Outdoor enclosure for Greek tortoise in Phoenix

[Doublenn]

Hi all,

I'm building an outdoor enclosure for my Greek tortoise. We live in Phoenix and it's pretty hot here already. At the moment, it's still dropping into the 70s at night and only hitting 100-105 during the day. What I'm wondering is, should I only put him in his outdoor enclosure in the morning and bring him back inside by noon so he's not out for the hottest part of the day? Or will he be ok outside the whole day if we shade part of his enclosure? I don't want him to overheat, but I wasn't sure if going from the heat outside to an air conditioned house would be too jarring.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[TeamZissou]

Is this post regarding your small mesopotamian Greek tortoise? If so, he's probably still too small to be housed outside for extended periods of time, ie. all day or full time. Too much time outside for babies is not good as they can get very dehydrated. The rule of thumb is that they need to be a minimum of 4" in length. It might be good to keep him outside for 2-3 hours max, and soak him on the way back in. The AC in the house shouldn't matter since his enclosure should be about 80F everywhere with a basking spot of about 95 F.

This thread discusses some successful densely planted enclosures in Phoenix. Lots of shade and a heavily planted enclosure will help with the heat as well as keep the humidity up. At the base of a plant or in tall grass/clover, it's possible to reach 80%+ humidity.

Sri Lankan Stars last summer and this summer

These pics are comparing growth of some of my stars from last year to this year. They spend the majority of their time outside in Phoenix unless temps drop below 70. When temps go above 110, I move them to a pen that is partially shaded.

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Doublenn]

Is this post regarding your small mesopotamian Greek tortoise? If so, he's probably still too small to be housed outside for extended periods of time, ie. all day or full time. Too much time outside for babies is not good as they can get very dehydrated. The rule of thumb is that they need to be a minimum of 4" in length. It might be good to keep him outside for 2-3 hours max, and soak him on the way back in. The AC in the house shouldn't matter since his enclosure should be about 80F everywhere with a basking spot of about 95 F.

This thread discusses some successful densely planted enclosures in Phoenix. Lots of shade and a heavily planted enclosure will help with the heat as well as keep the humidity up. At the base of a plant or in tall grass/clover, it's possible to reach 80%+ humidity.

Sri Lankan Stars last summer and this summer

These pics are comparing growth of some of my stars from last year to this year. They spend the majority of their time outside in Phoenix unless temps drop below 70. When temps go above 110, I move them to a pen that is partially shaded.

tortoiseforum.org

Yeah it's that tortoise and he is still small, which is part of the reason I was thinking I didn't want to leave him out too long. I was planning on soaking him and putting him out for a couple hours in the morning and then bringing him back in. I like the idea of soaking him when he comes back in. Thanks for that and the other thread info, I'll check that out. We built the lid with mostly chicken wire covering it, but a 1 foot section all the way across is a board so there's a whole shady side facing west. And then I'm going to put a hide on the sunny side in case. I'm hoping I can get some grass and plants to grow in our soil.