Winter Plan

[CleoTheLeo]

Cleo will be outside for her first winter, but I'm wondering what is better to do.

1. small heated house inside with a little area she can safely walk around, such as putting her night box/heated house in a room and allowing her to roam the room during the day. No carpet or cords, etc. and put her outside in an enclosure on nice days. She would sleep in the heated house at night.

2. or keep her in a bigger heated house outside all winter and let her roam her outdoor enclosure on nice days, on not nice days she would stay inside the heated house and always in it at night.

what do you guys think is better?

 

[Len B]

It would help to answer your question if we knew what part of the world you are located.

 

[CleoTheLeo]

It would help to answer your question if we knew what part of the world you are located.

nc

 

[Len B]

I like option 2. But leopard tortoises can be a little hard headed about returning to their heated house at first. i raised what turned out to be a female and she caught on real quick and never had a problem with her knowing when to go in and warm up. Also have a backup area inside just in case of an emergency where it can't stay outside. I have a large sulcata that lives outside all year. I have 2 generators just in case one wont start and a 2000 watt power invertor to hook up to my truck if everything else fails. Insulate the house well so if you do lose power it wont cool down to quick and you will have some time take care of the problem.

 

[CleoTheLeo]

I like option 2. But leopard tortoises can be a little hard headed about returning to their heated house at first. i raised what turned out to be a female and she caught on real quick and never had a problem with her knowing when to go in and warm up. Also have a backup area inside just in case of an emergency where it can't stay outside. I have a large sulcata that lives outside all year. I have 2 generators just in case one wont start and a 2000 watt power invertor to hook up to my truck if everything else fails. Insulate the house well so if you do lose power it wont cool down to quick and you will have some time take care of the problem.

I don’t know, I feel like it be better for her to have an area inside next to her heated house to roam around in, because I feel bad keeping her inside the heated house all day on cold days which will be the majority of the time in the winter. And I don’t think shes gonna go inside when it gets cold either, but I’d put her inside of course.

 

[CleoTheLeo]

I don’t know, I feel like it be better for her to have an area inside next to her heated house to roam around in, because I feel bad keeping her inside the heated house all day on cold days which will be the majority of the time in the winter. And I don’t think shes gonna go inside when it gets cold either, but I’d put her inside of course.

I was thinking of keeping her heated house inside a 4x8 greenhouse outside so that I can open her heated house for her to crawl out and in on more days, and on nice days she could crawl out of the greenhouse too. It’s hard to get her a nice setup because we’re moving a lot so I can’t invest in something permanent yet. She actually has to be an apartment tortoise for a few months in the winter, so she’ll have to be inside. And thank you for your help!