New Texas Owner

[Texastort]

hi everyone! I am a long time lurker here that is about to start into the sulcata world. I live in Texas and will be getting two sulcatas on Tuesday, a male and a female about 6 inches each. My plan is to keep them outside, and this weekend built a large outdoor enclosure with fresh grass, hibiscus plants and some hides. I have some questions though.

1. Should I put them in a cage at night to secure them? We don't really have any predators and I am hoping the hides will be sufficient. Thoughts?

2. Can I let them out to roam the whole yard supervised? I am worried they will like what they can't have and try to get out of their pen.

3. I am growing grass in the enclosure. Is it okay to water this grass daily to keep it growing? It is so hot and dry here our grass burns up pretty quick. I am worried about the torts getting too wet!

I think I need to increase the height of the sides of the pen, it's about 6 inches now but not having seen them yet I'm not sure.
Thank you friends!!!

 

[jaizei]

Welcome, whereabouts are you?

 

[dmarcus]

Hello and welcome to the forum...

 

[Texastort]

Welcome, whereabouts are you?

Thanks! I am in Fort Worth Texas.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Texastort:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know your name?

 

[Texastort]

Hi Texastort:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know your name?

Thanks! My name is Brad

 

[Torty Mom]

Welcome to TFO Brad!

 

[wrmitchell22]

Welcome to TFO Brad I also have a sulcata and mine stays out all day and comes in at night, he is only 4 months and 3 inches. I hose down the enclosure everyday to keep everything growing and get my tort wet too. I don't think that will be a problem, keeping them hydrated is good. Make sure they also have a pool to soak in and drink from, not too deep, but big enough for them to get in and out of. I would think if they can't escape your yard and you are sure there aren't any predators they should be okay during the day. Not sure about the night. Good Luck. Lot of people on here have Sulcatas so you should get a lot more help soon Here is the enclosure my hubby and I built for out hatchling.

---

If you can check out the care sheet in the sulcata section, it is mostly for hatchlings, but still has great info

 

[Jacob]

Welcome to TFO!

 

[jackrat]

Welcome to the forum,Brad.

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome, Brad the lurker. Glad you decided to join in.

First off, its pretty hard to tell sex on a six inch sulcata, a few of them are obvious by that point but most of them are not. Regardless of sex, pairs seldom work out. One always intimidates or outright bullies the other. Sometimes its very subtle and you don't see it, but its there. They do much better housed alone or in larger groups. Is getting one more an option?

Okay, now for your questions:
1. This is a matter of opinion and risk. I bring all my little ones in every night. No matter what, it IS a risk to leave them out. Weird weather, thieves, predators (domestic ones too), etc... A lot of things can go wrong while you are inside sleeping. We hear lots of stories of secure, covered enclosures being opened and people's beloved tortoises being eaten or stolen. I sleep better at night knowing they are in a temperature controlled, locked, guarded, safe room.

2. You can, but its more risky. Safer to build them their own environment.

3. As long as its warm and sunny, you can water them and the grass all day long and it won't be too wet. Cold and damp is not good. Warm and humid/wet is great for them. Do NOT leave them out on damp grass at night. If they get much below 75 with all that humidity, you run a serious risk of respiratory infection. Another reason I bring mine in at night. Even in summer, with 110 degree days, we still get nights in the low sixties and high fifties sometimes. It was 53 over night here about two weeks ago. The high that day and the day before was high nineties.

I think you need to increase the height of the sides too.

Good luck. Keep those questions coming.

 

[DixieParadise]

Welcome Brad from your neighbor to the South. Hope your weather has been better than ours. Does anyone know what rain looks like? Oh, and congrats on your two new additions.

 

[dmarcus]

I live in Arlington and we don't have an issue with predators either so my almost 7 month old Sulcata is outside 24/7. He has a lot of places to hide and what's better is his shell is looking better. I was having issues maintaining the humidity inside and he was starting to show signs of pryamiding but I don't have those issue outside and his shell has smooth growth now.

Hope you have some shade when building that enclosure, its gonna be super hot this week...

 

[Texastort]

Wow thanks everyone! You all are so friendly! I will definitely increase the height of the sides of the enclosure, that should be super easy to do. I am still debating about the evening time, I don't want to stress them out carrying them inside and out everyday, is that something to worry about?

How often do you recommend feeding them? Also, is it okay to let them out of their pen to graze in my whole yard or will that encourage them to try and escape their enclosure??

I am also thinking about adopting one more, a 10" male so I would have three. Would that be better than a pair?

I am attaching some photos of my tortoise area. This is just a small portion of my yard for them to securely roam in.

 

[cemmons12]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[dmarcus]

Why don't you just give them a section of your yard that has plenty of grass and weeds place there pen in that section that way they have a bigger enclosure. The bigger the enclosure the happy they will be

I feed mine once a day and then they graze on what's in the yard the rest of the day. Sometimes I will give cactus treats and sometimes some watermelon.

 

[wrmitchell22]

That is a very pretty area for your torts

 

[Texastort]

Why don't you just give them a section of your yard that has plenty of grass and weeds place there pen in that section that way they have a bigger enclosure. The bigger the enclosure the happy they will be

I feed mine once a day and then they graze on what's in the yard the rest of the day. Sometimes I will give cactus treats and sometimes some watermelon.

Thanks. The space they are in is pretty large, I just want them to have as much space to roam as possible.

 

[dmarcus]

Our yard is not that big and we would love to give them half the yard, but we have bad kids on either side of us, so they are stuck in the middle of the yard until we move to a different house.

We also use the wodden fence like your back yard has for one of the walls that way we only needed to add 3 sides.

 

[Texastort]

Our yard is not that big and we would love to give them half the yard, but we have bad kids on either side of us, so they are stuck in the middle of the yard until we move to a different house.

We also use the wodden fence like your back yard has for one of the walls that way we only needed to add 3 sides.

Yeah, as they get larger I could see them having the run of the whole yard, I need to reinforce some parts of the fence first though. I figure it's a lot easier for a 6inch tortoise to find a small hole than a 12 inch plus one. Where did you get your tortoises? I haven't been able to find any locally which I'd like if people wanted to get rid of them!