Help With Converting Bedroom to Tortoises Enclosure

Reggie

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My husband and I are looking for help with making our spare bedroom into an enclosure for our 6 year old leopard tortoise. I've learned so much from all the kind people on the forum and respect you all very much. We adopted Reggie 2 years ago when our grandson lost interest in him. We had begun caring for him a few years prior for vacations and - just like that - the little guy wiggled into our hearts. Conditions are less than ideal but we have done our best to give Reggie a good life. He is very social with us and seems happy. Our house is in a subdivision in Northern Indiana with a rather small yard so an outdoor enclosure isn't possible. When temps are 80 degrees or above we take Reggie outside, which is mid-May through maybe September. Winters here are very cold.

The bedroom we would like to convert to Reggie's room is 10 x 10 and is on the second floor of our house. We are hoping to get some insight from the group here to make the best decisions. His enclosure is in that same room now. We would be tripling Reggie's space if the whole room was his enclosure. We keep his enclosure at 80- 85 degrees with 5 thermostatically controlled CHE bulbs and a flood bulb for basking. Is there another way to safely elevate the heat in the room? The CHE's increase our electric bill significantly! I hope not to triple the CHE's if there's another way. For flooring, I've seen the threads here about using Flex Seal. Would this work if we used plywood flooring? Is there another flooring that would work better? I also saw a thread about using horse stall mats but wonder how we would make the seams between the mats waterproof. Does it make any sense to construct a greenhouse of lucite or acrylic inside the room to better control the environment? It seems like the room would be its own environment but we're looking for information from those with more experience and know-how.

Thank you for your help!
 

wellington

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If it were me. I would either set up a pop up greenhouse, I did this in my basement for a couple females I had as I didn't have room for them in my heated shed. Use a portable oil filled radiator type heater and then just one basking bulb. I laid a tarp down for the floor.
Or you can lay a tarp on your bedroom floor and then use orchid bark and coconut coir for the substrate along with some flat slate. Use the slate kinda as another walking surface but also as borders around the bark and coir to help keep it in place.
You can still add the radiator heater to heat the room and one basking light.

With both ideas, to lower electric costs, you can make a heated hide for night that stays 80 with the che or smaller portable heater or a pig blanket and RHP on a thermostat so the added radiator whole room radiator can be turned off. The hide would be heated and then whatever heat naturally goes into the room. Just be sure the extra heat comes on in the morning along with the basking light for the day time heat.
 

Reggie

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Thank you, Wellington. These are great ideas, We're thinking the perimeter of the room would be bordered with 1 x 12 boards. I suppose we should place the oil filled heater outside of the actual enclosure area for safety? I have a 20x20 Kane mat heater (same as a pig blanket?) that I didn't use after I learned on the Forum not to use it on the floor. Could we use it to heat the hide if I mounted it on the top?

One other question: How much UV bulb coverage would be recommended in this size?

Thanks again for your help.
 

wellington

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Yes the kane heat mat is the same as a pig blanket.
I would put the uvb over the food or buy the basking light. This would insure he uses it when eating or basking.
The kane mat can be used on the floor if there is also a heat source above it, both ran on same thermostat. Otherwise yes, you can hang it on the ceiling of the hide or even the side as long as you can out it high enough that he doesn't lay against it. Make the hide ceiling low, this will help keep the heat more at tort level.
Yes you can out the heater in the outside of the boards or put inside and build a frame around the lower part so it doesnt tip and the tort can't touch it.
 

Levi the Leopard

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Yikes, that's quite the undertaking! But kuddos to you for such willingness to provide a larger space for your tortoise.

Personally, I would avoid using tarp on the floor at all costs. Sure, it's a tightly woven material but that's far from being waterproof. If you aren't afraid to make "big changes", consider flooring the room and 12" up the walls with a solid piece of linoleum flooring. That will make it waterproof, protecting your real bedroom flooring for the day you change your mind or want to move. AND by going a foot up the wall you are just that much more protected. Caulk the corners and place a wood barrier 12" high across the doorway so the linoleum perimeter is unbroken. Now you're talking full tort room!

Once the entire flooring is in place, add your substrate as desired, potted plants perhaps and get creative with the decor. A stone pathway for you to walk on could help keep the mess down.

A small table can double as a hide while providing a place to hold an oil filled radiator. Heat the ambient room temperature that way, hang lights for a basking spot. You can use wall anchored planter hooks to suspend the lights without needing to mount them all the way on the ceiling.

I'd also put lots of decorative shelving in the room to grow edible plants....ok I'm getting carried away dreaming about it myself!

Hope some of this helps you :)
 

Reggie

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Yes the kane heat mat is the same as a pig blanket.
I would put the uvb over the food or buy the basking light. This would insure he uses it when eating or basking.
The kane mat can be used on the floor if there is also a heat source above it, both ran on same thermostat. Otherwise yes, you can hang it on the ceiling of the hide or even the side as long as you can out it high enough that he doesn't lay against it. Make the hide ceiling low, this will help keep the heat more at tort level.
Yes you can out the heater in the outside of the boards or put inside and build a frame around the lower part so it doesnt tip and the tort can't touch it.
Thank you! That's so helpful!! I knew I'd get great answers here :)
 

Reggie

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Yikes, that's quite the undertaking! But kuddos to you for such willingness to provide a larger space for your tortoise.

Personally, I would avoid using tarp on the floor at all costs. Sure, it's a tightly woven material but that's far from being waterproof. If you aren't afraid to make "big changes", consider flooring the room and 12" up the walls with a solid piece of linoleum flooring. That will make it waterproof, protecting your real bedroom flooring for the day you change your mind or want to move. AND by going a foot up the wall you are just that much more protected. Caulk the corners and place a wood barrier 12" high across the doorway so the linoleum perimeter is unbroken. Now you're talking full tort room!

Once the entire flooring is in place, add your substrate as desired, potted plants perhaps and get creative with the decor. A stone pathway for you to walk on could help keep the mess down.

A small table can double as a hide while providing a place to hold an oil filled radiator. Heat the ambient room temperature that way, hang lights for a basking spot. You can use wall anchored planter hooks to suspend the lights without needing to mount them all the way on the ceiling.

I'd also put lots of decorative shelving in the room to grow edible plants....ok I'm getting carried away dreaming about it myself!

Hope some of this helps you :)

Thank you, Team Gomberg! These are amazing ideas and I love all of them. Reggie would love those edible plants on the walls. I'm thinking grow lights would help and I could get seeds from Tortoise Supply (learned about this on the Forum). Do you know where I'd get 'clean' dirt to grow them?

I can't wait to get started!
 

wellington

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Yikes, that's quite the undertaking! But kuddos to you for such willingness to provide a larger space for your tortoise.

Personally, I would avoid using tarp on the floor at all costs. Sure, it's a tightly woven material but that's far from being waterproof. If you aren't afraid to make "big changes", consider flooring the room and 12" up the walls with a solid piece of linoleum flooring. That will make it waterproof, protecting your real bedroom flooring for the day you change your mind or want to move. AND by going a foot up the wall you are just that much more protected. Caulk the corners and place a wood barrier 12" high across the doorway so the linoleum perimeter is unbroken. Now you're talking full tort room!

Once the entire flooring is in place, add your substrate as desired, potted plants perhaps and get creative with the decor. A stone pathway for you to walk on could help keep the mess down.

A small table can double as a hide while providing a place to hold an oil filled radiator. Heat the ambient room temperature that way, hang lights for a basking spot. You can use wall anchored planter hooks to suspend the lights without needing to mount them all the way on the ceiling.

I'd also put lots of decorative shelving in the room to grow edible plants....ok I'm getting carried away dreaming about it myself!

Hope some of this helps you :)
All great ideas. However, the tarp will work just fine when there is substrate over it. Leopards don't dig down much if at all like other torts might. But either flooring would work, one much cheaper then the other. Also the heater on a table would just make it that much further away from heating the floor area. Heat rises and you need the heat at tort level. I had to install a ceiling fan in my shed to get the ambient heat back down to the floor. I'd keep the heat as close to or on the floor.
 

Reggie

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All great ideas. However, the tarp will work just fine when there is substrate over it. Leopards don't dig down much if at all like other torts might. But either flooring would work, one much cheaper then the other. Also the heater on a table would just make it that much further away from heating the floor area. Heat rises and you need the heat at tort level. I had to install a ceiling fan in my shed to get the ambient heat back down to the floor. I'd keep the heat as close to or on the floor.
I really appreciate your advice. That makes sense. You've both given us great ideas.

Do you know of a way to keep clean water available during the day? Reggie walks through it until its undrinkable. With more room, maybe we could create a niche that isn't easy to walk through. Have you had any success with this?
 

wellington

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I'm still working on that myself. Mine have two bowls and they usually dirty both.
My next try is a puppy bowl. It has a dome in the middle. Pictured below. Do a puppy bowl search on Anazon. There us a sell that sells them for 19.99 for two. Screenshot_20220803-124747_Amazon Shopping.jpg
 

Reggie

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Oh and you should have at least one dish he can go into so he can self soak should he want.
That bowl looks like it will work and reasonable, too. Thanks for sharing that.

I noticed 'similar threads' populated below our posts. One of them suggested a pond liner over the wood floor. I never would have thought of that. So we called around and found a remnant from our local pond supply landscaper that is the perfect size. All your ideas are coming together for a really great room for Reggie.
 

Reggie

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We are gathering the materials to complete the room for Reggie. For the pine boards that will surround the room, is there any harm to Reggie in sealing them Thompson's Water Seal to preserve the wood?

Also, from his current set up, we have two 24 inch UV bulbs. I hope to place them strategically in the 10w10 room (where he will be exposed the most based on his behavior) but do you think that will be sufficient UV exposure?

Thank you for your guidance!
 

wellington

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Can't wait to see it done so please show pics when it is.
The sealer should be fine as long as it is fully cured before putting him in there. The uvb sounds fine. Put one near his basking and the other over the feeding area.
 

jaizei

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Do you have a UV meter? Ideally, I would have them both near the basking area, creating a larger basking area, or at least over the warmest part of the enclosure. But having more than 1 UVB source can be tricky because if they overlap they can create spots with much higher UV. I would not put the UVB over the food or try to force exposure outside of the basking area.
 

wellington

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Do you have a UV meter? Ideally, I would have them both near the basking area, creating a larger basking area, or at least over the warmest part of the enclosure. But having more than 1 UVB source can be tricky because if they overlap they can create spots with much higher UV. I would not put the UVB over the food or try to force exposure outside of the basking area.
Why not over the food? The two spots you know they will go is the basking and food area. Putting both just over basking could cause too much as you mentioned you dont want.
 

Tom

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Why not over the food? The two spots you know they will go is the basking and food area. Putting both just over basking could cause too much as you mentioned you dont want.
UVB is most effective when the skin is also warmed, and using it in this way also simulates how UV and warmth go together when they are outdoors in the sun.
 
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