Hi everyone, I am new to tortoises from Southwestern Oklahoma! I currently have a dog, cat and a monitor lizard who is a great little buddy.
Over the last several months, I’ve gone from thinking a tortoise would be nice to making the constant research rabbit hole dive of seriously considering. While my current 7 year old Son LOVES animals, I’ve come to the understanding that tortoises can potentially be a grandchild and beyond level commitment and that is the last concern that has me deciding to take my time in consideration. Another concern of mine that I’d appreciate input on, is environmental consideration with regard to specific species and your experiences on it.
Any eventual tortoise that I do get, I will want to house primarily outside once it’s old/large enough. Before that point it will be housed in a large high-walled tortoise table in a climate controlled enclosed patio with daily supervised outdoor time as that’s where I prefer to read my books. Once old/ large enough, it will be housed in a combo chicken coop/dog house like construction with heater, thermostat controller and run of the larger fenced in yard with concrete footers surrounding it during the day. The yard is a good size, is watered with sprinklers daily, has shade from a tree/ garden/ bushes and will have a soaking tub/water source installed with a hose on timer. I live in Southwest Oklahoma and the average temperatures range from an average overnight low of 26 in January and an average high of 96 during the day in July.
I have seen that my environment would most easily suit a horsefields tortoise, but was also hoping for one a little larger, no larger than a Burmese black mountain tortoise. Does anyone have any thoughts on other tortoises that might suit that kind of an environment? I’m not as worried about the cooler temperatures as I intend to have heating setup well before the animal transitions to outside, but is the average high too high for a mountain tortoise? Shade and a small shallow soaking tub with circulated water will be constant, but too much heat seems to be more a concern than too little with these guys.
Over the last several months, I’ve gone from thinking a tortoise would be nice to making the constant research rabbit hole dive of seriously considering. While my current 7 year old Son LOVES animals, I’ve come to the understanding that tortoises can potentially be a grandchild and beyond level commitment and that is the last concern that has me deciding to take my time in consideration. Another concern of mine that I’d appreciate input on, is environmental consideration with regard to specific species and your experiences on it.
Any eventual tortoise that I do get, I will want to house primarily outside once it’s old/large enough. Before that point it will be housed in a large high-walled tortoise table in a climate controlled enclosed patio with daily supervised outdoor time as that’s where I prefer to read my books. Once old/ large enough, it will be housed in a combo chicken coop/dog house like construction with heater, thermostat controller and run of the larger fenced in yard with concrete footers surrounding it during the day. The yard is a good size, is watered with sprinklers daily, has shade from a tree/ garden/ bushes and will have a soaking tub/water source installed with a hose on timer. I live in Southwest Oklahoma and the average temperatures range from an average overnight low of 26 in January and an average high of 96 during the day in July.
I have seen that my environment would most easily suit a horsefields tortoise, but was also hoping for one a little larger, no larger than a Burmese black mountain tortoise. Does anyone have any thoughts on other tortoises that might suit that kind of an environment? I’m not as worried about the cooler temperatures as I intend to have heating setup well before the animal transitions to outside, but is the average high too high for a mountain tortoise? Shade and a small shallow soaking tub with circulated water will be constant, but too much heat seems to be more a concern than too little with these guys.