What's your name, RFNewbie? Would like to address my email to you by name...
I keep Yellowfoot tortoises, and I live in Clovis, CA (just east of Fresno, central Calif.). My yellowfoot tortoises live outside year round, but they have a heated house in the winter. They used to be allowed to come and go as they wish, but now I mostly keep their door locked shut during cold weather because they never seem to go back into the warm house on their own, and I don't have time to monitor them. Inside their shed I have pig blankets (Stansfield farrowing pad from Osborne Industries {They're online}), and two clamp light fixtures. One holds a regular 60 watt incandescent bulb for daytime and the other holds a black light bulb to turn on at night. The pig blankets provide them warmth to sit on, and the light heats up the ambient air. The air inside the shed, when I open their door in the a.m. is between 65 and 70 degrees. (I keep my leopard tortoises this way too, but their shed is larger and I have to have a heater in there at night (de Longhi oil filled radiator). A cautionary note on the pig blankets. You have to buy a controller to maintain the correct temperature. If you just plug the pad into the outlet, it will get too hot. Also, you NEVER want to use a pig blanket with a very small tortoise.
Your habitat sounds very nice...safe and secure. The only thing I would change is the Burmuda grass. They won't eat it and eventually it will overtake everything and grow too tall and invasive. They prefer plants and broad leaf weeds. My Yellowfoots ate a small 1 gallon banana tree down to the ground! I toss vegetable seeds onto their ground in the spring and they eat the foliage as it comes in. They also eat mallow, spurge, succulents, etc.
Yvonne
I keep Yellowfoot tortoises, and I live in Clovis, CA (just east of Fresno, central Calif.). My yellowfoot tortoises live outside year round, but they have a heated house in the winter. They used to be allowed to come and go as they wish, but now I mostly keep their door locked shut during cold weather because they never seem to go back into the warm house on their own, and I don't have time to monitor them. Inside their shed I have pig blankets (Stansfield farrowing pad from Osborne Industries {They're online}), and two clamp light fixtures. One holds a regular 60 watt incandescent bulb for daytime and the other holds a black light bulb to turn on at night. The pig blankets provide them warmth to sit on, and the light heats up the ambient air. The air inside the shed, when I open their door in the a.m. is between 65 and 70 degrees. (I keep my leopard tortoises this way too, but their shed is larger and I have to have a heater in there at night (de Longhi oil filled radiator). A cautionary note on the pig blankets. You have to buy a controller to maintain the correct temperature. If you just plug the pad into the outlet, it will get too hot. Also, you NEVER want to use a pig blanket with a very small tortoise.
Your habitat sounds very nice...safe and secure. The only thing I would change is the Burmuda grass. They won't eat it and eventually it will overtake everything and grow too tall and invasive. They prefer plants and broad leaf weeds. My Yellowfoots ate a small 1 gallon banana tree down to the ground! I toss vegetable seeds onto their ground in the spring and they eat the foliage as it comes in. They also eat mallow, spurge, succulents, etc.
Yvonne