Animal Plastics Enclosure?

[brinomighty]

We just got a young RF. Not sure how old he is but his shell is about 3-1/2 inches. We currently have him in a 40 gal screen topped enclosure and as I am sure you can guess, keeping the humidity up is a challenge. I see closed chamber setups are recommend to help with that and was contemplating getting a PVC enclosure and really like the American Plastics version.

We were contemplating getting the 48Lx30Wx18H version. Would this be a suitable size to last us a few years before our guys will out grow it? We of course will be supplementing his time actually outdoors on days weather permits but will have him indoors at night. We live in SoCal so outside time should be frequent. Also, any concerns over a light colored enclosure over a dark/black enclosure?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Attached is unit we are contemplating.

Thanks.

 

[Yvonne G]

In my opinion, this will be ok until he outgrows it.

 

[Tom]

We just got a young RF. Not sure how old he is but his shell is about 3-1/2 inches. We currently have him in a 40 gal screen topped enclosure and as I am sure you can guess, keeping the humidity up is a challenge. I see closed chamber setups are recommend to help with that and was contemplating getting a PVC enclosure and really like the American Plastics version.

We were contemplating getting the 48Lx30Wx18H version. Would this be a suitable size to last us a few years before our guys will out grow it? We of course will be supplementing his time actually outdoors on days weather permits but will have him indoors at night. We live in SoCal so outside time should be frequent. Also, any concerns over a light colored enclosure over a dark/black enclosure?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Attached is unit we are contemplating.

Thanks.

Animal Plastics cages are excellent, but the wait time is ridiculous. You need it now, and if you order it today, it will not arrive until Spring of 2024. Not kidding. Its really sad because they are a great company with a great product, but they can't keep up with their orders. By the time your cage arrives, your tortoise will have outgrown it.

48 x 30 is fine to start a tiny hatchling in, but a RF will outgrow that in less than a year, unless something is slowing its growth.

Get a smart enclosure from @Markw84 . They are the best tortoise enclosures on the market. The price includes all the heating and lighting already wired in, so it is actually cheaper than buying all the materials separately and building it all yourself. If you add up the price of an AP cage, plus all the heating, lighting, thermostats, timers, other accessories, etc... it costs way more than what Mark charges. You can start with the 48x36 now, and have it usually arrive in a couple of weeks, and then you can add his inexpensive "expansion pack" later as the tortoise grows. This effectively doubles the space into an 8 x 3 foot enclosure, which will last until your tortoise is too big to live inside...

...which brings us to the next problem: SoCal isn't a good environment for RF tortoises. Down where you are is better than up here in SCV, but it is still much too hot in summer, too cold at night, and too dry for a RF. They are the wrong species for our area of the world. They need high humidity year round, and while they can certainly survive here with some effort and expense, I seldom see them thriving here. Our nights are too cold year round, our summer days are too hot, and our air is too dry. You can do your best by adding lots of tortoise safe plants, misting and sprinklers, but then it becomes too cool most of the year due to the shade and evaporative cooling. They do best in a South Florida or tropical type of climate. Keep the tortoise inside its large closed chamber most of the time when it is still small enough, because the inside of your enclosure will simulate that warm, humid, tropical environment. The more time you keep the little one outdoors the more it will pyramid and slow the growth.

Check this out too:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Tim Carlisle]

Animal Plastics cages are excellent, but the wait time is ridiculous. You need it now, and if you order it today, it will not arrive until Spring of 2024. Not kidding. Its really sad because they are a great company with a great product, but they can't keep up with their orders. By the time your cage arrives, your tortoise will have outgrown it.

48 x 30 is fine to start a tiny hatchling in, but a RF will outgrow that in less than a year, unless something is slowing its growth.

Get a smart enclosure from @Markw84 . They are the best tortoise enclosures on the market. The price includes all the heating and lighting already wired in, so it is actually cheaper than buying all the materials separately and building it all yourself. If you add up the price of an AP cage, plus all the heating, lighting, thermostats, timers, other accessories, etc... it costs way more than what Mark charges. You can start with the 48x36 now, and have it usually arrive in a couple of weeks, and then you can add his inexpensive "expansion pack" later as the tortoise grows. This effectively doubles the space into an 8 x 3 foot enclosure, which will last until your tortoise is too big to live inside...

...which brings us to the next problem: SoCal isn't a good environment for RF tortoises. Down where you are is better than up here in SCV, but it is still much too hot in summer, too cold at night, and too dry for a RF. They are the wrong species for our area of the world. They need high humidity year round, and while they can certainly survive here with some effort and expense, I seldom see them thriving here. Our nights are too cold year round, our summer days are too hot, and our air is too dry. You can do your best by adding lots of tortoise safe plants, misting and sprinklers, but then it becomes too cool most of the year due to the shade and evaporative cooling. They do best in a South Florida or tropical type of climate. Keep the tortoise inside its large closed chamber most of the time when it is still small enough, because the inside of your enclosure will simulate that warm, humid, tropical environment. The more time you keep the little one outdoors the more it will pyramid and slow the growth.

Check this out too:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

Any idea why so long for product delivery? Are they backlogged with orders? Supply chain issues?

 

[jsheffield]

Any idea why so long for product delivery? Are they backlogged with orders? Supply chain issues?

I have no idea, but the delay has been legend for years... I like to imagine that it's one ancient dude harvesting PVC trimboard from old-growth PVC trees and then cutting each piece by hand after measuring seven times.

J

 

[Tom]

Any idea why so long for product delivery? Are they backlogged with orders? Supply chain issues?

Yes. They are a small family owned business. Super nice people, super high integrity and attention to detail, unsurpassed quality, and they don't want to get bigger. They can exercise excellent quality control with the size of their company, number of machines and size of their workforce right now. They have no desire to grow into a giant corporate machine where the number crunchers will take over and ruin things, as so often happens as businesses grow.

They churn out as many super high quality enclosures as they reasonably can, and if people don't want to wait, they go elsewhere.

I wish people would come here, learn what needs to be done for a baby tortoise, order their AP enclosure, and then study and get everything ready while they wait for it and find a quality hobby breeder that starts babies perfectly.

I recently waited over a year for four cages. I love their enclosures, but I just can't wait that long, so now I get them from MarkW84. The wait for a Smart Enclosure is one to four weeks in most cases.

 

[Tim Carlisle]

Yes. They are a small family owned business. Super nice people, super high integrity and attention to detail, unsurpassed quality, and they don't want to get bigger. They can exercise excellent quality control with the size of their company, number of machines and size of their workforce right now. They have no desire to grow into a giant corporate machine where the number crunchers will take over and ruin things, as so often happens as businesses grow.

They churn out as many super high quality enclosures as they reasonably can, and if people don't want to wait, they go elsewhere.

I wish people would come here, learn what needs to be done for a baby tortoise, order their AP enclosure, and then study and get everything ready while they wait for it and find a quality hobby breeder that starts babies perfectly.

I recently waited over a year for four cages. I love their enclosures, but I just can't wait that long, so now I get them from MarkW84. The wait for a Smart Enclosure is one to four weeks in most cases.

Hmmm.... up to 4 weeks certainly isn't unreasonable.

 

[brinomighty]

Animal Plastics cages are excellent, but the wait time is ridiculous. You need it now, and if you order it today, it will not arrive until Spring of 2024. Not kidding. Its really sad because they are a great company with a great product, but they can't keep up with their orders. By the time your cage arrives, your tortoise will have outgrown it.

48 x 30 is fine to start a tiny hatchling in, but a RF will outgrow that in less than a year, unless something is slowing its growth.

Get a smart enclosure from @Markw84 . They are the best tortoise enclosures on the market. The price includes all the heating and lighting already wired in, so it is actually cheaper than buying all the materials separately and building it all yourself. If you add up the price of an AP cage, plus all the heating, lighting, thermostats, timers, other accessories, etc... it costs way more than what Mark charges. You can start with the 48x36 now, and have it usually arrive in a couple of weeks, and then you can add his inexpensive "expansion pack" later as the tortoise grows. This effectively doubles the space into an 8 x 3 foot enclosure, which will last until your tortoise is too big to live inside...

...which brings us to the next problem: SoCal isn't a good environment for RF tortoises. Down where you are is better than up here in SCV, but it is still much too hot in summer, too cold at night, and too dry for a RF. They are the wrong species for our area of the world. They need high humidity year round, and while they can certainly survive here with some effort and expense, I seldom see them thriving here. Our nights are too cold year round, our summer days are too hot, and our air is too dry. You can do your best by adding lots of tortoise safe plants, misting and sprinklers, but then it becomes too cool most of the year due to the shade and evaporative cooling. They do best in a South Florida or tropical type of climate. Keep the tortoise inside its large closed chamber most of the time when it is still small enough, because the inside of your enclosure will simulate that warm, humid, tropical environment. The more time you keep the little one outdoors the more it will pyramid and slow the growth.

Check this out too:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

I appreciate the information. I had heard of the long lead times and was going to call to see what the recent turn around time is but I checked out @Markw84 Smart Tortoise Keeper Facebook page as you. suggested. The setups he builds look awesome. The fact that we can get them as complete packages with lights, heating, etc. is a nice addition and the fact that they are expandable is definitely a bonus that none of the other PVC units I have seen have. Once we decide on the initial size we will be reaching out for sure.

Also, thanks for point out the challenges we are likely to face here in SoCal. Sadly, there seems to be so much conflicting and misinformation both in print and on the web that we were lead to believe it would be easier to take care of a RF than what we are learning it actually will be. Wish we had found this forum before purchasing him so we would have been better prepared. That said, we are committed to providing an environment that our RF can thrive in as best we can and are willing to make the investment. That's why I'm here learning and asking question.

Again, appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge.

-Brian