Large Indoor Sulcata Tortoise Enclosure

JoshyP said:

Thank you!. Personally, I think that’s one of the things that makes this community so great. I’d go as far to say that most, if not all of us have incorrectly looked after our shelled companions at one point or another, but realised how wrong we were. I hope more people will come across this forum and do what’s right for their sully!

It most certainly is inspiring! Thoroughly impressed with their build and dedication!

As for digging up our own soil, we have the ability to do this thankfully and might actually help us out in the future. I’ve seen some suppliers selling pine specifically for reptile use, but this comes with the reptile equivalate to ‘wedding tax’ so can end up being fairly expensive. Like you suggested, a mixture of various different substrates and depths sounds like the best idea! Thanks.

I’ve learnt quite a lot from this thread that I otherwise wouldn’t have known. I previously thought that high humidity was one of the most important things for a sulcata throughout their whole life, but from what people have shared and thinking about it, the idea of having a humid hide with the rest of the enclosure being “normal” make a lot of sense, so thank you for sharing and explaining further! Obviously, I’ll try my best to give the “ideal” conditions for Stompy, but am also slightly relived that it won’t impact Stompy as much as I thought it would if it’s not possible to do so.

As for sq footage, initially it will be 13ft x 7ft. We’re converting the summerhouse in sections so that Stompy can have access to a bigger indoor enclosure for the winter then he previously had. I didn’t want to convert the whole summer house at once and it not be done in time and then him having to be put in a smaller enclosure. Once this part of the enclosure is converted, we’re planning to then convert the other rooms and also build an extension to the summer house to make it all one big room/enclosure. Not entirely sure how big it will end up being as I haven't given the extension too much thought. We've got about 5x the space to convert into his enclosure, so somewhere around there. That's before extending or anything like that. This enclosure will pretty much only be for the winter though as he like to spend a lot of his time outside in the summer.

That was also a concern I had regarding the tents, and I believe Tom mentioned something similar. I’ll have a look into it all a bit further. Thanks for the idea of the polly tunnel material stuff. I’ve seen someone else do something like that on this forum somewhere so might try to find that thread again.

The solar meter is on the shopping list, which seems to be getting bigger day by day! I don’t mind spending the money on the things my tort needs though. He’s part of the family! Thanks again specifically for your help!

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Littleredfootbigredheart said:

Absolutely! Pretty much everyone here has made mistakes, it’s great having this place to unite and discuss all these different topics, we all get to learn from one another

I know! I love it! My diy skills could never

That’s great and sounds like a good plan

Wow I’m always excited to see larger scale projects like this unfold! Would love to see your progress if you’re up for sharing, no pressure

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Littleredfootbigredheart said:

Hello and welcome from a fellow uk member!

I really appreciate the tone of your whole post, most people who own sulcatas in the uk don’t understand the space&enviroment these animals need, many presume they’re fine to walk the floors of their home for extended periods, causing all sorts of health issues in the long run
It’s always refreshing when someone joins with the understanding that the species they own, in the climate they’re in, is far from ideal. A family member of mine bought a red foot years before we all met, he was completely uneducated and unaware of the space she’d need as an adult, red foot’s thrive in such high humidity, making it difficult to maintain the environment on the scale she needs, we’ve had to get creative. Learning everything we have over the years, I’m truly of the opinion that these large tropical species like sulcatas, red foots, leopards etc, shouldn’t be allowed as household pets here, they definitely do best in a climate that can be outdoors year round, but we live and we learnwe can only do our best by our shelled companions once they’re in our lives, and it certainly seems you’re ready and willing to give your sulcata everything you can

Now I’ve never attempted the kind of build you have in mind, @Tom could probably offer you some great advice, and there’s a member who is also in the uk like us, who built on of the most impressive indoor builds I’ve ever seen! His name is @Anyfoot not 100% sure how active he is these days, so I’ll add the thread to his incredible build! Not saying to you have to go this grandbut I’ll bet you’ll find it great to scroll through! (Bear in mind it’s ten years old so some of the bulbs he uses aren’t what’s recommended today)

Indoor enclosure

I've finally got around to start decorating the inside of my Tortoise house. 3 months behind schedule. My plan is listed below. Hence the word plan, plans change. 1 Build caves 2 Build base for water feature. 3 Board and seal the ceiling. 4 Paint everything with chlorinated rubber paint...

tortoiseforum.org

Maybe you can pick his brains

My thoughts on some of your questions;

1) handy that it’s vinyl and not carpet! I see you mention lower down that folks don’t really use pond lining on here, but there’s definitely plenty who do, ourselves included, it works great! I’m not sure if it can be utilised on the scale you need it, or if there’s potentially more efficient ways of proofing the room, so I’m hoping the guys above will have some pointers there.

2) this is a damn good question! And unfortunately there isn’t the easiest answer, folks over in the US are lucky in that their orchid bark is made from different trees to our orchid bark, they’re able to get their hands on bulk buys at garden centres n such, whereas the only way our orchid bark here is safe for substrate use, is to buy it through a reputable reptile brand, it has to be prepared a certain way, so we essentially have to pay a ‘premium’ price, annoying right?! I’m not sure what kind any foot used, I would stay clear of store bought soils. Even forest floor/cypress is too expensive here
This is an initial idea I had, I haven’t got hands on experience with a build like this, so there’s probably better ideas, but laying something like this down
View attachment 394825
Nailing it to go up the wall slightly(doesn’t have to be much), and then over the top of that I’d screw wooden boards around the parameter of the room(just over tortoise height), to one, stop him potentially trying to pull the flooring away from the wall, and two, it’s another barrier from his shell grazing the wall, or him trying to butt into it lol.
In terms of substrate, again I’m hoping the guys above might have suggestions for you. I don’t think it would hurt if you were to just partially cover some of the room, maybe you could add a slab here n there for some different texture.

3) I’m presuming the current enclosure you’ve had him in is a large closed chamber type? How big/ old is he now? I’m guessing he’s still a size that would benefit from higher humidity? if that’s the case, perhaps you could build a closed chamber area within the room itself, with heat panels, uvb and a thick substrate layer to provide the more humid area, there’s kind of a visual example on the indoor section of this thread I made, it’s under ‘dedicated room enclosures’, they had carpet in their room, definitely wouldn’t suggest that.
If the majority of the open area doesn’t have much substrate, you shouldn’t have to worry about protecting the room from moisture damage, especially with the flooring liner underneath.

4) this very much depends on the questions above on how big/old he is now? A photo would be greatit’ll be a good indicator on what kind of scale you’re aiming for. Am I understanding that you’re wanting to build a large closed set up inside a summer house that you can lift the lid on, or are you wanting to use the entire space because of how big he’s getting? If heating a large room sized space, you’ll have to look into things like oil heaters with a guard around(examples in the inspiration thread), perhaps setting up areas with radiant heat panels over head for him to go to. Once sulcatas reach a certain size, any kind of heat bulbs are no longer appropriate and panels are a must, bulbs simply don’t heat the core of a large tortoise enough. They benefit from belly heat once reaching a larger size, people use things called kane mats, controlled by a thermostat. I don’t have experience with them, I’m hoping Tom or someone like @EppsDynasty might be able to comment there/point you in the best direction for heating a larger space for this giant species indoors.

5) another great question! One I found myself asking once, with the uv timing, every other source of information will tell you 12hours of uv. This is essentially an old fashioned rule that has stuck with a lot of keepers, it stems from the presumption that once the basking light or ambient lighting is on, ie the ‘sun’, that uv must coexist the same amount of hours. Fact is, uv rays only peak for a few hours a day, anyone with a uv meter will confirm this. No tortoise is blasted with 12 hours of uv in the wild, therefore it’s not necessary in captivity. Whilst not necessarily dangerous, it’s potentially annoying to the tortoise to have 12hours on uv in the enclosure.
The right uv bulbs are much more expensive to replace once their uv strength diminishes, so it’s definitely best having it on a 4 hour timer that provides them with all the uv they need, saving your bulb life.
Your uvb choice is perfectyou’ve got the fancier model of what we have.

Hopefully this has inspired some potential ideas and alerted the best members to advise wherever I’ve fell short
Wonderful to have you aboard! I look forward to seeing where your build

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UnHooked said:

Sorry but I have to jump in on this info! Seeing that I may need to get rid of basking bulbs now myself? I have a radiant heat panel keeping ambient temps in a 4ft by 5ft enclosure. Working on outdoor enclosure but in meantime my big guy is now 11in. Is the 60 watt flood bulb I got next to his t5 no good? Been hearing the basking bulbs are no longer needed. Should I just get more ambient lighting and maybe add a che for warmer basking heat? What am I needing now for his proper heat, uva, etc. Not wanting to use Kane mat cause he has dirt to dig in there. And did I read correctly that I should only have t5 on for 4 or 5 hrs daily?

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