Closed encloser

[Newbabymama]

How long do you all suggest keeping baby sulcatas in closed enclosers? For those who keep juveniles inside what do your enclosures look like. Planning for the future. Eventually baby will get a large shed with a humid night box outside and a a fenced arce to roam this will be years from now. Currently only a hatchling living it up inside a closed enclosure.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

How long do you all suggest keeping baby sulcatas in closed enclosers? For those who keep juveniles inside what do your enclosures look like. Planning for the future. Eventually baby will get a large shed with a humid night box outside and a a fenced arce to roam this will be years from now. Currently only a hatchling living it up inside a closed enclosure.

Good question.
But I don't keep Sulcata.
Let's ask @Tom

 

[Tom]

How long do you all suggest keeping baby sulcatas in closed enclosers? For those who keep juveniles inside what do your enclosures look like. Planning for the future. Eventually baby will get a large shed with a humid night box outside and a a fenced arce to roam this will be years from now. Currently only a hatchling living it up inside a closed enclosure.

This is one of the problems people encounter with sulcatas. A well started baby grows to over 1000 grams by the end of its first year, and the growth accelerates to about 10 pounds a year. A two year old is easily 20 pounds. 30 pounds at three years, etc... A 20 pound tortoise needs a yard sized enclosure. People think they have years to figure this out. They don't. At the end of one year the baby will be too large and destructive for an indoor 4x8 foot closed chamber. At the end of two years it is too large for a room sized enclosure. Then, when kept in a shed for months at a time over winter, they tend to get constipated and often bladder stones form.

How long to house them with humidity in a closed chamber? As long as you can. Pyramiding is caused by growth in conditions that are too dry. If your tortoise is growing, it will benefit from monsoon type humidity. My climate is very dry, so when I move them outside I have plants, sprinklers, misters, and I soak them frequently. I also humidify their night boxes, so at least they are sleeping in high humidity even though it is dry when they are walking around in the day time.

 

[Newbabymama]

This is one of the problems people encounter with sulcatas. A well started baby grows to over 1000 grams by the end of its first year, and the growth accelerates to about 10 pounds a year. A two year old is easily 20 pounds. 30 pounds at three years, etc... A 20 pound tortoise needs a yard sized enclosure. People think they have years to figure this out. They don't. At the end of one year the baby will be too large and destructive for an indoor 4x8 foot closed chamber. At the end of two years it is too large for a room sized enclosure. Then, when kept in a shed for months at a time over winter, they tend to get constipated and often bladder stones form.

How long to house them with humidity in a closed chamber? As long as you can. Pyramiding is caused by growth in conditions that are too dry. If your tortoise is growing, it will benefit from monsoon type humidity. My climate is very dry, so when I move them outside I have plants, sprinklers, misters, and I soak them frequently. I also humidify their night boxes, so at least they are sleeping in high humidity even though it is dry when they are walking around in the day time.

So do you move your babies outside at a year old? I live in the Midwest where it gets cold but not alot of snow or moisture. Will definitely need a humid night box as well as an indoor shed area to roam about as well as access to outside area if wanting during the winter months.

 

[Tom]

So do you move your babies outside at a year old? I live in the Midwest where it gets cold but not alot of snow or moisture. Will definitely need a humid night box as well as an indoor shed area to roam about as well as access to outside area if wanting during the winter months.

I move them outside at 8-10 inches, because they become unbearable destructive monsters if confined indoors at that size.

Mine live outside with their heated insulated night boxes, but most of our winter days are in the 70s, with an occasional cold spell with highs in the 50s for a few days, and occasional warm spells with daily highs in the 80s or 90s throughout winter.