# Housing for Snowy Winters



## borjawil (Sep 10, 2010)

I live in michigan and I am wondering how people house their larger sulcatas lets say 30lbs+ during the winter. Outdoor/indoor? How much space? Heating? pictures are good!


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## Yvonne G (Sep 10, 2010)

One of our members built this out of a plastic storage shed:







And here's where Dudley (100lbs) lives 24/7/365:
















and inside:






and my leopard tortoises live here 24/7/365:






and my manouria live here 24/7/365:











All of these tortoises can come and go when they please. Even during the coldest days of winter, they will come outside and look around for anything to eat, going back inside when they get too cold.


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## borjawil (Sep 10, 2010)

Well thanks for that. Do yo get snow there? Do they walk around in it? I am getting some more wood from a scrap shed i found an other sources and i am going to build something similar. Is 3 ft high enough or should i go higher for the enclosure. Ill be setting it off the ground so the wood doesnt get wet/freeze/warp/rot/etc.


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## rubes (Sep 10, 2010)

Nice! is your house powered by solar energy? I noitced the solar panels


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## Laura (Sep 10, 2010)

Some do walk around in the snow, but its not good to Make them.. You pretty much have to house him outside.. build a nice warm box, and then also build a covered area that is protected from tthe snow. A Loafing shed is a good thing to copy.


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## Yvonne G (Sep 10, 2010)

rubes said:


> Nice! is your house powered by solar energy? I noitced the solar panels



Yes it is. So far I'm not quite breaking even. Too many winter time tortoise stuff.



borjawil said:


> Well thanks for that. Do yo get snow there? Do they walk around in it? I am getting some more wood from a scrap shed i found an other sources and i am going to build something similar. Is 3 ft high enough or should i go higher for the enclosure. Ill be setting it off the ground so the wood doesnt get wet/freeze/warp/rot/etc.



There has been snow on occasion, but its not a usual thing. However the nights get down below freezing almost every night, and Dudley comes out to graze before it has a chance to melt. Dudley's dog house is 4' tall. If you make it too short, you won't be able to get the light high enough over the tortoise's back.


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## GBtortoises (Sep 10, 2010)

I'd be less concerned about snow and more concerned about below freezing temperatures if you live in the northern half of the country. I doubt that you're going to be able to keep a Sulcata tortoise warm enough during the winter in any kind of free standing outbuildling. Whether it's insulated and heated or not. You'll have less money wrapped up in it and it will be safer to keep the tortoise indoors in a basement or main floor room set up during the winter.

People living in more southern climates can more easily keep tortoises awake through the winter with fairly simple insulated and heated dog house size huts or small buildings. Northerners don't have that advantage.


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## Madkins007 (Sep 10, 2010)

I am in Omaha and have decided that I cannot offer Sulcata or Leopards the right winter quarters, so I don't do them, but you may have better options.

If you have a heated outbuilding, garage, or basement that you can get to good temps reliably, you can make almost anything. A fairly simple plan would be determine the area- the bigger the better obviously- and start by building a fake floor over an air-gap (some old pallets, some 2x4's on end, etc. You can use cheap flooring materials as long as it is strong enough to walk on.)

Insulate the begeebers out of the area- rigid foam board, whatever- floor (on top of the cheap raised floor ideally), walls, ceiling, doors, etc. If there are windows, add another layer or two of clear plastic and make sure they are well-caulked. One nice thing about rigid foam board is that it allows you to build a smaller room within the space that you can heat, etc. more easily.

Now, add a decent walking floor and some knee-to-waist high walls where the torts are. I'd lay a heavy tarp over the floor to waterproof the place, then basically just build a decent habitat there.

After that, it is just a matter of heating, etc.


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## Maggie Cummings (Sep 10, 2010)

Bob lives in a 20X12 foot insulated and heated shed. We get snow and it stays below freezing for weeks at a time. 





The insulation is that fuzzy pink stuff. He sleeps in a sleeping box inside the shed. Inside the sleeping box is a pig blanket in one corner...










There is a heater too but the shed is so well insulated I don't use the heater much. It rarely gets below 80 degrees even without the heater. There is another tort table in there also and she has a daytime light and a night time light and a CHE. So all those hot things help keep the shed warm...
He has a basking Trex 250 watt light in one corner...





Remember that in climates like ours they have to stay inside for days at a time. They are pacers, in a normal day they walk for miles, so the more room you can give him the better off he will be. In my opinion, one of those small boxes is just not big enough to keep a Sulcata thru a cold winter, there is much more to healthy keeping then just making them warm. They need to walk and they need some sort of entertainment. I give Bob different toys to wreck, and he loves it. He also has a soccer ball to play with...

I open his doggie door no matter what the weather and leave it up to him if he wants to go out or not. If he can see it's raining or snowing for himself he is much better adjusted to staying inside. If I make him stay inside he gets pissed off and bangs the walls and poops then smears it all over. He moves his water dish around then poops in it. But if he can see on his own that it's too cold he stays in and basks nicely. But he is 80 pounds. I think your guy is too small to make those decisions on his own...I hope this helps. We don't get as much snow as you, but we get quite a bit...


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## Turtulas-Len (Sep 10, 2010)

This is my winter tort house, it is 8x8 ft with a 6 inch thick floor that has sheet pvc on the bottom to keep moisture out,fiberglass in between 1inch urethane insulation top and bottom with a 1/2 inch thick treated plywood floor base with a rubber type laminate flooring for ease of cleaning, The walls are also 6 in thick insulated as the floor except for the pvc sheeting, the roof is built with 2x4s insulated with mineral wool board 3 in thick with an aluminum ceiling,a vent at the peak on each end with a small computer fan at the back vent for air circulation. For heat there is a hanging CHE in the center,a 3x4 foot stanfield heat mat towards the front, and copper tubing run in the floor that can circulate hot water to heat the floor,(I have a 4 gallon hot water heater and a circulating pump that I hook up if this is needed) and a light socket above the door.The Ramp (door) is on hinges and can be raised up at night.The door curtain is made of several layers of 6 mil poly that are stapled across the top.-- One day I will put the vinyl siding on the outside.-- We can get some nasty winter weather here along the Potomac just south of Wash DC


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## borjawil (Sep 10, 2010)

Well thanks for all the help and knowing it can be done! What im planning is 8 x 12 then a door to a partially enclosed porch. hopefully this pic posts. The grey strip will be screen for air flow but not open enough for snow to get in. Ramp can go up and down depending on weather. The roof will be peaked so snow doesnt just pile up, and a wall as well as part of the roof will be on hinges to open for cleaning and tanking the tort out. This is the basic design, i may as a second floor-making it twice as tall- so he has more room. debating this as to whether to make it another 8x12 or 6x6 or something similar to save on heating. Let me know what ya think.


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