First time posting , kind of a lot of questions

[TortsinNH]

We live here in southern New Hampshire, and we added a couple more members to our farm last year. A red foot and a sulcata. Right now they’ve been indoors for the past year or so. But next year I would like to get them outdoors. We have plenty of land and a 40 x 30‘ barn. The barn currently has electricity but no heating mechanism .I’m sure you guys have discussed this at nauseam .
But what do you think is the best way to go to keep them happy and safe in a cold climate where they’ll be able to get outside when they want.We are not looking to breed but when we build this habitat we hope to be able to host plenty of large two giant tortoises. Thank you for your help

 

[Ray--Opo]

Welcome, I live in Florida so hopefully someone with experience with housing a sulcata in the cold. Will get to you soon.
In the search engine on this site. Put in enclosures for sulcata's and see what you come up with. I know @Tom has some instructions for a enclosure.

 

[wellington]

You will need to insulate and heat the barn. They also can not live together in the same enclosure.

 

[Tom]

We live here in southern New Hampshire, and we added a couple more members to our farm last year. A red foot and a sulcata. Right now they’ve been indoors for the past year or so. But next year I would like to get them outdoors. We have plenty of land and a 40 x 30‘ barn. The barn currently has electricity but no heating mechanism .I’m sure you guys have discussed this at nauseam .
But what do you think is the best way to go to keep them happy and safe in a cold climate where they’ll be able to get outside when they want.We are not looking to breed but when we build this habitat we hope to be able to host plenty of large two giant tortoises. Thank you for your help

Like Barb said, you'll need some heavy duty insulation from top to bottom, redundant floor heating, additional air heating, lots of lighting, and a serious back-up generator for when the power goes out. It can be done, but not cheaply or easily.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome!

The winters here where I live are cold, but not nearly as cold as where you live. I provide a heated shed for my sulcata. I close his door at night so he can't come out, but I open it again in the a.m. He goes out in the morning, but if the sun isn't shining or it's raining, he goes back inside. Here's a link to his heated, insuated shed:

Dudley's Rebuild

I have a guy that comes to take care of spiders, roaches, ants, etc. and he has sulcatas of his own, so he understands about not poisoning my animals. He called my attention to what he referred to as "salt and pepper" around Dudley's night house. He said it was termite 'leavings.' Since...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Maro2Bear]

Since you have a pretty large barn, I would build a “large” shed inside the barn, and fully insulate it. Inside the shed, Id have a nice @Tom ”Night Box”. That night box can be 2x4 ft or so and 2 ft tall and have a nice Kane heat pad on the floor and on the roof a nice Radiant Heat Panel (Or two). All connected to a thermostat with a sensor.

You can heat the “night box” and keep it o/a 80-85. Then have brighter lights hanging in your shed, as well as some oil filled heaters in the shed.

Your Winters are cold, and way below freezing. You want to keep your torts comfy.

Good luck…

Ps - think about what you will do if the power goes out for an extended time due to a Winter storm.

 

[jeff kushner]

If you look here; https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/lumber-cost-for-new-sulcata-house.192045/page-3#post-1966780

You can see how Len assembled and insulated with heat and mood lighting, with an indoor swimming pool....okay, not really but close! It's nice!

jeff

 

[Maggie3fan]

You will need to insulate and heat the barn. They also can not live together in the same enclosure.

No... not the barn

 

[Maggie3fan]

Hi... I live in the Pacific North West and keep Sulcata and other species. I have a 12'x20' heated and insulated tortoise shed, with basking lights for each tortoise, separate sleeping boxes, each has a doggie door to come and go.


The ambient temps stay at 85, I use an oil filled radiator type heater for the ambient heat. There are pig blankets for the bigger tortoises to lay on.

Each tortoise has it's own outside pen. Each species is separate from the rest. My bigger Sulcata goes out in the snow. I find that the long months of winter confinement is easier for the bigger tortoises to take if the can go out and see the weather. Most go out check out the snow, then go right back in...