PLS HELP: winter set up for babies (3 leopards & 1 sulcata)

[Twinmom2012]

Looking for some advice, PLEASE! I want to give my tort babies the best winter housing I can for the next 7 months or so (I'm in chicago, our winters can be loooong). All of them are babies - 1 leopard & sulcata are a few months old, 2 leopards are about 8 months old. Right now they live in a plastic tub. What is the best way to house them? I know this is only temporary, however I want something better than a plastic tub since keeping the heat in has been hard. (Right now I am using the tin foil cover method I read from another post on here - it's worked well although not pleasing to the eye. Lol) I am getting so many conflicting opinions re humidity, covered enclosure vs. non-covered, too much humidity will kill the sully... Etc., etc. I was gonna build a wood enclosure, but then I seen someone using tanks for their babies (obvi just a temporary set up). Is that sufficient for just the next 7 mos??? I have someone coming to my house to assist me in building the enclosure I thought was gonna be ok in a few days, but after reading all the different info, now I'm lost!!!

Please help.

 

[tortdad]

Do a search for how to raise a healthy leopard 2.0 and follow what it says. I'm pretty sure it's a pinned topic under the sulcata section. You can build a cheap wood box for less than you can buy a glass viv.

Humidity won't kill your sully


0.0.1 Redfoot (Spike)
0.0.1 Cherryhead Redfoot (Bruce Wayne)
1.0 Sulcata (Hal Jordan)

 

[Twinmom2012]

i did read, and am actually re-reading now. I just thought I would get additional feedback from people who actually have raised the babies. I guess just some reassurance.

 

[Jodie]

The 2 should not be together. Heat and humidity are necessary for both. I would build seprate enclosures for each. Leopards can sometimes be together, 3 or more, but i would not want the smallest with the other 2, and pairs almost never do well togeter.
You have tons of options for tubs. There are a lot of examples under the enclosure section.
I built a table that is divided and covered with a plastic tent for my hatching Leopards. I recently added a lower level for more room for the trio. My littlest one is by himself on one side of the top.
Good luck. Remember they will grow a lot in the next 7 months.

 

[Twinmom2012]

They will be separated. But are the heat/humidity requirements the same for both? From what I've read, it is. My thought was to try to build one large enclosure but have it separated, if the humidity & heat requirements would be the same, that is.

 

[Jodie]

Yes. They should both be kept over 80F with 80%humidity. Glad they are separated.

 

[Jodie]

I don't keep Sulcatas, but my understanding is that their requirements when little are the same.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hello and welcome to the TFO from AZ . The Scully is a fast grower the leopards don't grow as fast . You may want to use tubs and start working on a outside enclosures for next year . But have a great tort day .


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[Burt0405]

ok so i'm not sure if this is the right place to post this question but I am trying to build my baby leopard tortoise a new home, he is currently in a split level box i made myself. I think his lighting is fairly adequate and so is his heat. But I live in arizona and its a constant struggle to keep humidity up. i place dishes full of water just to evaporate an hour or two later. Also I will soon be moving into a small aprtment and I'm trying to build him a bigger home with more room to roam without it taking over my entire living space. Soooooo my question is to sum up, how to keep humidity in cage, and creative building plans for tight spaces?? I can build it if i can see an example. @tortdad