Building an Outdoor enclosure in Florida

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Kamerus88

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Hey everyone,


First time poster here. I currently have two adopted Russian Torts that were found crawling around the wilds of South Florida (like many other exotics these days). I am looking to construct a decent sized outdoor enclosure for them (they are male and female) with a sliding divider so they don't have to interact constantly if it appears the male gets too aggressive.

My biggest problems are however deciding what kind of safe wood to use ( Florida rain and humidity=rot city!), What type of fencing/wire to use for a closing top to prevent predators from getting in (Wild Raccoons and such), and what to do about an enclosure bottom to prevent burrowing escapes (I want something that will have proper drainage and not be abrasive if they dig to the bottom).

If anyone has experience with Russians in similar conditions please let me know if you have ideas or blueprints or maybe even point me in the direction of some other posts on the board to help me get my ideas better flushed out!

Thanks!
 

Yvonne G

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Welcome to the Forum, Kamerus88!

I don't live in Florida, but here in Central California, I have just fenced off a portion of my front yard for the Russian tortoises. I made it out of used corral lumber. I put down masonry caps all along the fence line on the inside of the fence to discourage digging out. I guess to protect the wood a little better I could have put the bottom board actually ON the masonry cap instead of in direct contact with the dirt. Here's a picture (I'm in the process of cutting the grass):

03-26-13a_zps41e36d6d.jpg


My largest female likes to park in the "garage":

03-26-13b_zps5d22246f.jpg


Here's a shot of the masonry caps along the fenceline:

03-26-13c_zpsb5bd17ef.jpg
 

Lasciels Toy

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Hiya and welcome, Kam! Sorry, I shoulda answered this one sooner, I'm on the beach in north florida so I know what your talking about. As far as worries, pine will keep in our area, even cedar and cypress. The only problem you're going to run into is constant exposure to moisture through the soil. That will eventually wear any wood down. As long as you don't sink it, you should be fine for quite awhile with anything that isn't pressure treated or KDHT. So #2 Pine, even pine plwood should be fine if it's sitting on buried cement blocks. I typically keep #2 1x pine out in the weather over time to give it that grey aged look for when I build fixtures. They stay strong as long as it's not sitting on the ground.
 
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