Reptile & Amphibian Forums

All my sulcatas have large out side yards and I don't need to keep my tortoises inside but has anyone allowed their tortoise free roam of their house? If so how big was the tortoise and what problems did you have?

Richard

Ricochet, our 50 lb Sulcata, has a nice yard, but there have been times he has had to come inside either because the weather was just too cold or we were doing outside construction. During those times we allowed him to roam in the kitchen. This is not something we could do all the time primarily because of the huge amount of mess he created. I am also pretty sure if he'd had more time in the kitchen he would have knocked over the wine rack and moved the furniture around. Even outside, he's had his moments. We had to put hog pen around our A/C unit because he knocked it off of it's base. Eventually, we will line our fence with hog pen because when he gets bigger, I'm sure he'll be able to topple the wooden fence.

Tank was a 40 pounder that free roamed out home. He would defecate on the floor periodically, but seemed to be in the same general area everytime. So we put a pan with hay on the floor the he could do his business in (didn't always work). The big problem was coming home to your living room rearranged. He also loved to sleep on the dogs pillow, which the dog never used.