Cover for outdoor enclosure

[SabineTheBean]

Hi everyone! Back again. As the school year is almost over I’m finishing up my plans for Ku’s enclosure. One of the main issues I’m in running into is predator protection. The majority of the predators in my area are nocturnal, but people are constantly walking their dogs. And her enclosure is in my front yard as I have dogs that roam in the house and backyard. Every five minutes someone will pass by with their dog (not even exaggerating). For a while now I’ve sat in the enclosure with Ku but it’s becoming a hassle to do it all the time. I need a way to cover up the enclosure to make it so that no dog can jump it or bird fly in, without making it so that I’m not able to go into her enclosure hang out and reach her at all times. My original idea was to put chicken wire over the top and have it be able to be rolled up to one side, then a family friend suggested an umbrella holding up the clear plastic cloth thingy you find in greenhouses and have it draped over the enclosure. The issue with the chicken wire is I do not know how to secure it while it is not rolled up, or how annoying it will be to roll it up. The issue with the draped over plastic is that there is a risk of a dog jumping in, pulling on the plastic and making the umbrella fall over or (and more likely) Ku ramming against the umbrella and it falling over. Any suggestions or ideas? I’ll attach a photo of her enclosure when I first built it (I put in a lot more stuff in since then)

 

[COmtnLady]

First - check with your town or neighborhood group that there aren't rules against things being built on the front lawn. Some HOAs can get pretty nasty, and towns can fine you. They may have overlooked it so far, or not been aware of it, but if you start expanding it, there could be objections.




You would do better with the wire on frames, in manageable sized sections than with your "roll up" plan. While it might sound good to say "roll up" it won't take too many times before it gets all wonky and fights with you to roll and unroll, at which point it also doesn't close securely around the edges (defeating the purpose of it). It will get like a stretched out sweater, but with wires catching on other layers of the roll and holding on. But if you build "doors"/frames from 2x2s with corners braced with triangles of plywood so they are sturdy, it might work. You would still need structural support (posts in the yard under the doors messing with your tortoise's wanderings, or framework above that would hold things up) because 16 feet is too large of a span to be stable with anything that a person could easily move when they wanted to open it.

Better/more secure would be the dog kennel enclosures that Tom has posted several places, because they'd be sturdier yet, and you could stand up inside them to clean and feed & water.

This is the link to the thread where littleRedFootBigRedHeart collected an overwhelming amount of examples that include all of these, plus a ton more.

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

Being predator proof! This is achieved in a variety of ways, some of which you’ll see when scrolling

Bases with built on cages/coops

Homemade raised garden bed tables

Best of luck with your project!


.

 

[SabineTheBean]

First - check with your town or neighborhood group that there aren't rules against things being built on the front lawn. Some HOAs can get pretty nasty, and towns can fine you. They may have overlooked it so far, or not been aware of it, but if you start expanding it, there could be objections.




You would do better with the wire on frames, in manageable sized sections than with your "roll up" plan. While it might sound good to say "roll up" it won't take too many times before it gets all wonky and fights with you to roll and unroll, at which point it also doesn't close securely around the edges (defeating the purpose of it). It will get like a stretched out sweater, but with wires catching on other layers of the roll and holding on. But if you build "doors"/frames from 2x2s with corners braced with triangles of plywood so they are sturdy, it might work. You would still need structural support (posts in the yard under the doors messing with your tortoise's wanderings, or framework above that would hold things up) because 16 feet is too large of a span to be stable with anything that a person could easily move when they wanted to open it.

Better/more secure would be the dog kennel enclosures that Tom has posted several places, because they'd be sturdier yet, and you could stand up inside them to clean and feed & water.

This is the link to the thread where littleRedFootBigRedHeart collected an overwhelming amount of examples that include all of these, plus a ton more.

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

Best of luck with your project!

Thank you so so much! I have to continue reading the fine print of the laws but this has REALLY helped. I have completely overlooked the legal side of things so that reminder is SO HELPFUL. I can't do the dog kennel one because of the laws around it, so I'll probably make different panels that can slide around and/or panels that can be raised up.