Need some pointers building Sulcata yard.

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Danielle4440

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Hi all, Just acquired a Sulcata at 46 pounds and need some pointers for his setup. I am in Florida and he actually has a room off our home for his hide and nighttime needs, but the backyard is stumping me a bit. We have space, but it is covered in pine and oak trees. I read these are not good for them. Does this mean I will need to cut all of our trees down? Yikes! It is going to get mighty hot back there with no shade!

Also, how large should his area be? I have read everything thing from 1 acre on down. What do you experienced owners feel they need?

Next, the actual fencing and digging under issues. What ideas do you all have on products to use, depth to go down, so on?

Any pointers or lessons learned you can send my way I would greatly appreciate!

Thanks so much!
 
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Yvonne G

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The trees are just fine. We recommend to not use pine shavings as substrate because of the oils, but a tree isn't the same thing as shavings. My 100+lb sulcata has a section of the yard about 70'x30'. He keeps the grass mowed over the whole yard, which tells me it could be even bigger.

I don't worry about him digging under the fence. They don't seem to dig to escape, they just dig to get comfortable (a burrow). If they can see through a fence they'll try to get through it, so make your fence solid. This is my sulcata yard:

sulcata yard 01-02-15.jpg

The rickety fence in the middle of the picture (under the weather vane) is not connected and just serves as a sight barrier to make him have to walk around more. His heated and insulated house is to the right front and not in the picture.

Dudley's rebuild 10-4-13 a.jpg
 

Danielle4440

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Awesome - thank you so much for sharing this. So if he decides to snack on some pine needles/cones or oak leaves it isn't a big deal? That was my first worry as our yard is covered in them. We have Redfoots and a Russian, but this guy was a surprise . Got a call from or vet that he needed a new home asap so there he was and that was that! I adore him though, so trying my best to give him all he could want. Thanks again for your help.
 

jeffb

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I have bought some puckboard plastic, which comes in 4 foot by 8 foot sheets at your local home hardware store. I size it to be 16 inches high off the ground, and go all around the perimeter of the yard and attach it to the fence. This should solve the problem of him trying to get through the fence. As for digging, I put a big lift of dirt in my yard for him to dig around in. He absolutely loves his dirt pile, he will dig and burrow in there in the summer month, and sleep in there as well. When I try to clean it out he doesn't want my to touch his dirt pile. Whats mine is mine.....lol, plastic perimeter was a life saver for me, also have to watchout for predators.
 
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