Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am interested in getting my first Sulcata soon and have been doing some research, but Im not satisfied. I live in southern Louisiana and I woas wondering if our temp are to extreme for sulcats for an outdoor enclosure. Winter lows are normally in the 40s or 50s (i would have a heated house/hide for him to get out of the cold) and the summer highs would be in the 90-100 with normally 80% humidity or above. If he would have a hide to get into to warm up or cool down would he be able to live out side year round when he get to be about a foot long? Any good care sheets would help. Any info would help to.

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.

I agree-Sulcatas are hardy.
I have 3 Sulcatas and 1 Marginated and my 2 Sulcatas live outside year around (in AZ). I just provided them with a heated outdoor shelter which they go in/out of as they please. Although I am having to actually go and place my younger one inside the heated enclosure at night--she's like to burrow. The night temps just started dropping within in the last 3 weeks so they will have heat for the next couple of months. During the summer it gets hot and dry--up between 115 is normal for our summer months. This being my torts first summer outside full time I've programmed my sprinklers to go off every 3-4 hours for a few mins and this helps cool them down.
Tortoises are actually easy keepers and its helpful if you plant and grow your own edible plants/flowers. Mine occasionally get the vegetable treats or maybe watermelon treats in the summer but that's about it. Hay, grass, plants, and flowers. I do supplement with Mazuri and some people are for it, others are against it. You will find a lot of helpful information on this site--just start digging through past forums.

Thank yall Im going to go get books tomorrow. The biggest thing I was worried abou was the humidity. From what I read they are from a dry climate and Louisiana is far from dry. I have the avalible space and materials, but I plan on doing alot more research before I just go out and buy. I want to maybe adopt or do a rescue does any one know of any places around new orleans that might have a sulcata to adopt that I would be able to go talk to some one in person and learn new stuff. Im open to all suggestions and thoughts about my planed environment for my tort. Thanks in advance.