This is where my desert tortoises brumate for the winter:
It's a cinderblock shelter set on cement with a plywood lid then covered with all the leaves that fall from those two trees.
This past summer I noticed the plywood roof was starting to rot and give way, so I decided to pull it all apart and give it an upgrade.
I cut a piece of rigid foam and a piece of plywood to put in front of the fence at the end, then I filled it full of leaves:
Then I cut two pieces of rigid foam and one piece of plywood to fit over as the roof, and I cut a piece of plywood to fit in as the door:
The tortoises are not ready to brumate yet, so the door won't be put in place just yet. And as the leaves fall off the trees, I'll start piling them up on top and eventually all around the sides. This is the first morning they walked right by the food and went to sit in the sun:
Won't be too much longer they'll go down for the winter.
It's a cinderblock shelter set on cement with a plywood lid then covered with all the leaves that fall from those two trees.
This past summer I noticed the plywood roof was starting to rot and give way, so I decided to pull it all apart and give it an upgrade.
I cut a piece of rigid foam and a piece of plywood to put in front of the fence at the end, then I filled it full of leaves:
Then I cut two pieces of rigid foam and one piece of plywood to fit over as the roof, and I cut a piece of plywood to fit in as the door:
The tortoises are not ready to brumate yet, so the door won't be put in place just yet. And as the leaves fall off the trees, I'll start piling them up on top and eventually all around the sides. This is the first morning they walked right by the food and went to sit in the sun:
Won't be too much longer they'll go down for the winter.