NolaBillie
New Member
Hi hello all,
I need help on re-doing my outdoor enclosure. It's for a red foot, who is um... currently still at large. I built it before I came across this forum and all the pics of your awesome enclosures - yeah at the time I thought it was escape-proof. Obviously not. Here's our backyard:
So not much space. And here's the tortoise enclosure:
It's 4' x 5.4', designed for a 5 month old red foot.
The three non-fence sides vary from 10" height to a 6" height I just found while measuring it all. In early construction last spring I dug down 3" below the stone and fencing to embed chicken wire or rock. So... how high do the walls have to be? Is wood better? Stone? I wanted to mix it up for visual interest (didn't want my little guy to feel too imprisoned
, but maybe that's not best? If it's not brutally hot (peak summer sun hours), I liked to let him run in here until evening. Here's some close-ups of the sides:
And here it is, open, top down view
So what do you guys think? For the future, I need some pointers on how high reds can climb. I started this tortoise journey with Amanda Ebenhack's book (which is pretty great), but even trying to follow her guidelines I obviously haven't built an escape-proof place.
My eventual plan is to have an adult red just having run of the place. But in the hatchling/juvenile stage, every 2" gap at the base of the fence counts.
Thanks so much in advance for your comments and advice!
I need help on re-doing my outdoor enclosure. It's for a red foot, who is um... currently still at large. I built it before I came across this forum and all the pics of your awesome enclosures - yeah at the time I thought it was escape-proof. Obviously not. Here's our backyard:
So not much space. And here's the tortoise enclosure:
It's 4' x 5.4', designed for a 5 month old red foot.
The three non-fence sides vary from 10" height to a 6" height I just found while measuring it all. In early construction last spring I dug down 3" below the stone and fencing to embed chicken wire or rock. So... how high do the walls have to be? Is wood better? Stone? I wanted to mix it up for visual interest (didn't want my little guy to feel too imprisoned
, but maybe that's not best? If it's not brutally hot (peak summer sun hours), I liked to let him run in here until evening. Here's some close-ups of the sides:And here it is, open, top down view
So what do you guys think? For the future, I need some pointers on how high reds can climb. I started this tortoise journey with Amanda Ebenhack's book (which is pretty great), but even trying to follow her guidelines I obviously haven't built an escape-proof place.
My eventual plan is to have an adult red just having run of the place. But in the hatchling/juvenile stage, every 2" gap at the base of the fence counts.
Thanks so much in advance for your comments and advice!
