Oh cripes - son just received a sulcata as a gift from a cousin. It's about 4 inches snout to tail and seems very lively. I do know these tortoises get big, they dig and may climb, and are not generally recommended so I've never done more than admire them from afar. But ok; we have the 50/50 mix of sterile dirt/sand for it to dig in. We have the undertank heat supply. We have the UVB bulb. We have the hide box. We clipped fresh grass/clover/dandelion from our yard, which has never been treated with chemicals. All this in about 35 minutes, since the box was unwrapped. Right now it is having a short soak in shallow bottled water in a pie plate. We seem to have things under control to start, believe it or not, all this stuff was lying around the house. Now, my question is, how do we tell if this thing is a boy or girl tortoise?
I live in a cold area of the country but can supply heated housing up to about 14x20 feet when this thing gets bigger. Right now I'm working along the lines of maybe buying a bathtub sized rubbermaid and putting ventilation strips in the side(1/4 inch hardware cloth fastened in) and a half and half lid - lid on one side and hardware cloth on the outside. Just going on past experience as a foster parent for a few weird exotics for a cage design - but does that sound ok to start with?
