# Making a Room 'Tortoise Friendly'



## Madkins007 (Mar 12, 2012)

This is a spin-off of this thread- http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-The-floor-is-too-cold-for-them-I-Disagree#axzz1ouAcjcPM

If one was going to make a room in your house 'tortoise friendly', that is, a place for your tortoise to roam 24/7 when indoors, what would you need to do to make it safe, appropriate, and interesting for it? Here is what I would do in our spare bedroom/den.

HEAT/LIGHT/HUMIDITY
- Keep the entire room a comfortable temperature, 80ish would seem appropriate. Use space heaters or other heating as needed. A ceiling fan would greatly help by 'pushing' hot air at the ceiling back down to the ground level
- The room light could be on a timer to run it for about 12 hours a day (varied by season and species)
- I'd probably build an artificial 'clearing'- an area with a ceramic heat emitter or two heat source for the hot spot, and good long fluorescent UVB lighting about 12-15" above the ground. Set the UVB bulb so it ran for about 6-8 hours a day.
- Run a warm mist humidifier to get the room to about 40-60% humidity overall, and use plants, hides, and so on to create more humid areas.

HIDE/BURROWING
- I'd build a 'hide box' or two- basically just a large tub or small 'doghouse'-like box with several inches of soil/coir/sand/mulch to dig/snuggle/burrow in. It would need a good ramp to get up into, and I would add humidity in at least one of the boxes, probably with either a small scale humidifier or by hanging a bag of damp sponges in the box.
- In a corner of the room would be several largish potted, well-misted broadleaf plants to make a nice hiding place, again with additional humidity. 
- A fake brush pile of some branches wired together to make a good 'hill' the tortoise can climb or crawl into

OTHER
- A room like this should also be a comfy place for humans to be in the winter, so it would include a comfy chair, probably a small TV or laptop desk, etc. Keep the cords off the floor.
- Visual barriers would break the space up and make it more interesting for the tortoise- a footstool without feet, a line of planters, a bookcase pulled a 'tortoisewidth' from the wall, etc.
- I'd probably rig a large water dish/soaking pond so it sat in a larger shallow pan of rocks to the brim of the dish, with a broad, gentle ramp. The rocks would keep any overflow from messing the room
- I would probably feed in something like a cafeteria tray to help keep that mess contained as well

CLEANING
- Replace and clean food messes and water daily. Remove any poo as well
- Spot treat poo messes with a disinfectant wipe
- Sweep/dustmop every day or two
- Damp mop with a mild disinfectant weekly (while the torts soak or are 'locked' in a hide box)
- Clean/disinfect the humidifier weekly
- Use a mild disinfectant on all walls, etc. periodically to prevent mold or mildew from the temps/humidity


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## wellington (Mar 12, 2012)

With the damp substrate comes creepy crawly bugs  Do you have an idea of how to either keep them away completely  or to keep them contained in the room/substrate area? I plan on changing my torts room to give him more space. However to do so, he will have the room as his enclosure without bins/tubs. I am perplexed on how to keep the creepy bugs from crawling into the rest of my home. They now are contained to the tubs only. I do plan on changing it out for new. I use coir. I will bake the new stuff to try and kill anything living in it. However I don't know if that will keep them a way for good.


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## MORTYtheTORTY (Mar 12, 2012)

I can't see that working out for some reason...if you put a humidifier in a room won't you grow mold?! Like wellington said about the bugs...IDK what kind of room you have or what your talking about but I am picturing my guest room (a carpeted area) hahaha


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## Madkins007 (Mar 12, 2012)

My den has a hardwood floor (which I guess I thought everyone would assume. I cannot see keeping a tortoise on household carpet.)

If the room is only humidified to about 50%, mold should not be an issue overall, and an occasional wipe with a mild bleach solution should prevent and kill any that tries to develop.

Bugs in the substrate- because the idea would use so little, the substrate could be sterilized by heat (oven or sunlight in a black plastic bag), or freezing. You would still be susceptible to springtails and fungal gnats, but in this design, I would keep the substrate pretty dry and just humidify the air in the hide.

Please understand- this is a thought experiment only at this point. I am planning to build a big tort table/mini-greenhouse this summer for the next winter because I think it would be a better habitat than trying to convert the whole room.

But- for those people who really want to let them free-roam, what would it take?


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## wellington (Mar 13, 2012)

I too will be building a greenhouse, with a heated dog house attached for winters. However, I think my leopard is still to small to stay outside next winter. Not really sure how big he will be by then. I am assuming, it will be in about another two winters before he can stay outside. However, I do plan on bringing him in at night. So I am going to do the room thing. I just haven't figured out the bug thing. I can't get over the bugs, they creep me out. I did assume you were not going to do it on carpet. I too have the wood floor. I guess if the coir is kept more in a humid hide, maybe the bugs will stay more in there. I will also be baking it or something to try and kill any thing in it. Thanks for the ideas


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## jaizei (Mar 13, 2012)

To keep the bugs under control, you could try using an essential oil (peppermint oil, etc.) mixed with water and sprayed around the perimeter creating a boundary.


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