Sulcata Tortoise

My girlfriend has a sulcata Tortoise (african spurred tortoise) she loves him (well we guess it's a him... They can't be gendered until they're about 25 years old) and he is just celebrating his 1st birthday today. She got him when he was only a couple weeks old and still shaped like an egg. He's developing his spikes and spurs and he looks really wicked now!
He's a lot of maintenance though! He gets bathed almost daily and time outside as long as it's warm and not raining. He has a heat lamp in his cage. I'm just nervous about when he gets too being for a cage what the heck we are gonna do with him.... He can't just roam the house, can he? Like he moves pretty quick now, but when he gets older he won't be able to make it to any designated "potty place" in time, right?

But gosh he's smart! I joke that one days he's gonna lock us in the house and we're gonna find him with a knife in his mouth...

Anyone else have a Sulcata tortoise or something like it?

People with Pythons have to give them their own room I think.... Maybe that's what we will have to do.... Sooooo glad he's a herbivore though....

My cousin has one; she lives in Texas though, and he gets "outside time" with the dogs in their fenced yard.

My best friend had one!
It was beautiful. Grew to about the size of a football, and was sexed as a female. Because of that, the nearby Clearwater Aquarium(where that Winter dolphin movie was shot!) gladly took it so that they could breed it with their own male tortoise.
(my friend gave it away, realizing that it was getting bigger and bigger and would grow to demand more space and a much better enclousure)

The best housing for tortoises indoors are tortoise tables. It's sort of like a sturdy C&C with shallow pools and a heat lamp. Google it, there are lots of examples and instructions.

Thanks Victoria! I think right now she has him in one of those storage bins that slide under the bed. Cept he's up on the pool table and she just recently built him a hutch with a ramp so he could climb on top. And he has one heat lamp attached to the side that he goes and lays in usually.

Aida: my gf would be devastated if we gave Leo up. We will just have to accommodate him as he grows. She does want to breed him later so we'll probably end up with more than one tortoise. Guess it's not a problem if my computer engineering major works out as planned and I make bank. [emoji12]
We'll have a tortoise room and a rat room [emoji1]

It's very hard to find good permanent homes for tortoises... you may not be able to keep them the rest of their lives and you can't guarantee they'll be well cared for after you pass away.

My mom got a tortoise for her fifteenth birthday. When we moved to Canada, she stayed with my grandma but now that my grandma has passed away, she's living with her neighbours. When they move or pass away, I don't know what will happen to her. She's 45 years old and may very well outlive me... I would never get an animal knowing I would very likely not be able to care for them for life.

Victoria. My gf is only 18 and I'm 20 so I suspect we will be around for quite some time. And we would never give them to anyone who we know wouldn't be able to care for them. If we raise our kids the way I hope to, and our grandkids stay in our lives than they will go to them. But that is something to worry about a long time from now....

Aida said:

My best friend had one!
It was beautiful. Grew to about the size of a football, and was sexed as a female. Because of that, the nearby Clearwater Aquarium(where that Winter dolphin movie was shot!) gladly took it so that they could breed it with their own male tortoise.
(my friend gave it away, realizing that it was getting bigger and bigger and would grow to demand more space and a much better enclousure)

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My sister worked at the Clearwater Aquarium and goes back there quite often. She knows some of the people and animals portrayed in that movie. I have to say I'm surprised they would take in an animal to breed since their purpose is animal rehab and getting injuried animals back into the wild. The only animals they usually keep there are the ones that would not survive on their own if released back into their natural habitat.

dspch911 said:

My sister worked at the Clearwater Aquarium and goes back there quite often. She knows some of the people and animals portrayed in that movie. I have to say I'm surprised they would take in an animal to breed since their purpose is animal rehab and getting injuried animals back into the wild. The only animals they usually keep there are the ones that would not survive on their own if released back into their natural habitat.

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Well, this is all coming from my friend!
I know for a fact that they gladly accepted her turtle, and were happy to see that it was a female. Maybe the rest was her assumptions?