Night time tortoise advice

[PrestonMalone]

Hi guys, I may be getting an adult leopard tortoise from someone who cant take care of it anymore. I just need some advice on
A) how big does a "tortoise hut"(best term i could think of) does a tort need , if i plan to lock them up at night to stay warm as the weather gets colder.
b) can a tortoise free roam outside in the colder weather ( mid to lower 60's maybe lower as the winter really sets in, in Tennessee)
and finally
c) it is an adult tortoise, which i have never had, so i don't know much about daily care for a larger animal. ( I do own a sulcata but its young)

i have a fairly large back porch, so for the most part i just wanted to box in part of it with heat emitters for the night time, and just let him roam around outside during the day.

Do understand i am asking this now BEFORE i consider taking in this animal, if it turns out i cant support it enough , I would rather a rescue or somewhere else gets the beautiful guy. its from an even lower area of Tennessee and i don't know how the fellow is taking care of it there either. I know for a fact it will not be possible to keep it indoors, i have no indoor rooms for it to roam lol.

 

[Hugo's Home]

Hi guys, I may be getting an adult leopard tortoise from someone who cant take care of it anymore. I just need some advice on
A) how big does a "tortoise hut"(best term i could think of) does a tort need , if i plan to lock them up at night to stay warm as the weather gets colder.
b) can a tortoise free roam outside in the colder weather ( mid to lower 60's maybe lower as the winter really sets in, in Tennessee)
and finally
c) it is an adult tortoise, which i have never had, so i don't know much about daily care for a larger animal. ( I do own a sulcata but its young)

i have a fairly large back porch, so for the most part i just wanted to box in part of it with heat emitters for the night time, and just let him roam around outside during the day.

Do understand i am asking this now BEFORE i consider taking in this animal, if it turns out i cant support it enough , I would rather a rescue or somewhere else gets the beautiful guy. its from an even lower area of Tennessee and i don't know how the fellow is taking care of it there either. I know for a fact it will not be possible to keep it indoors, i have no indoor rooms for it to roam lol.

Hello and welcome! It's great that you found this site before you acquired it! That's always the best thing.
So I do not have a leopard but I can direct you to the care sheets and sub forum.

https://tortoiseforum.org/forums/leopard-tortoises.87/

If the link doesn't work..
Go to the African tortoises section lower on the main page and select leopard tortoises.
Check out the care sheets and other threads on there before you decide what to do. There is a bunch of info on there and when you have more questions don't hesitate to ask!

 

[Tom]

Hi guys, I may be getting an adult leopard tortoise from someone who cant take care of it anymore. I just need some advice on
A) how big does a "tortoise hut"(best term i could think of) does a tort need , if i plan to lock them up at night to stay warm as the weather gets colder.
b) can a tortoise free roam outside in the colder weather ( mid to lower 60's maybe lower as the winter really sets in, in Tennessee)
and finally
c) it is an adult tortoise, which i have never had, so i don't know much about daily care for a larger animal. ( I do own a sulcata but its young)

i have a fairly large back porch, so for the most part i just wanted to box in part of it with heat emitters for the night time, and just let him roam around outside during the day.

Do understand i am asking this now BEFORE i consider taking in this animal, if it turns out i cant support it enough , I would rather a rescue or somewhere else gets the beautiful guy. its from an even lower area of Tennessee and i don't know how the fellow is taking care of it there either. I know for a fact it will not be possible to keep it indoors, i have no indoor rooms for it to roam lol.

Hello and welcome.

I don't know how cold it gets there or how cold it stays or for how long. If you build a large insulated box, I think you can make it work outside there for most of the year. Since your tortoise might have to spend several days at a time inside the box during colder weather, I would build a 4x8' box, like this:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/my-best-night-box-design-yet.66867/
I recently added a heat lamp on a timer to a box like this, and I'm really pleased with the result.

In my climate, a 4x4 would be plenty and here is another way to heat the box:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/another-night-box-thread.88966/

I would not use CHEs over a larger tortoise like the one you are getting. CHEs work well indoors for maintaining ambient temps over small tortoises, but outdoors they tend to slow burn the top of the carapace while not heating the bottom or core of the tortoise enough.

Also, be careful letting him roam in colder weather, he may roam over and go park under a bush instead of going back into the heated box. They do not have the sense to seek out the warm area sometimes, especially when they are new to an enclosure.

 

[144 Grandpa Turtle]

Hi Preston