keeping tortoises outdoors in socal?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
ewok

ewok

Fire Eel
MFK Member
May 25, 2007
2,632
5
68
Undisclosed Location in SOCAL
anyone in socal keeping their tortoises outdoors? i have a decent sized patio (like 8' x 20') and i thought it would be kind of fun to keep a tortoise or 2 outside. there aren't places where they would fall and kill themselves btw - just a bare patio with a ton of sunlight. i imagine i would probably put a deck umbrella to provide shade, but i was wondering if tortoises could handle the heat we have? sometimes it gets around 100F in the sun and probably 5 degrees cooler in the shade... can they live outside till like it gets to winter time?
was looking at some of the smaller <12" species. any pointers?
 
I dont live in socal, but maybe golden greeks would be a good small tort for you, you might want to check the laws in socal to see if you can even keep torts, you have native ones there.
 
some guy i used to work with kept tortoises in his backyard. They did fine in the summer and winter. But I think he has native ones.
 
I use to have box turtles in Virginia and kept them outside in the summer and they were fine. I would imagine Cali would be fine as well. I would imagine that you could keep them outside for most of the year.

I have not kept turtles in a long time so this is only a guess. But I don't see why it would be an issue
 
You can keep tortoises in your patio but youll have to build them something like a pen or a tortoise table. You cant just release them and hope they would be ok. They need to be in a spacious confined area with soil, shadow and sun,non toxic plants and a large shallow water container so that they have the tools to termorregulate themselfes and go on ther normal turt behavior. Youll have also to provide indor housing for bad weater. Finely youll have to select a good species for your climate. Leopards, greeks,hermans and marginets are all fine. Sulcatas too but can be quite a hand full. Horsfields are also good but they dont like very high temps. Stay away from wood land species like red foots and yellow foots that dont like very high temps, dryness and intense sun ligth. This is only the basis. Make shure you reserch extensively on any species you want. Dont select more than a species unless you are willing to house them separatley and buy only captive bred;)
 
I have two smaller tortoises about 4" and 5". I keep them outside in a wood box so they are safe from predators. I found that they can stand the heat in so. cal. just fine. I think that the Russian Tortoises do just fine in our climate.
 
im sure they will be fine
but as coura said, you should make a pen for it or something
get a dog house or something and fill it up with hay
or something like that
 
If you give russian tortises soft ground, they will dig their own burrow to help thermoregulate... unless they are on Cali's welfare program, then you would have to buy them a place to live.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom