Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all - I need some advice. I currently keep two baby/juvenile tortoises in a vision 322. It has 18" of UVB across and a heat-lamp on the right side, plus a medium-sized heat mat on the right. I have 1 leopard tortoise and 1 sulcata.

For the last 6 months or so, my sulcata and leopard have gotten along fine, they are healthy active and happy and both eat well. I use cyprus bark mulch (kiln dried) for substrate and they feed on primarily greens/chickory, but I mix it up with some fruits and other veggies and also mix in some grasslands food, wetted down and kinda shredded over the greens.

I recently was told it was no good to mix species - regardless, I have had more people tell me its fine to keep these two species, because leopard and sulcata are both new-worls tortoises and both thrive in an environment like I've set up.

question 1) DO you guys think it's ok to keep these two together??

next issue: I did something boneheaded and bought a cherryhead without realizing they need completely different (much more moist and humid) conditions than either a sulcata or a leopard. It is obvious that I can NOT keep the cherryhead in with them. I have already found him an ideal home and all is fine with the animal.

question 2) is there any OTHER species of tortoise that would do well in my vision 322 with the sulcata and leopard?? how about an indian or sri lankan star tortoise??

thanks very much for your input- I just want the best for my animals and would appreciate any opinions. thanks!!

#1-I've always used a general recipe for keeping Torts inside. A basking site at 120-130 degrees, with the rest of the enclosure room temp ( mine is between 78-80 degrees ), and a humid hide on both sides with the relative humidity between 80-90%. This has always worked for the torts I've kept.

#2 Why complicate things? That vision is not going to last for too long for the Sulcata alone, and IMO is not really made for torts. The more animals you add to the mix, the more attentive you have to be to each individual. Plus you have to plan for two large Torts as it is.

Don't know if it's EVER o.k. to mix species.. MIGHT be o.k. as hatchlings.. as long as from CLEAN parents/blood-lines. No fruit for those leos and spurs.

NEVER MIX CONTINENTS

As for redfoots.. different world ENTIRELY! Email me for caresheet.. shown is 3 year old 'hatchling' from our guidelines ..

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Terry E. Kilgore
Turtletary.com

As far as conditions the two tortoises are similar in preferences but sulcatas prefer ambient temps of about 77-95 and while leopards like temps around 75-86, so there is a pretty small margin of overlap if you are keeping them together. Although they may do fine together for most of their younger years it would probably be best to seperate them before they get to much larger. Sulcatas are usually a much more outgoing tortoise, so if you choose to keep them together make sure that ther are multiple basking spots and hides and that the leopard is getting enough to eat. Also, wait until your tortoises are larger to buy more. Baby tortoises are very cute but its good to know what you are getting into with adults before you get more with babies.

is that the sulcata will likely grow up much more quickly than the leopard. Couple that with the fact that they seem to have opposing personalities and you could have one very stressed out leopard tort. In 5-10 years the situation could actually become dangerous (for the leopard).

Not to mention, that tank will soon be too small for either of those tortoises, let alone both. I have a 1 year old russian that lives in a similar sized enclosure and will likely grow out of it over the next year or two (at the rate she is going). Granted, the enclosures I use for my tortoises are small by most keepers standards, I would say that the vision 322 is not a good choice financially for a sulcata because of their rate of growth. That cage is going to start looking smaller and smaller. Of course, then you could use it as an excuse to get more reptiles later (which is why I keep a lot of old cages around).

But right now I would say hold off on getting any more tortoises. It's really easy to catch the bug! A general rule I made for myself right now is that I only raise one tortoise to adulthood at a time (and right now it's the baby russian that I hatched last year). Of course there's the obvious loophole that I am free to add adult animals to the collection, and yes I have taken advantage of that

Good luck with the critters.