Advice please - enclosure

[GraceB4]

Hello,

I have recently rehomed a Hermann tortoise and I am looking to build him an outdoor enclosure. He is currently in a large homemade table. He is 15.

There will be electricity access and so I am wondering how big the hutch part has to be so as not to pose a fire risk with the basking light.
I plan to get a tubular heater for heat control too.

Additionally, does anyone have any experience of their tortoise going to their outside enclosure in the day and bringing them in at night. Or if the correct lighting and heating set up is correct could he stay out overnight.

I am in the UK.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

@Tom is the one to ask about heated houses.

 

[Tom]

Hello,

I have recently rehomed a Hermann tortoise and I am looking to build him an outdoor enclosure. He is currently in a large homemade table. He is 15.

There will be electricity access and so I am wondering how big the hutch part has to be so as not to pose a fire risk with the basking light.
I plan to get a tubular heater for heat control too.

Additionally, does anyone have any experience of their tortoise going to their outside enclosure in the day and bringing them in at night. Or if the correct lighting and heating set up is correct could he stay out overnight.

I am in the UK.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hello and welcome to the forum. The answers you seek are here in this thread, but please feel free to ask lots of questions after reading it:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello,

I have recently rehomed a Hermann tortoise and I am looking to build him an outdoor enclosure. He is currently in a large homemade table. He is 15.

There will be electricity access and so I am wondering how big the hutch part has to be so as not to pose a fire risk with the basking light.
I plan to get a tubular heater for heat control too.

Additionally, does anyone have any experience of their tortoise going to their outside enclosure in the day and bringing them in at night. Or if the correct lighting and heating set up is correct could he stay out overnight.

I am in the UK.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hello from a fellow UK member! Always great to see folks join from this side of the pond

Hopefully you might like looking over some of these, but yes if you’re wanting to build a large heated night box for him to stay in, @Tom has some great tutorials, there in some of the links I’ll add below.

If you’re ever considering setting him up indoors, This thread covers correct equipment(uvb, heating bulbs, lighting etc, definitely double check bulb types, folks unfortunately sold the wrong ones often), correct levels, appropriately maintaining the humidity, safe substrates, there’s lots of visual examples for everything, and a handy diet link!

Housing adult Russian and Hermans indoors

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information an example of an appropriate indoor set up for an older Herman/russian. As much as it’s encouraged to have tortoises in a safe outdoor enclosure, I understand being from the uk myself, that some climates make it difficult to...

tortoiseforum.org

This includes lots of inspiration for an adult set up both indoors and out! The indoor bit has some good ideas to tackle indoor space whilst still providing the needed roaming room! Check comments too, I’m always adding to it, I have a huge back log I need to add, the outdoor section includes Toms tutorials

Enclosure inspiration

Howdy folks! Hope everyone is well! As you all know, I’m a big fan of making threads that cater more towards visual learners like myself, I’ve really been wanting to create a thread full of adult enclosure inspiration for a while now, I’ve managed to find some great references over time! I do...

tortoiseforum.org

Now that housing thread discusses an open top set up, which is fine for adult tortoises, but I will say, knowing how cold our uk winters get, for those who don’t brumate their temperate species(not sure if you plan to?), they can really struggle keeping their temperates where needed, a cover can come in really handy for maintaining your heat, the most efficient closed set ups are melamine/pvc vivs. A place called Southdown aquatics actually does custom sized vivs in the uk if you’re ever in the market for that kind of thing

Visual inspiration

Hi guys! I’ve had some lovely messages complimenting me on my care sheets I made for all the visuals they include! That makes me so happy because as a visual learner myself, that was my goal🥰 I’ve recently had some requests for some more visual inspiration for set ups that can house babies/...

tortoiseforum.org

This is Toms brumation thread if you wanted to look into the process for next year

Tom's Brumation Thread

Every fall we get bombarded here on the forum with all sorts of questions and problems regarding hibernation and tortoises "slowing down" for winter. The purpose of this thread is to talk about all aspects of this subject, to dispel some of the myths and mysteries, and give a "how to" list of...

tortoiseforum.org

Lastly, this one here is good to go over and keep on hand, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I always encourage double checking purchases on the forum too before buying

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope this all helps! Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new companion! Let me know if you need links to any uk products

 

[GraceB4]

Hello from a fellow UK member! Always great to see folks join from this side of the pond

Hopefully you might like looking over some of these, but yes if you’re wanting to build a large heated night box for him to stay in, @Tom has some great tutorials, there in some of the links I’ll add below.

If you’re ever considering setting him up indoors, This thread covers correct equipment(uvb, heating bulbs, lighting etc, definitely double check bulb types, folks unfortunately sold the wrong ones often), correct levels, appropriately maintaining the humidity, safe substrates, there’s lots of visual examples for everything, and a handy diet link!

Housing adult Russian and Hermans indoors

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information an example of an appropriate indoor set up for an older Herman/russian. As much as it’s encouraged to have tortoises in a safe outdoor enclosure, I understand being from the uk myself, that some climates make it difficult to...

tortoiseforum.org

This includes lots of inspiration for an adult set up both indoors and out! The indoor bit has some good ideas to tackle indoor space whilst still providing the needed roaming room! Check comments too, I’m always adding to it, I have a huge back log I need to add, the outdoor section includes Toms tutorials

Enclosure inspiration

Howdy folks! Hope everyone is well! As you all know, I’m a big fan of making threads that cater more towards visual learners like myself, I’ve really been wanting to create a thread full of adult enclosure inspiration for a while now, I’ve managed to find some great references over time! I do...

tortoiseforum.org

Now that housing thread discusses an open top set up, which is fine for adult tortoises, but I will say, knowing how cold our uk winters get, for those who don’t brumate their temperate species(not sure if you plan to?), they can really struggle keeping their temperates where needed, a cover can come in really handy for maintaining your heat, the most efficient closed set ups are melamine/pvc vivs. A place called Southdown aquatics actually does custom sized vivs in the uk if you’re ever in the market for that kind of thing

Visual inspiration

Hi guys! I’ve had some lovely messages complimenting me on my care sheets I made for all the visuals they include! That makes me so happy because as a visual learner myself, that was my goal🥰 I’ve recently had some requests for some more visual inspiration for set ups that can house babies/...

tortoiseforum.org

This is Toms brumation thread if you wanted to look into the process for next year

Tom's Brumation Thread

Every fall we get bombarded here on the forum with all sorts of questions and problems regarding hibernation and tortoises "slowing down" for winter. The purpose of this thread is to talk about all aspects of this subject, to dispel some of the myths and mysteries, and give a "how to" list of...

tortoiseforum.org

Lastly, this one here is good to go over and keep on hand, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I always encourage double checking purchases on the forum too before buying

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope this all helps! Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new companion! Let me know if you need links to any uk products

Thanks so much for your well detailed reply I will take a look over the links shared.