Opinions on outdoor enclosure

Hello guys and gals! I am looking into building a bigger outdoor enclosure for Flash soon. His current outdoor is a kiddie pool setup, but he is an adventurous little guy and I want to add more area for him to explore. I am looking into building a 4x4 using the wood plank and planter wall block method, which can easily be made into a 8x4+ when the time comes.

I am wanting to do an almost completely planted enclosure for this outdoor one. I won't be building this over any grass/outdoor soil because I am renting an apartment and do not trust (or have rights to) the soil or grass outside. I plan on building this enclosure on the roofless patio, so there will be concrete under the enclosure and full sun above it. I am also thinking of adding hardware cloth with a weed barrier fabric under it at the bottom to provide a layer between substrate and concrete. Flash is not a huge digger (as of now), should I ever worry about him consistently trying to dig at the hardware cloth/concrete? I plan on having the substrate be at least a 8-12 inches deep, his burrow indoors that he dug himself is only 2 inches deep. I want to plant a fescue, clover, and dandelion mix with wheatgrass/cat grass and the testudo seed mix covering a good portion of the enclosure to hopefully encourage grazing behavior. For deep shade I will have a patio umbrella or shade sail over the corner with his burrow. I plan to add a door style roof to the enclosure, either all chicken wire, or part chicken wire part wood plank for shade, with the option to leave it fully open.

This will be a "field trip" enclosure until he gets older. Does this sound good for him? Anything I need to add, subtract, or change? All advice is appreciated, this is my first rodeo!

What you are planning sounds quite nice.

Definitely provide protection from all sides and top. You don't want a bird or cat getting into the enclosure. (Or him climbing out...)

4x4 isn't very big. Can you make it 4x8?

I'd have half of it double covered so that the first shade provider is also shaded by a second shade-making one. It helps cool it a tad more.

Watch really closely. What humans think of as acceptable isn't always ok for a tort. He could get over-heated if its a sunny day.

Not sure that lining underneath it will be adequate. It will discolor the concrete just by sitting there, but with water percolating down through, there will be even worse marks/stains. Could you line it inside the enclosure with heavy plastic sheeting or pond liner inside, too, so that it stops before it hits the concrete?


These may have some fun ideas you could use ~

COmtnLady said:

What you are planning sounds quite nice.

Definitely provide protection from all sides and top. You don't want a bird or cat getting into the enclosure. (Or him climbing out...)

4x4 isn't very big. Can you make it 4x8?

I'd have half of it double covered so that the first shade provider is also shaded by a second shade-making one. It helps cool it a tad more.

Watch really closely. What humans think of as acceptable isn't always ok for a tort. He could get over-heated if its a sunny day.

Not sure that lining underneath it will be adequate. It will discolor the concrete just by sitting there, but with water percolating down through, there will be even worse marks/stains. Could you line it inside the enclosure with heavy plastic sheeting or pond liner inside, too, so that it stops before it hits the concrete?


These may have some fun ideas you could use ~

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I hadn't thought of pond liner! That is a much better solution. I am honestly thinking about going ahead and making it 4x8, especially if I'll eventually end up doing that anyways. I'll have to deplete the coco coir stock of every pet and garden store in a 50 mile radius lol. I'll go ahead and plan for the "roof" of the enclosure to have a covered section, I wasn't sure if shade being too close to the substrate would cause any issues.

I'll definitely keep an eye on him, he is far too little to be outside alone yet! This is more of a 1-2 hours every evening type of thing for now (especially with the temps down here being 90+ lately).

I am not terribly worried about the concrete as it was already in a pretty discolored condition when we moved in, but the pond liner idea is awesome. Would I have to worry about a lack of drainage? I plan on fully covering the enclosure on rainy days, but I still have to moisten the soil and water the vegetation, would it eventually cause mold?