# Koopa's tortarium 2.0



## Orpexo (Sep 4, 2011)

Hey all  I was a bit tired of my terrarium and wanted to built a new one. My former one was built in a hurry when I received my tortoise, I had not much tools, not much time and not much money at that time, the cuts were not straight. But at least it was a confortable home for my koopa baby.

Since then I had more time and started thinking of building a better one. Here is the result, a double decker habitat, wich means twice the space she used to have. It is 60cm*120cm, so it is approx 15 squared feet to roam with the additional floor. It is not totally finished but it's allready a lot better than my former habitat 







One of the priority was to have as much direct sunlight possible. So I made the top as an open table. The heigth of the tortarium was made so I can open the window, this way koopa can bask in direct and natural sun light from 9h00 to 12h30.






A ramp goes down to the main floor, where there is all the confort from the older vivarium: Uv tube, basking light, habba mist, soon I'll add a webcam 






The part my wife likes the most is the draws at the bottom. No more tortoise stuff lying above the habitat, everything is kept inside. Finally another improvment compared to my old set up is that the whole thing is on wheels and is easy to move 

I made a few change from my former set up. Firstly I switched the substrate from garden dirt/soil to a cypress mulch/coco mix. Just to try, I ll see how it goes. I used to have live plants but after a few month I always had insect problems. So I bought some fake plants, I'll see how koopa behaves with them, I hope she'll not try to eat that.

There are a few improvments I still want to make in the future. I'm afraid as she grows she can climb over the top edge of the open table part. So I'm looking to add a removable framed net over the top. I'll also keep an eye on the black tape I used to water-proof everything, I don't like the look of it, but I didn't come up with something good to replace it yet.


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## terryo (Sep 4, 2011)

Wow...that's beautiful. I'm so impressed. Does he climb up there himself? Have you seen him do this. I love that!!


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## Orpexo (Sep 4, 2011)

Thx  The first day she did not used the ramp, despite the fact she roamed a lot. She always roams a lot when I change her environment. The second day she went up, as I was putting the food on top to motivate her . But she was stuck there for some time, she was looking down the ramp from the edge, making a long neck with her head down as she does when she is affraid of falling. It took her the entire day to find the courage to go down the ramp, but she finally did.

It's been almost a week now and she goes up and and down easily. There is some kind of soft net taped on the ramp, her claws gets in, but even without claws she wouldn't slide. I feel she goes down more easily than she goes up tough, she does not go up unless the food is there. I m not sure if it's because she finds the top side too open, too dry, or simply because it is more tiring to climb up than to walk down... lol


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## dmarcus (Sep 4, 2011)

That is very nice...


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## dbsneed69 (Sep 4, 2011)

I want one!!! Yup, I think I might have to steal a few ideas from you. I love the idea of having wheels on it. Looks great!!


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## Jacqui (Sep 4, 2011)

Nice! No falling off the ramp? When you open the window, is there still a screen on the window or wire or completely open?


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## Orpexo (Sep 4, 2011)

There are two sliding window panes on the front side. By sliding them I can open only one half of the length at a time. The ramp is on the back side of the vivarium, away from the sliding windows. On one side of the ramp it is the back of the vivarium, so no falling, on the other side their is a plexiglass sheet. I choose plexiglass as it is easy to cut the shape you want, pretty solid, quite thin and you can see through it. However I added black tape at some places on the transparent plexiglass, just so that my tort does not get scared of falling and sees the plexiglass wall. You can see the ramp with taped plexiglass on the top-right side of this picture. The picture was taken during the work, so the window panes are not set yet, but at the bottom you can see the aluminium profil in which they slide.

Feel free to steal all the ideas you want, I'll be happy to answer questions if you have some  here are more pictures:
work in progress
wheels
eletric cables hidden at the back

and here's a pict of koopa, just because I like it


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## Robert (Sep 4, 2011)

Looks nice! I too am a fan of the Multi-level enclosure. It definitely makes for more room to roam in a smaller footprint. Nice job!

If I can make one suggestion, make sure you can get at the ramp easily. My Leia always poops on her ramps. I think this is a result of mobility increasing motility. 

Awesome work thanks for sharing.


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## Jacqui (Sep 4, 2011)

I love the long reach.... So folks should be getting use to these next two questions... how much time did this take you and how much money?


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## Orpexo (Sep 4, 2011)

I spent two week-ends (4days) building it. But taking many breaks during the work, I couldn't be working too hard it was week-end after all  However it also took me a long time before that to design the habitat: you gotta know the dimensions of each wood panel you need, how many screws, etc... I triple checked everything before going to the shop but I still did a mistake and picked up the wrong size on one panel. That was a lot of time wasted to fix it.

Concerning the price, I paid between 100 ad 150 euros for the wood panels (cut at the shop on dimensions asked).
The pins, screws and cable ties are for 20 euros.
The glass and plexiglass was for 30 euros.
The tape and napkin used to waterproof was around 40 euros.
the two draws kit was around 25 euros each.
The lights and the habba mist are worth maybe 140 euros.
You may add 50 euros more for the rest (wheels, aluminium profils, extenders, etc..)

so the total would be between 400 and 500 euros. ( a bit less than 700$)
Than does not include all the tools you need to build it (driller, screwdrivers, jigsaw, pinch, hammer, glue, etc..)


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## Orpexo (Sep 5, 2011)

I forgot to count the price of the tortoise furniture: substrate, plants, hide, water dishes, etc..

I also forgot to take into account the price of the tortoise furniture (water dish, hides, substrate, fake plants, etc..)


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## Jacqui (Sep 5, 2011)

Thank you for the detailed price break down, it's exactly what I was hoping for!


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## ALDABRAMAN (Sep 5, 2011)

Very Nice!


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