Hi,

I received a Sulcata about 3 weeks ago, and I've fallen in love with him. Every morning I pick dandelion leaves for him from our yard (it's safe, no pesticides or fertilizer), and I keep his water dish full. He's about 13 months old

I've had him in my room, but it's made it difficult to sleep, what with the light and the heat from his lamp. Last night, I decided to move him into another room so I could start sleeping. This morning, he's behavior has been quite different. He's remained holed up in his shell, hasn't eaten very much, and I believe his feces were black.

Is it possible he's acting this way from a change in environment? Should I avoid doing so in the future? Any tips would be greatly appreciate; I'm very worried about him

Thank you.

The immediate thing I thought of is that the temperatures are cooler in the room that he's been moved to - is this a possibility?

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Well if Sulcatas are anything like Leopards then any change can upset them for a few days.

How are you keeping him, and what are you feeding him? A Sulcata needs quite a dry diet, mainly grass/hay and just a few weeds. With you saying about his light and heat lamp disturbing your sleep I am wondering why you have them on during the night? Torts do need a day and night time, if he is in the house I doubt he needs any extra heat at night time now. My Leopards are in a shed and their heater doesn't come on at night anymore.

Does he have access to a garden? The weather we have had this last week has been gorgeous and he would have loved wandering around getting natural UV

Hi there,

As long as he was in the familiar surrondings of his enclosure I doubt that a change of room would have affected him. What would affect him more would be his lights being left on at night, all tortoises need a night/day change and also a temp drop just as they would in the wild. As long as your house temps dont drop to freezing temps then your tortoise can have his heat and light turned off at night.

Definitely, and it was a concern of mine. I've moved him back into my room now, hoping it would make him more comfortable. I'm guessing I should avoid temperature changes?

I had been under the impression that he needed the heat lamp on constantly

As for outside temperatures, I'm in America, and today is the first day it's been above 50f around here. I plan on giving him time outside on the warmer days.

Is it a white lamp or a red lamp? Some people use infra red as a night time heat source but a white light definitely needs to be off at night, he needs to sleep too

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Under the advice of the turtle-owning salesman (I'm starting to question his knowledge), I've had two lights; one is a fluorescent light to provide UVB rays, and the other is a yellow heating light.

i havent had a sensitive sulc yet!! you said its difficult to have him in the rooom because of the heat and light. in this warm snap they dont really need any night time heat as long as your ambient temperature doesnt go below 18C ish. they are suprisingly hardylittle things and my juvie sulc always had very dark poo. they should have atleast 12 hours of sun/light a day and lots of grass and hay. he will need plenty of uvb and calcium too to make sure his shell is healthy and strong.

natural sulight will do him the wrold of good and will soon make him perk up no end!!

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Ahhh you are not in the UK!

During the night if you think the temp will be lower than 18C then yes you need heat, try and get a ceramic heater, they don't give any light at all, just heat, so the tort still has a night time. During the day with my Leopards I have a cool area of 22ish (70F), and under their basking light (which is a normal spot light) the temp is about 32-35C.