09/23/2024
🙌👌👌👌 I've got 3, and they have specialized needs... they are not a water turtle you throw in a tank and feed once a day!!! They require a varied diet, basking areas, heat light when they're inside and almost constant supervision when outside!
A Friendly Reminder 🐢
A 100+ pound Male Sulcata is monumentally different to house than a hatchling, yearling or juvenile.
They require a large, fully secured enclosure with a sizable heated shed/barn/house for the winter.
They p**p like a cow, they rearrange furniture, they dig, they eat a lot (A LOT), they will try to mate with inanimate objects, they can be destructive.
You HAVE TO spend the time and resources to set them up properly or it’s a recipe for disaster and you will end up rehoming him.
With the right setup they are amazing and very rewarding pets. Please do not listen to anyone selling them as an “easy” or “starter” pet.
You wouldn’t put a cow in your living room, or a horse in your laundry room, just like livestock they need to be outdoors.
Sulcata’s are grazers, they want to eat grass, lots of grass, they want to explore and roam a large enclosure, they need shade to escape the searing sun, they want to play in the mud and soak on hot days, they will plow through inadequate fencing and escape.
When you hear people in FB groups say “Do your Research”, this is what they mean. Is it cool to have a giant tortoise roaming your backyard? ABSOLUTELY!, but you owe it to him and yourselves to set him up for success.
