Cherry Head Indoor Enclosure (Hatchling ~ Juvenile)

[Justin C.]

I am in the process of receiving 2 cheery head's, yes I know they should not be in pairs, that is why I have plans to add more within a year. Until I receive them I am working on a closed chamber enclosure which I hope will last from hatchling to juvenile age. From there I will have a much larger enclosure built for the winter months.

OK, with that summary, my questions are:

1. 3' x 6' to big for them as hatchling?
2. For humidity and water, is a small pond like setup OK? Meaning, I want to use a small pre-molded pond insert or cement mix tub with rock bottom along with a fountain pump. I don't know if waterfall or just a tortoise squirting out water from its mouth to recycle the water around. Plan also to put a CHE above / near this water also.

If the pond is no good, I was thinking a PVC tubing running under the cypress mulch substrate with coco fiber or dirt.
this will allow me to pour water in the tubing to get directly to the mulch with no wet surface.

Please share your comments, and I will continue to read over all the other post for more ideas.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Many of us have used small kiddie pool type structures. If you have an absorbent lower layer of substrate, such as orchid bark and a dryer layer of substrate on top of that, such as soil or compost. Just pour water along the edges of the pool and the water will be absorbed by the bark, leaving the top layer dry.
It sounds like you are thinking about way too much water.
For a semi permanent water feature, you should have a lot of room in your pen.

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

If you can keep the 3'x6' enclosure warm enough, it is definitely not to big. If you want this to last through the juvie stage and to house multiples, I would not go any smaller. Large is really only an issue if you can't maintain proper temperatures.

I agree that your pond idea may be problematic. Hatchlings aren't always the most sure-footed. Shallow, easy to get out of water - like a saucer - is safer.

I attempted a moulded pond with a larger tortoise and it was an absolute pain to clean, because he switched to pooping in their instead of his bath. Shallow, easy to remove, waterers are safer and more practical, in my opinion.

 

[Justin C.]

Ok understood, I will not include a pond / bathing area in there indoor enclosure. Regarding the size, once I have set up I will test the temp. If NG than per my current plans it should be easy to close off half of it till fixed.

One question I forgot to ask was how deep the substrate. I can't find anywhere to confirm this. Do Cherry Head like to dig like Russians?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

They don't dig, but they will wiggle down into the substrate.
I generally use about 4 to 6 inches of Orchid bark with garden soil and compost on top.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

When you are ready to build an outdoors enclosure complete with water feature. A few folks here have some pretty borderline genius ideas for them.