# Multi-Species outdoor enclosure with heated house! PIC HEAVY



## nickpanzee (Jan 12, 2013)

I finally finished the heated house for my tortoises. I am probably not done tweaking it yet. I have a story of pictures of how I put it together. First, my dad brought his tractor over and moved a bunch of dirt for me into the area. I surrounded that area with cinder blocks.

Perimeter






Red foot and leopard side done.





Working to get it finished into the night (It was 2 am when I stopped)





Starting to wall off the Greek side





Temporary enclosures done and tortoises properly placed





Gotta show the tortoises!









Young male Greeks (an Antakyan and a Jordanian)





Female Antakyan/Jordanian Greek





Male Antakyan/Jordanian Greek





Final wall in place






Panoramic view from Greek side (cattle panels laid on top to keep things out)





Foundation for warm house





Little higher






Walls done!





Block holes filled with dirt and sand packed in tight





Interior partitions and holder for the oil filled radiator





Wood on top for roof support





Roof pieces sealed and ready to be filled with insulation





Finished! The roof is sealed, insulated and all gaps and cracks filled









I spread a bunch of seeds all over in the empty areas and they're starting to grow! 





I planted a bunch of clover seeds in their enclosures in August or September and all of them but my adult female Greek ate ALL of the seedlings before any could grow anything but cotyledons. I spread seeds all over in the part of the enclosure they don't have access to for now so it can give the plants time to establish and cover the ground before they are devoured. I started working on this in July or August and I've been working on it every weekend. I'll post more pictures when I get more done. 

I am still going to put a fence enclosure with a roof over this whole thing to keep everything out. It's still a work in progress.




I forgot to say it's a little over 20 ft x 20 ft.


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## Jacqui (Jan 12, 2013)

So who all can get into the warm house? How heavy is the roof and how easy to open to work under it ow?


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## nickpanzee (Jan 12, 2013)

All of the tortoises can get into the house. There is a door in the side for each one of their enclosures. They all have access next to the heater. I don't know how heavy the roof is, but 2 people can pick it up if needed. It is in 2 sections and slides easily on the wood on top of the blocks so I can slide the wood apart and there's plenty of room to get in. The roof isn't attached to everything else, it just sits on top. There's weather seal between the 2 halves to keep rain out too.


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## TortoiseWorld (Jan 12, 2013)

Good job! Looks like a lot of work you put into it. Plant some trees around it for shade and wind.


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## nickpanzee (Jan 12, 2013)

If you look at the pic with the foundation of the warm house laid out, you can see where all the gaps for tortoise doors are. And there is flashing fitted between the cinderblocks holding the dirt up above the doorways.


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## theelectraco (Jan 12, 2013)

Interesting. I feel like its a tortoiese maze. Cant wait to see pics of it when its completed.


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## Tom (Jan 12, 2013)

Pretty cool. Some neat design ideas.


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## Momof4 (Jan 12, 2013)

WOW, very impressive and a labor of love!! I like how you sectioned off the heated house for each species.


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## leonardo the tmnt (Jan 12, 2013)

Awsome!!!


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## Jacqui (Jan 12, 2013)

I usually ask on all builds... how much time did this take up? How much do you think you have in costs?


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## StudentoftheReptile (Jan 12, 2013)

I love it. Thanks for the pics. Keep 'em coming.


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## mainey34 (Jan 12, 2013)

Very creative. I love the design. I love everything about it..good job. You should be proud...


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## nickpanzee (Jan 12, 2013)

I'm going to say so far I've spent around $500-600... Didn't realize it was that much, but it makes sense. I added up all of the receipts I have in one spot (not sure what I did with the others) and I got $444. i got some of the cinder blocks off craigslist for very cheap. As for time spent building, it's hard to say. I don't live there right now, so i worked on it slower than I meant to. I'm moving there in February, so I'm sure I'll get it finished much faster then. I'll be happy when I get the fence up so and it gets warm again so the tortoises can have full access to their new, huge home. 

I'm going to put little ponds in there too, eventually. And I will plant things for shade and hiding in as well. I'm excited that I can do whatever I want and I can make their lives better. 

For the most part, they all go inside when it gets cooler out. Sometimes they have to be put inside. And I think they are watching out the door because they know when the food is put out. They come running!


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## pugsandkids (Jan 12, 2013)

Fantastic build! I'm impressed.


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## sibi (Jan 12, 2013)

Great setup. Who drew up the design for the different pens? Is the design on a blueprint? And, would the plan/blueprint be available for a cost? You know where I'm going with this?


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## nickpanzee (Jan 12, 2013)

Heh heh! 
I drew it on soooo many pieces of graph paper! I just drew out what I wanted, used that for a base and went from there. It all came together a bit at a time. It took a lot longer to get the heated house worked out. I thought about what to do for a few months before I did anything. I was going to use insulation sandwiched by plywood until I calculated how much plywood I'd need. Plywood is expensive! Cinder blocks and dirt are so much cheaper! 

Here is a basic drawing of the enclosure. The dark lines are the actual permanent walls, the blue lines are the temporary enclosures that they're in for the winter and the part of the enclosure that's "empty" right now is where I planted seed. The green part is, obviously, the warm house. 





Here is the basic layout of the heated house. It is about 4ft x 9ft (outside dimensions). There are removable wood partitions between all of the species. The heater is inside a box of 2x4s with hardware cloth stapled on. I ran an extension cord to their house inside PVC pipe that I cemented together.


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## FLINTUS (Jan 12, 2013)

I have to say that is very impressive. Most of us in the UK could only dream of that size and quality due to the amount of land we have and the climate.


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## Life as Tokin (Jan 13, 2013)

Yeah that's pretty cool. Your tortoises will be happy. You have a good collection, seems like a very fun project. Keep up the good work.


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## Tropical Torts (Jan 13, 2013)

This is very cool. I love the design. If I had the space you have I would use exactly the same design you did except I would use the maximum amount of space as I possibly could.

I would love to see some current pictures of it. San Antonio is a great place for tortoises, especially the African species. I like san Antonio and go there often to see family, great African tortoise area in my opinion!

Fantastic job by the way, especially on the warm house.


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## CtTortoiseMom (Jan 13, 2013)

That is great! Sheesh, Cinder blocks are soooo heavy and you had to move so many!


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## terryo (Jan 13, 2013)

Fantastic!


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## lynnedit (Jan 13, 2013)

Amazing and well thought out! Looking forward to seeing more pics as plants grow, etc.


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## nickpanzee (Jan 14, 2013)

I'll definitely keep updating with pics. 

I was actually going to make it smaller than this, but I decided not to. I'm glad too. But since I'm going to put a fence around it and a top, I had to make it a size that wasn't humongous  When the leopards get much bigger, I will wall off some larger part of the yard for them and not enclose it with fence, but for now, they're happy. And I have 8 acres, so space is not an issue 

Cinder blocks are very heavy, but they're easy to work with. I hurt my elbow from moving so many. Hopefully taking a break from moving them will allow it to heal. We'll see. 

Thanks for all the compliments! I'm impressed that I was able to do this


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## Yellow Turtle (Jan 14, 2013)

I really like what you've done for the enclosure. They are great, tidy and I love it!!!!

Not to go off topic, but I'm really curious here for people here who are really against mixing species. With this enclosure as an example, what's the difference with putting all species into 1 big enclosure? This big enclosure is just divided by cinder blocks for each species area and I can see parasites easily crossing the perimeters.


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## Yvonne G (Jan 14, 2013)

The only thing I worry about are things that have to contact either poop or saliva. This design keeps the poop and saliva segregated. I doubt there are any airborne pathogens, but there may be. If you're careful to not step from one pen to the next wearing the same shoes, it should be ok too.


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## Yellow Turtle (Jan 14, 2013)

emysemys said:


> The only thing I worry about are things that have to contact either poop or saliva. This design keeps the poop and saliva segregated. I doubt there are any airborne pathogens, but there may be. If you're careful to not step from one pen to the next wearing the same shoes, it should be ok too.



That might work, but I might not see it as the best precaution. I imagine rainy days when those parasites easily transferred through water. Must be my only silly thought though and I personally don't worry too much of cross pathogen. I just imagine whether this enclosure is ideal for the concept of not mixing species together.


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## TortTopper (Jan 26, 2013)

Tortoise love is strong in this one -Darth Vader

Heh Heh anyway, love all the work you put into it!


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## acrantophis (Jan 26, 2013)

Great enclosure! One thing though. I have a similar enclosure for my sulcata. When she exits and enters her hide she scrapes her shell on the edges of the concrete. After a while it got pretty scuffed up. I glued little wooden strips that wrap around the edges of the blocks and that seemed to do the trick! Also since sulcatas like to do laps, I glued long planks of wood along the walls where she would rub the most.


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## janevicki (Feb 5, 2013)

Great enclosure, I love your plan and all the tortoise housing your created.


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## Team Gomberg (Feb 5, 2013)

i had a hard time telling how your enclosure was set up from the pictures... but once you posted the written blue print, i can see it all now. 

i like it.

good work.

updated pictures??


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## sibi (Feb 6, 2013)

Your plan looks great! I do have a few questions about your heater. What kind of heater is it? How do you get the heater to transfer heat to all the pens? Do you have air ducts to blow heat into each pen? Is the whole structure covered sp as to hold the heat in. Exactly, how does it work?


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## biochemnerd808 (Feb 7, 2013)

This is amazing! I wish I had 8 acres to work with... 

Sibi, if you look at some of the earlier pics, the hot house is enclosed, with the heater in the middle, and wooden partitions (but the air is shared, so all get the warmth). Each of the outdoor pens has a little opening that goes into the hot house. 



sibi said:


> Your plan looks great! I do have a few questions about your heater. What kind of heater is it? How do you get the heater to transfer heat to all the pens? Do you have air ducts to blow heat into each pen? Is the whole structure covered sp as to hold the heat in. Exactly, how does it work?


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## Laura (Feb 7, 2013)

is that just the heated areas and the enclosures will be expanded from that?


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## nickpanzee (Mar 20, 2013)

This is my redfoots' enclosure. My chickens got in there when the plants were small and devoured a lot of the non-grass plants. I'm going to have to block off areas and re-seed them with leafy things. 

And this is my leopards' enclosure.... They are most certainly devourers of all things green. I have 3 leopards and 5 redfoots. 






Here are my leopards, ready for bed. 





One chilly day, I think I was weighing and measuring my torts and I found this:





Can you see it? It's small. 

Here's a closer look:




A little scorpion was perfectly content to nestle down next to my largest leopard's butt! What's up with that?


Here's my young male Greeks:






And all of my redfoots chowing down:






I am thinking that my leopards need a much larger area so they don't eat EVERYTHING before it has a chance to grow back. If only I took a picture every day from the same spot. It would have been amusing to see how much they mowed down in one day. I definitely need to block off and re-seed and let it grow back. I'm thinking of making the leopards a different enclosure for the summer that is larger and this can be their winter home, or something. 

All of the tortoises sleep next to the heater, which is an oil filled radiator style heater. We used that kind of heater in the animals inside quarters when I worked at the SA Zoo. Everybody has access to one side of the heater through hardware cloth. Eventually, I'd like to get quartz or another type of radiant heater that will hang above each tortoise area. I don't plan to do that in this heated house though. It has served its purpose for this winter and kept my tortoises warm enough. It kept my tortoises at about 60 on the coldest nights. It isn't as energy efficient as I'd like to eventually have. It doesn't seem efficient at all, too many cracks. 

I kept tabs on the temps with 2 wireless probed thermometers. They weren't expensive and they worked well.


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## FLGirl41 (Apr 4, 2013)

I've enjoyed reading this thread. I love the design of your enclosures, and am very envious of your tortoise collection!


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## nickpanzee (Apr 7, 2013)

FLGirl41 said:


> I've enjoyed reading this thread. I love the design of your enclosures, and am very envious of your tortoise collection!



Thanks 


I broke ground today for phase 2: the leopards' lair. I'm making a huge area for my leopard tortoises, aka devourers. It's going to be a couple of large areas with removable walls if needed. I'm going to do this area out of wood instead of cinder blocks. The 2 areas I'm currently planning are going to be 42 ft x 31 ft and 24 ft x 21 ft. I will add on to that as needed. I'm going to water it and put down some seeds for tasty food for them and let that establish before they mow it. 

I don't know if I will get anymore leopard tortoises, but the 3 I have devour for sure. There's a reason I named my oldest one Vorax, which is Latin for voracious (or glutton or ravenous, etc.)  I am going to keep my smallest leopard tortoise by itself so it can get bigger. It's obvious to me now that the others eat way more than that one because of the great size difference.


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## l0velesly (Apr 7, 2013)

Impressive setup!


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## bigred (Apr 7, 2013)

Looks good, I know that was alot of work


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## Team Gomberg (Apr 7, 2013)

I have to ask you about that scorpion. It's freaking me out.

Did it hurt your leopard? Could it have hurt him? 
"shudder"..... I'm now itchy thinking about finding a scorpion on my tortoise! 

Btw, nice pens


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## nickpanzee (Apr 8, 2013)

The scorpion did not hurt my leopard, it was just using her as a warm hide  It could have stung her, but it had no reason to. You probably won't find a scorpion on your tortoise. I just happened to be checking out my tortoises and saw it. I will probably never see that again (I hope).

Thanks for all the compliments! It was hard work. I'm not finished yet, but the new areas I have planned should be easier to do.


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## nickpanzee (Aug 25, 2013)

One flaw in design that I have figured out has to do with an invasive species. FIRE ANTS! They are nasty little grrrrrs. Apparently my tortoises' house is a good place for them to make their home inside the walls. If I could do it all again, I think I'd put a nice layer of diatomaceous earth (DE) at the bottom and add layers inside the walls to help discourage them. Might even be better to build it on a slab. I haven't opened up the house much now that it's hot out and my tortoises come out when they know I'm around. I haven't seen much of my adult male and female Greeks, mostly the male and I went looking for him (he has a lot of plants in there to hide under) after I found that there were fire ants in that side of the wall (of course it's the side I almost never open) and in his enclosure under some of the plants. He has a lot of stings on him, I wonder if they attacked him and he just withdrew into his shell. I have him inside for now, he's got a good appetite. 

I sprinkled DE all over where the ants are. I got some otrho-boric acid and put it into a container with bacon grease and set that in some of their nest area. I hope that they all die. No one else is hurt, so that's good. 

I just wanted to say that there is a flaw that the ants will take advantage of, incase anyone else in the fire ant area wants to built something similar.


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## skmackley2 (Aug 25, 2013)

Where did you get all these tortoises from and how much?


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## nickpanzee (Aug 25, 2013)

skmackley2 said:


> Where did you get all these tortoises from and how much?




I got the adult female Greek at a pet expo in San Antonio back in 2007. I don't remember how much I paid for her. I got all of my male Greeks from Danny, EgyptianDan from here (TFO). 

I got the largest redfoot from a pet store in San Antonio as a hatchling back in 2007, can't remember how much. One redfoot I got from craigslist from a kid that wasn't taking proper care of it for $40. The rest of the redfoots I got at reptile expos for varying amounts. 

The leopards, I think I paid about $100 each and got the female from Russ Walker at NARBC in Arlington in 09. THe other 2 were produced by Brian Bolton and I got them at SA expos. 

I got all of them except for the 1.1 adult Greeks and the redfoot from craigslist as hatchlings, so they weren't as expensive. The female leopard was under a year old when I got her. For the size they are now, they'd be much more.


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## TigsMom (Aug 25, 2013)

You've done an incredible job, my back aches just looking at all that work and I think I need a nap! Your tortoises are so incredibly lucky to have you tending to them. Thank you for sharing it all with us, so much food for great thought, along with the lessons you've learned. Be sure to keep us updated about your battle with the fire ants too. We battle them here in AZ as well.


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## skmackley2 (Aug 25, 2013)

Oh cool, I just got 1 horsefield, so is this structure you made outside?


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## Teodora'sDAD (Aug 25, 2013)

WONDERFUL setup you made!


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## skmackley2 (Aug 26, 2013)

do you have some detailed annotated blue prints of the whole thing together, would just love to look at your ideas


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## nickpanzee (Aug 26, 2013)

Heheh. It wasn't my back that hurt, it was my elbows. Those blocks are heavy when you move so many. The new, larger enclosures that I am making are out of wood. Those are much easier to manage. I don't know why I didn't think of using wood for the first part. 

I don't have any blueprints. I have my drawings, but I'm not sure if they would make sense to anyone else. Also, I just made it how the blocks would fit. They didn't work like I drew them to  The drawings were more guidelines. I kind of made some of it up as I went. 

Thanks for the compliments!

I hope the DE gets those fire ants out of the enclosures. They are a pain. Especially for my male Greek, poor guy.


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## skmackley2 (Aug 26, 2013)

oh okay! i would make that but im in the UK and you get warmth and rain and cold so it cant be outside? ad inside i dont have room, plus i have no money to make this at the moment, well its just the expensive tortoises!


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## TigsMom (Aug 26, 2013)

Fortunately, the fire ants haven't gotten into the turtle pens here and their colonies are not near the pens. Unfortunately for them, they get into my house. (that means WAR) I have a natural pest control guy come to the house once a month (more frequently if those darn Fire Ants show up). The only sure way to kill fire ants is to give them something that they take back to to the colony and kills the Queen. We battled them for months last year and finally got them under control. It seems we had several colonies on the property. This year they've sent out a few scouts, and I just pointed them out to my Pest Control guy. We're on it like blue bonnet. Next time he's out I'll get the exact name of the product and see if it's something that you can get and put down around the perimeter of your enclosure. In the meantime, try some cream of wheat (yes the cereal), dry. When they eat it, it explodes their digestive tract and kills them. My pest control guy owns a tortoise and assures me the stuff he uses doesn't harm my tortoise. We've used their service and products for years and have seen no affect on my tortoises, turtles or any of the wildlife that live here.


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## AnnV (Aug 26, 2013)

Wow! Amazing enclosure! Congrats on a job well done!

I hate fire ants. We will be moving from CT to FL in the next year or two. We will have to deal with them then. :-(

Ann from CT


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