Hello! I'm New! :]

[heather.annie43]

hello, my name is Heather, but everyone calls me Annie. I live in East Texas with my boyfriend, weenie dog, and our 90lb sulcata tortoise named Tommy. We made him an outside closure for the hot summer, and hand built a home for him. He didn't like the home we built him, and kept digging under it, so we helped out and dug him a hole and put a shelter over it for shade and rain. He is so sweet, is very friendly. He almost looks unreal when he strolls through the yard. We have had him for more than a year, and last winter we were able to keep him inside the house. This winter is going to be more difficult, we renovated the house, and unfortunately have to have him outside. I am so worried that he might get too cold when the temperatures start to drop. I need help figuring out how to keep him warm and happy during the winter (within a reasonable price). I already bought a reptile heat lamp, but I do not know how to make him another home with it. I wish I could keep him in the house again, but that can't happen. I am so scared that I might have to give him away, and I am afraid that someone will not treat him well if I did. Please help me if yall have any ideas. I love him very much.


Please inspire me

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Annie:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

How cold do your winters get? Do you think you could just build some sort of shelter over the entrance to the burrow and place heat in that shelter? If it doesn't get too cold, the heat will go down into the burrow. However, if you get much rain, that wouldn't be such a good idea. You don't want the burrow to be wet.

If that's not an option, then you'll just have to put him into the home that you built every night and block the door so he can't get out. It would be easier to heat that home either with a pig blanket or a hanging ceramic heat emitter.

 

[AnthonyC]

Welcome to the forum, Annie! I have 3 doxies. Aren't the amazing!?!?

 

[dmarcus]

Hello and welcome to the forum...

If you still have the home you built for him, you can put him inside and block the entrance so he can't get out. Hopefully after a few times of doing this he will figure out that it's a nice place to be in and will go in by himself. I just had to do that with my sulcata and lucky for me it only took me two times of blocking him in before he starting going in there on his own. I also added some hay and he likes laying on that..

 

[blafiriravt]

hey there! Welcome to the forum

 

[coreyc]

Hello Annie welcome to the forum we would like to see some pic's of Tommy we love pic's here

 

[jaizei]

Welcome.

 

[pdrobber]

welcome

 

[Cloud 9]

hello Heather Annie, welcome.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome.

 

[jackrat]

Welcome

 

[Yash Raj]

Welcome.

 

[Jacqui]

Hi Annie! We don't want you to have to give him up either. Could you (if you haven't already) go to the enclosure section and show us what you have to work with and we will brain storm to see how to help you.

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome.

Here's what I did:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-The-Mother-of-All-Tortoise-Boxes#axzz1bTzlGRNi

I now have my other lone male in a 4x4x2' box with a heat mat and a radiant heat panel. That one works too.

Here's another idea. You'd have to make the entrance tunnel bigger, but it could work for you with a few tweaks.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Daisy-s-New-Enclosure#axzz1bTzlGRNi