Baby and juvenile sulcatas are best kept indoors under controlled heat and lighting. One or two hatchlings can live in a 10 to 20 gallon terrarium until they reach about 3 inches. They should then be moved to larger quarters as needed until they are basketball sized. At this size they can be housed outdoors in most climates as long as a heated shelter is provided for night and for cooler days. As such large tortoise, sulctas to pose a unique problem when it comes to housing adults. There really is no right or wrong way to do it. Each keeper will have different resources and limitations with which to work. Key concerns are security, size, and availability of shelter. There are likely as many opinions on the perfect substrate as there are tortoise keepers. Nonetheless, some are certainly more appropriate than others. When housing young sulcatas indoors, you want to provide a substrate that is easy to clean, dust-free, and relatively safe if ingested. No substrate is necessarily good for an animal to eat, but some are much safer and more likely to be passed trouble free than others. Chipped aspen (Sani-Chips), as well as orchid bark, newspaper, and even soil are all acceptable choices. Avoid anything synthetic (like carpet) that may pose real harm if nibbled on. Alfalfa based rabbit pellets have been used with some success, but they tend to mold quickly, so special attention should be paid to keeping this type of bedding fresh. Tortoises do best when provided with an uncluttered environment, leaving them as much usable floor space as possible. A half-log for hiding is acceptable, but avoid objects that may settle on a burrowing tortoise as well as items that may cause them to repeatedly flip onto their backs.