Enclosing a Cement Mixing Tub (or similar)

eminart

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Let me preface this by saying, if you're building an enclosure from scratch, this is probably not the way to go about it. But, if, like me, you have your new (or old) tortoise in a mixing tub, and realize, after reading info on this site, that you want to enclose your setup, this is a pretty economical way to go about it. This is a very temporary setup for my new leopard tortoise, and since I had already bought the tub, I figured I'd use it until I upgraded to something larger.

Anyway, I bought a sheet of 1" foam insulation board from Home Depot, for about $20. They come in 4'x8' sheets. I simply cut it up and glued it together to make a box. I inserted nails in the same way you'd do if you were nailing it together to help hold things together, especially while the glue dried. I also used some duct tape, to temporarily hold the joints while the glue dried. I used wood glue, because that's what I had. There's probably better glues for this, but the wood glue seems to work fine. It's probably best to rough up the surfaces to be glued with sand paper. I did. Be sure to build your box tall enough that you can hang your light/heating fixtures inside. When it was all done, I drilled some holes in the tub sides, and in the foam, and used cable ties (zip ties) to hold the box in place on the tub. I already had some plexiglass laying around, so I cut a sheet to act as the "door." If you don't have plexiglass, you could use anything, really, especially if you don't mind not being able to see though the door. Enclosure.jpg

The only issue I see so far, and it was expected, is that with the mercury vapor bulb, it's going to trend toward being too hot. I'm experimenting with how much of a gap to leave in the door to keep temps down without losing too much humidity.

Again, there are much better setups. But, if you need something temporary and cheap and you've already bought a cement mixing tub (or anything similar), this will work in a pinch. It's foam board. It's not going to be durable. But, like I said, it will get the job done until I move my new tort into a larger enclosure.
 

Yvonne G

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Good job, and nice way of thinking outside the box (or in it, as the case may be!).
 
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