I bought dowel rod from the craft store and my hubby used his saw to split them in half. The we used non toxic glue to adhere them to a plank of wood. Then I stuffed the moss in the cracks. The "bedroom" is a crate i found at the craft store also (Joanne's). And my hubby used his saw to make an archway entrance. And same for all the fencing. There are no nails, we drilled small holes in the wood and used a little wood glue and tooth picks to hold the pieces together.
@Nolan1992 Thank you! I trained my reds how to go down the ramp properly without falling off the edge in ONE week! I placed food on the rock upstairs and made a small trail of food leading up. I did the same thing the next day leading down. Day after day alternating. If they appeared to try to walk off the edge, I simply put my hand there. And now they walk up and down safely and confidently! They even peer over the edge and then look back up and straight ahead and walk right up! Its amazing how fast they learned! And it's great exercise!
@christinaland128 I am definitely interested in making one similar to yours for my two little RFs. I will definitely implement your training program to keep them from falling off as well
I started with a large (but i already want larger) sterilite bin. They have huge ones at target and home depot especially near christmas for storing faux trees.
My hubby built a wooden frame with a bottom complete with casters/wheels so i can roll the whole enclosure into the sunny doorway. He used L shaped brackets in the corners for extra support.
We placed the bin in the wooden box and he had to use some dowel rod to fill any spaces the torts could potentially jam their head in.
We used more wooden rods to hold all the lighting which is also mounted to the enclosure. (I'll post a pic of that).
The substrate is 6" organic non fertilized topsoil. Its this deep because I have a zoo med heat nat adhered to the bottom of the plastic bin. (THE COMPANY does not recommend this) BUT I've been testing it out and it so far does NOT melt the plastic in any way shape or form. I only use the heat mats at night.
On top of the soil is zoo med forest floor mix. And coconut coir, all mixed in. Then I scattered sphagnum moss all over and stuffed it between the plants,
The list of safe non toxic edible plants is from www.thetortoisetable.org. I originally had a log slice in the enclosure to place food on but removed it because a) it's not hard enough to file their beaks a little during mealtimes, and b) it started molding. Now i have a white slate rock that i can clean nicely.
The fogger I ordered on amazon. A zoo med reptile fogger. It was loud at first but I took the bottom off and cushioned the fan with duct tape and now its quiet as a mouse.
