I didn't prep near enough substrate for the dig depth I want - but I got the spider plants and the hosta that I've been growing in containers for ~ a year planted with what I had so they have a shot at transitioning and establishing before its fully completed
Its going to have a hardware cloth cover over top when its 100% finished (my worry is less the dog and more my cats - the dog is never left unsupervised indoors, usually he's kenneled when there's no one actively watching him, or he's outside with me supervising the sheep as his job, the cats on...
It's been a long time since I've been able to make progress on builds (sorry pacer new home is coming at some point), but I knocked out another good section of his new indoor enclosure today, with the hopes that the next build day I have I can fully finish it up and transition him over to it
1/2 of the base is almost completed (just need to screw the top on and add some supports across the top, then the extras to turn it into a dog crate (door+wire)
Also got his beak trimmed some this morning, its still a little bit long but I didn't want to manhandle him too much longer since he...
getting some of the smaller items done in between working on building other stuff in the barn
Light mounts are completed, next step is to start cutting the wood for the frame!
(+ tort tax from this weeks soak, his beak needs trimmed big time but I am still debating if I should do it myself or...
I'm a visual person so don't worry - there's a badly drawn example of what my brain is thinking of
I think the things I'm worried about with the original plan as is, is that I wouldn't have much wiggle room with the heat lamp on up vs down to get basking temps right (Was thinking the left side...
I'm almost thinking I could do an angled base on the side by the outlets since I only need the full 36 inches on the side that I'm making the base = a dog crate - would having the larger portion of the enclosure be on a permanent "hill" be an issue?
the loft bed arrived so now its time to start the actual full planning and building! did some masking tape marks so I could doodle a markup of what space it would occupy/check feasibility of light position to potential shell height. I'm picking up plywood on friday but will try to work on the...
Really interesting topic to consider - Grasses in general have a high amount of variability in the amount of sugar, digestibility of said sugars and can often be too high in sugars for animals that are well designed to digest it (i.e bloat in ruminants and founder in horses)
In mammal nutrition...
I was thinking that making the ramp the width of the enclosure would probably be the easiest way to make the access up and down safe, since I'd probably have to make some kind of barrier to keep him from trying to climb up and down whatever ledge results from the transition to a different height...
Just got started on mixing soil (approximately 50% coco coir 50% homemade compost) and planting testudo mix in these planters so they will (hopefully) have strong enough plants going once I get things built!
Thinking about the logistics of incorporating them into my build, I think I'll have to...
Thank you for the tips and support! I greatly appreciate having access to all of the knowledge and wisdom across the forum 💕
I'll definitely be documenting the build (since his old owner of 14 years works with me and loves to hear about how he's doing) so I'll update this thread as I make...
on the topic of substrate for the outside planters - I make my own compost (the old mix was pine shavings and sheep waste, new mix (after getting schooled by some wool processers) is straw, waste hay, sheep manure, and the occasional horse pile, I never put trimmings from yard work on the pile)...