How to Take Care of Baby Sulcatas

How to take care of baby sulcatas? You have to compare your baby sulcatas with a real life baby. They’re like little toddlers walking around and investigating things, they’re curious and they basically wanted to learn how to get along with other species and deal with life. With that being said you have to ensure that the habitat you set up will provide their environmental needs and is not dangerous for them. If you have a collection of other sulcata tortoises, there’ll be times that you see them flipping over lying in the back of their shells just like toddlers, so you have to also ensure that all the ornaments or cage decorations you place inside the enclosure are easy enough for them to get in and out of. In this article, you’ll learn all about how to take care of baby sulcatas!

Housing Ideas

When it comes to housing a baby sulcatas, you have to keep in mind that they like to be in a solid structure where they can’t see through. Compared to turtles, tortoises will totally spend their time pacing the glass so it’s important that you put them in an enclosure or tank where they cannot see through. If you want other people to easily view your pet or if you’re going to buy a glass terrarium, it’s probably better if you black out the rest of the enclosure’s sides and only leave one clear side of the glass.

Wooden Tortoise Table

This is the reason why a wooden tortoise table is ideal especially for land dwellers like the sulcata tortoises, you can search online for tortoise table ideas and you can even buy and assemble a wooden enclosure from pet stores. If you’re sort of a craftsman, why not form your own tortoise table and design a do – it – yourself terrarium? This can somewhat save you a few bucks and you can create it in a specification of your choice.

Wooden Bookshelves

Another option is to turn old wooden bookshelves if you happen to have one at home. Just clean them up, turn them on the side and make sure that the bottom part is strong and intact because that’s obviously where you will put all the substrate and cage materials for your tortoise. Ensure that it doesn’t fall off or have any holes where your baby tortoises can sneak through.  If you do that you can easily save money and time rather than building one yourself.

Tortoise Tubs

If you don’t prefer wooden enclosures, but still want to save money or you don’t have the time to shop for terrariums, you can easily purchase a cheap wide plastic tub or mixing tubs (preferably not the clear ones) from your local home depot. These tubs can be a perfect alternative for glass terrariums because they are open.

This is the major advantage of these open tubs because you can easily lift it up, its light since it’s made out of plastic and you can easily place it outside your house so that your baby sulcatas can get some natural sunlight, though you may need to put a screen to keep them safe from birds or other predators.

Make sure to also remove it if the weather becomes bad outside. Tubs are suitable nursing enclosures for hatchlings at least for the next 6 months.

Basking Materials

Basking your sulcata tortoise is very important for the development of its shell so make sure that you provide them with the lights and heat they need for them to have basking options within their enclosure.

You can choose from different kinds of basking light since there are lots of products out there that provide bright lights which could help your tortoise and fit inside your enclosure.

Heating Equipment

There are different types of heating equipment including a ceramic heater which could provide a lot more heat and could easily heat up a larger space or big enclosures; another one is called halogen bulbs which are good to develop your pet’s shell. You can also purchase a rheostat because it can also aid in regulating lighting temperature inside the enclosure.

One of the basking options is called a ceramic heater this kind of heating equipment will obviously not give off any light because it only provides nothing but pure heat, this may not be suitable if your enclosure is a Rubbermaid tub. It works best for tanks or glass terrariums. Ceramic heaters are lasts for a long time and can be beneficial because sulcatas prefers a humid surrounding.

Bulbs

The next option for basking is halogen bulbs; this kind of equipment is could be very hot and very bright for your pet tortoise. This is also suitable for baby sulcatas because it’s safer.

If you purchase a low wattage bulb, you can just have two or three of it, and put it over a section of the cage providing your pet with a basking zone. The downside is that halogen bulbs tend to break easily if it is moved too much. However, buying two or three of these halogen bulbs is better than just purchasing one thick bulb; this is because a thick bulb can create a hot spot or even burn your pet whereas the three bulb spread across a portion of the enclosure is much more ideal in providing the needed temperature in the basking area.

UVB

Your pet will also need UVB bulb. It’s very important equipment for basking especially if you won’t have the time to expose them under the sun every morning. These bulbs will simulate the sun’s heat.

After purchasing those lights and heating equipment, you can have two options when it comes to its set up. The first is that you can choose to buy a lighting bulb and UVB bulb and attached it to a fixture located on one side of the enclosure so that your pet can have an area where they can bask in.

The second option is for you to buy a single lamp that will provide lighting through the entire enclosure then attached the same UVB bulb in your fixture and place it on one side so that your pet tortoise can have both options available – the light and the heat.