonight and put a digital thermometer down the hole as far as your arm can reach. Leave a second digital thermometer above ground. Get the type of hardware store thermometer that records the high and low daily. About $12 at Home Depot or Walmart. I use the Accurate brand. Ground temps tend to be too cold for a small one, and we've had a couple of cooler days recently. If your ground temps 3 feet down the burrow are staying in the mid to high 70s at night, then he can stay outside, assuming he is over 8-10 inches long now. Colder than that, and you'll need to wait a while longer into summer until ground temps come up a bit more to leave him outside overnight.

In fall, you will need to catch him above ground, BEFORE the weather cools, usually late October for me, and block the burrow entrance. From that point on, he will need to sleep in a heated, insulated, night box until this time next year. Here is an example:

Single Tortoise Night Box

I like my larger tortoises to live outside full time. My climate permits this year round with a little help. For people who live where it snows all winter, this type of box is still good for warmer weather, getting them out earlier in Spring, and keeping them out a bit later into fall. You'll...

tortoiseforum.org

When you leave him outside, watch for red ant, coyote, raccoon and rat activity. All of these can kill him at night. Watch for ground squirrels during the day. Snakes, roaches, rabbits, birds and spiders won't bother him. once he's over 8 inches.

More care info here:

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

Thank you so much Tom! As far as size goes, he is about 8 inches and growing so very quickly. I will put a thermometer down there to check the temps. Tonight is a littler cooler than the norm, so I will check in a few days when it's back to the typical temp and bring him in until then.

Do I need to worry about all the digging he is doing in the burrow? Would it be possible for him to get stuck down there somehow if he goes too far or is that silly?

I'm also wondering about the humidity factor, do I still need to try to keep some kind of humid hide available for him if he's outside/in the burrow all the time? And I'm assuming I should still try to do soaks for him as often as I can?

It feels so strange to be possibly letting him live outside 24/7 already, I didn't expect it!

 

[Tom]

Thank you so much Tom! As far as size goes, he is about 8 inches and growing so very quickly. I will put a thermometer down there to check the temps. Tonight is a littler cooler than the norm, so I will check in a few days when it's back to the typical temp and bring him in until then.

Do I need to worry about all the digging he is doing in the burrow? Would it be possible for him to get stuck down there somehow if he goes too far or is that silly?

I'm also wondering about the humidity factor, do I still need to try to keep some kind of humid hide available for him if he's outside/in the burrow all the time? And I'm assuming I should still try to do soaks for him as often as I can?

It feels so strange to be possibly letting him live outside 24/7 already, I didn't expect it!

I prefer letting them dig burrows. AS LONG AS THE WEATHER IS GOOD AND HOT, you should have no trouble with the tortoise in a burrow. Even if it collapses or floods, these tortoises are tanks. They spend 95% of their lives underground in the wild. They are made for digging and living deep in the earth. Let them stay in the burrow past the hot weather, and you could lose them.

I measured one of my burrows at 22 feet long, and about 12 feet from the bottom of the burrow straight up to the surface. Thank you Pythagoras. You know... for the theorem.

By all means soak the tortoise when its above ground, and you can briefly shoot the hose down the burrow periodically to keep humidity higher.

 

[TaraMaiden]

May I add that, at just over a year old, it's probably impossible to determine the gender of your tortoise. You will only have a definite chance to determine gender once they reach maturity, For your sulcata, that will probably be at around 5 years of age, when they ideally reach 25-40 lb. At that age, IF your Sulcata is female, and is impregnated, digging holes will also be a sign she may be intending to deposit eggs... but that's a far off "suppose", right now... and there's no way to predict anything of the kind.

 

[asampson760]

I prefer letting them dig burrows. AS LONG AS THE WEATHER IS GOOD AND HOT, you should have no trouble with the tortoise in a burrow. Even if it collapses or floods, these tortoises are tanks. They spend 95% of their lives underground in the wild. They are made for digging and living deep in the earth. Let them stay in the burrow past the hot weather, and you could lose them.

I measured one of my burrows at 22 feet long, and about 12 feet from the bottom of the burrow straight up to the surface. Thank you Pythagoras. You know... for the theorem.

By all means soak the tortoise when its above ground, and you can briefly shoot the hose down the burrow periodically to keep humidity higher.

Hey Tom!

Thank you so much for all the info, you truly are an excellent resource and I appreciate you!

I did just measure my tortoise and he is exactly 7 inches, which I am assuming is still a little too small for him to be outside full time. Should I keep his burrow closed off so he can't get down there anymore, since it has proven to be really difficult to get him out? Especially since he is a very busy digger.

The other question I have is about water. As he gets bigger is a terra cotta saucer still the best option for outside? I have a fairly large one but he seems to be outgrowing everything so quickly. He was barely 3 inches long when we got him at the end of last August and now he's already 7 inches!

Speaking of his size, he was 3 inches long when I got him last year and they told me he was a year old. Is it possible that he was a year old at that size or am I right to think that he was a bit younger?

 

[Tom]

At 7 inches, he's right on the edge. If he's got a burrow, and the burrow is staying warm enough at night, then I'd just leave him out there.

I use big terra cotta saucers for big tortoises, and when they outgrow those I switch to other things. I have big pizza dough trays that work great. Some people use plastic trash can lids or water heater pans. You can use a kiddie pool if you cut the sides down, but those don't last long with the weight of a large sulcata. Big terra cotta saucers should last you another year or two. Sink them into the ground and keep them full to the top.

Soak him every other day or so during this hot weather. 30-40 minutes at least. 60 minutes plus won't hurt him. Be careful he doesn't over heat in the water too.

 

[TaraMaiden]

I don't know about the USA, but certainly in the UK you can go to a good garden centre and buy deep potting trays; these are large, rectangular plastic trays that gardeners can use to mix up potting compost for whatever plants or seeds they're planting, in order to confine the soil to one convenient container. I have one that is 40cm x 55cm, and is 12cm deep. So if you need a safe 'pool' you might be able to get a potting tray, sink it into the ground up to its lip, put a few clamber stones in it, and create a perfect pool...

 

[asampson760]

I don't know about the USA, but certainly in the UK you can go to a good garden centre and buy deep potting trays; these are large, rectangular plastic trays that gardeners can use to mix up potting compost for whatever plants or seeds they're planting, in order to confine the soil to one convenient container. I have one that is 40cm x 55cm, and is 12cm deep. So if you need a safe 'pool' you might be able to get a potting tray, sink it into the ground up to its lip, put a few clamber stones in it, and create a perfect pool...

Great idea! Thanks!