Well, this forum is a good place to start. I would recommend going to chelonia.org. They have a series of sites on the subject of sulcata keeping. Being rather old fashioned, I recommend getting yourself a good book, anything by Russ Gurley is a good place to start.

As for your particular climate, I've known successful sulcata keeprs from Florida to Texas to Arizona to California. These areas are hugely diverse in humidity, soil type, and flora, but all these guys' animals are fit and healthy. Sulcatas are quite adaptable, but they cannot tolerate temperatures below fifty five too well for long periods (short periods, say a few hours, tends not to be a problem). Anyway, should you get a hatchling, you will learn more and more about your particular animal as it grows. My largest beast is seventy five pounds, and I got him as a hatchling. When I first got him, he actually wouldn't eat anything for the first three days, until I offered some green zuchini squash, still a favorite of his to this day. I made many mistakes with him at that early age, notably keeping him indoors without UVB bulbs (luckily, I regularly took him out for supervised walks in the sun when he was a youngster), feeding him canned dog food (though not exclusively), and keeping him with a group of russian tortoises (a captive arrangement that nearly cost him his life to a serious bout of respiratory illness). With all of the literature on the market today (you can find competant guidebooks at any Petsmart or Petco, as well as Amazon.com and any of the links to reptile shops on this site), there is no reason to make mistakes like the ones I made. Consult a book on the subject, and go from there.

T.G.

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]