Sulcata tortoise water

Providing any baby tortoise for sale, or pet adult tortoise water is imperative for a successful keeping.  Fresh, clean water should always be available for both drinking, and soaking.  For this reason, we typically use terra cotta dishes that go up to 24″ in size for all of our Sulcata tortoise habitat setups.  For the baby Sulcata tortoise for sale, daily soaking in 82 degree warm shallow water is necessary.

Providing water access for a baby Sulcata tortoise is optional so long as you are soaking them daily, since they can flip or drown.  Adult Sulcata tortoises will soak themselves sometimes for hours in their water dish.  For these reasons, daily it should be rinsed and the water replaced.  Sometimes you may even see them poop in their water, totally normal and another reason for daily water changes.

Baby Sulcata tortoises need to soak

While just providing ample water access for an adult Sulcata tortoise is fine, babies do need daily soaks.  For 10 minutes each day, soak your baby tortoise in warm shallow water.  If the tortoise poops, you can remove the tortoise and end soaking early that day.  Basically the rule of thumb at our tortoise farm is daily soaks for 10 minutes or until they poop.

African Sulcata tortoise substrate continued

In one corner of the environment, a heat spot lamp should be positioned to provide artificial basking facilities. This should be positioned to provide a basking spot of 90 degrees F in that section of the habitat, while the rest of the enclosure can be heated to 80-90 F during the day with a drop at night. Heating sources should always be run through a thermostat.

The enclosure should also be equipped with a full spectrum fluorescent light to provide for UVB. A UVB source is necessary for Vitamin D3 syntheses (needed in calcium metabolism). There should be a hide box located in the corner away from the basking spot to allow the animal a cooler dim retreat.

Explore our extensive Sulcata tortoise care section

juvenile Sulcata tortoise

Sulcata tortoise water

Sulcata tortoise substrate

Sulcata for sale